Coverage against spectrum use
Network agency wants to tighten requirements for mobile network expansion
May 13, 2024, 5:45 p.m
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The Federal Network Agency wants to exempt the major mobile phone providers from new auctions and extend frequency usage. However, companies would have to commit to expansion goals. The authority is striving for a paradigm shift – for the benefit of rural regions.
The major German telecom providers can initially continue to use their existing mobile phone frequencies without a new auction. In the corresponding draft, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) made the extension of the usage rights for five years subject to conditions. The primary goals are to improve supply for all consumers and to further promote competition, said authority boss Klaus Müller.
Therefore, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and O2 Telefonica, among others, would be obliged to provide 99.5 percent of Germany with connections at a speed of 50 megabits per second (Mbit/s) by the end of the decade. In addition, from 2029 they would have to offer connections with 100 Mbit/s to 99 percent of households in rural areas in every federal state.
It would be the first area requirement and thus a tightening of the previously usual state cell phone network expansion obligations. Previously, such requirements related to households and not to the area – meaning that sparsely populated areas had little significance in the statistics. That should change in the future. Müller defended the requirements as ambitious but appropriate.
Bundestag decides
According to the Federal Network Agency, an average of just under 99 percent of the area is already covered with at least 50 Mbit per second. However, this is doubted in industry circles: In fact, a significantly larger area of Germany is not covered by any serious mobile communications network. Depending on the measurement parameters, the results were different. Loud Network agency website At the beginning of this year, Deutsche Telekom covered 91.6 percent of the area with 4G mobile communications, Vodafone achieved 91.3 percent and O2 86.4 percent.
In order to compensate for the competitive disadvantages of the newcomer to network operations 1&1, the network agency also wants to oblige the three remaining providers to allow the United Internet subsidiary to use certain frequency ranges. If one of the nationwide active companies concludes a corresponding agreement, this requirement will be considered fulfilled, emphasized Müller. Last year, 1&1 gave up its long-standing partner Telefonica and agreed on so-called national roaming with Vodafone.
Business, science and society can comment on the authority’s draft until the beginning of July, said Müller. This will then be coordinated with the Advisory Board from the Bundestag and the states in the fall before the Presidium makes the final decision.