Home office, streaming and distance learning – The corona crisis has made the German mobile network glow. The need for fast lines has never been greater. However, the upgrade to the 5G mobile communications standard is still a long way off. How far are the network providers?
If machines are to communicate with each other in real time or if we want to load films in seconds, we need a fast mobile network. But this is exactly where the problem still lies. In order to make Germany's digital desert fit for the future, the mobile phone companies have big plans for the rest of the year. Two thirds of Germans should be able to network with the fifth generation of fast mobile communications until December. The expert for industrial organization at the Institute of German Economy, Christian Rusche, is skeptical, however, as he says at ntv.de.
Even where 5G is already being marketed in Germany, the super fast cellular standard is not yet in there. Rural regions and large areas are far from being connected to the high-speed lines. "People can probably be happy here if they get a bit more power than the LTE standard, the predecessor of 5G," said Rusche. Germany has a range problem.
The high 5G frequencies can only be reached in the immediate vicinity. The same phenomenon is known from WiFi. "In order to create more network coverage, one tries to expand in the range of the low frequencies in the range of 700 megahertz and 2 gigahertz – one has covered a large area." In comparison: The bandwidths that the flat hinterland also hopes for are 3.6 gigahertz. Because most people do not yet use a 5G-compatible smartphone, Rusche does not see any problem there at the moment.
"The radio has skipped"
The goal was to provide almost all households in Germany with a minimum data rate of 50 Mbit / s per antenna sector by the end of 2019. This also applied to rails and highways. For comparison: 4G delivers a data rate of 300 Mbit / s. The network providers Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica have not even fully managed the 50 Mbit / s. There are various reasons why the operators have not complied with the requirements of the network agency, said IW expert Rusche.
To date, Telekom has connected almost half of Germans to the 5G network. "The radio has skipped," the company writes on its Twitter account. "Around 40 million people with 5G can be there in over 3000 cities and municipalities." These include not only large cities such as Frankfurt and Munich, but also small communities such as the Bavarian Wallgau or Lampertswalde in Saxony. "Two thirds of the population are our next goal. We want to achieve this this year," says Head of Technology Walter Goldenits. There will be 40,000 antennas by the end of the year. Telekom is ahead for IW expert Rusche. The group had set up around 18,000 antennas in just a few weeks and thus "set an exclamation point".
Telecom competitor Vodafone is pursuing similarly ambitious goals. With the slower LTE, the company reached almost 95 percent of the people in Germany. 2700 4G construction projects have been implemented since the beginning of the year. 2600 are to follow. But there is a lot of room for improvement. An effort still needs to be made to upgrade to the faster 5G mobile radio standard. The first 60 antennas with 5G are currently transmitting in Germany, 60 more are to follow, the company reports. "Vodafone tries a lot to solve the problem via the cable network and the mobile phone locations in the area are now being added in a timely manner," explains Rusche.
"Watching Netflix in HD on every field will take until 2025"
Competitor Telefonica lags behind a bit here. The Spanish telephone company does not currently operate any commercially usable masts. Nevertheless, the provider promises to network customers of the Telefonica brand O2 in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt with 5G until the end of the year. According to Rusche, O2 still has some catching up to do with the Federal Network Agency's supply requirements. Telefonica was only able to fulfill its obligations in three federal states, which is why the network agency was already threatened with a fine of 600,000 euros.
The group cites construction delays due to the corona pandemic as one of the reasons why the Telefonica is slow to get going. The corona virus was 2020, but the omissions are also in the period before that, industry expert Rusche believes. The high bandwidths that the company offers are a problem. Because the higher the bandwidth, the more difficult it is to reach the mobile phone in the area. "Frequencies that Telefonica offers in the 3.5 gigahertz range are therefore not adequately suited for the area coverage," says Rusche. This is particularly evident in rural federal states such as Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the O2 network coverage in the 5G area is poor. Rusche is also critical that Telefonica still has some catching up to do in terms of supply requirements. The fourth mobile operator 1 & 1 Drillisch is the weakest in the chain. He cannot yet offer his own network. Germany doesn't have to hope for him at first.
One thing is clear: Germany should have gone further in expanding the 5G mobile network. So far, at best, the industry has benefited from the super-fast network. Companies can use their own frequencies and their own networks to network machines. This opens up completely new opportunities, Rusche believes. However, the normal population will still have to be patient, because "it will take until 2025 to watch Netflix in HD on any field."
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