Deutsche Telekom expects 5G network to cover 50% of the German population by 2022

Telefénica/O2, the German telecom operator controlled by Spain's Telefónica SA, said it expects to cover 50% of the country's population with 5G services by the end of next year. By the end of this year, the operator aims to cover 30% of Germany's population with 5G networks, while nationwide 5G coverage is expected by the end of 2025.

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5G base stations deployed in Germany (Image source: rcrwireless)

Deutsche Telekom said the 5G expansion will be mainly based on the 3.6GHz spectrum and will require an investment of around 4 billion euros by the end of 2022.

The operator is currently activating around 180 5G base stations per week, and the company says it has already deployed 3,000 5G base stations at the 3.6GHz frequency. "As with 2G, 3G and 4G, we are also bringing 5G to Germany with rapid network expansion, multi-billion-dollar network investments and products with the best price/performance ratio for the mass market," said Deutsche Telekom CEO Markus Haas. "From the very beginning, we have been aligning the 5G expansion with the specific interests of private customers and companies. Today, one year after the launch, our 5G network is already active in a hundred cities."

Deutsche Telekom has said it will deploy new long-range frequencies in the coming months to increasingly cover rural areas with 5G. This includes the deployment of 700MHz for 5G as well as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which combines 4G spectrum with 5G spectrum.

Deutsche Telekom/O2 has previously launched a new 5G standalone core network. The new 5G SA servers in the Munich data center are connected to O2's existing 5G base stations.