The head of technology at Telefónica Deutschland (o2) spoke surprisingly honestly about the status of their own mobile network. According to him, o2 lagged behind the competition “by three to four years”. In the meantime, the situation at o2 looks much better.
o2: Our mobile network was far behind
At the Huawei Day0 Forum in Barcelona, Mallik Rao, Head of Technology at Telefónica Germany, made a surprising statement. The company’s own network is said to have lagged behind that of the competition from Vodafone and Telekom by “three to four years” (source: golem.de). In the meantime, however, the situation has improved. In order not to lose touch completely, o2 is said to have acted “disruptively in its own company” when setting up the 5G network in Germany.
However, it is also clear that o2 does not occupy a leading position compared to other network operators. According to new data from the Federal Network Agency, o2 only achieves a little more than 30 percent of German households with 5G. At Vodafone it is 55 percent, at Telekom it is already 91 percent.
According to Rao, “Telefónica has performed significantly better in network tests in 2021” than before. For the Construction of the 5G network the focus was in Munich, where Huawei was there as a supplier. The model character of the city is groundbreaking for further projects. One would also like to continue to strive for campus networks, as the project for Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen shows. Instead of Huawei, the company relies on the supplier Ericsson to use 5G in ongoing car production.
Whether o2, Vodafone or Telekom: That makes a good mobile phone tariff.
5G at o2: artificial intelligence should improve the network
Another pilot project, which is being launched together with Nokia in Berlin, shows how important 5G is for o2. Artificial intelligence should help o2 with thisto automatically detect possible weak points in the network. Ideally, this means better network coverage and higher speeds for customers.