Telefonica Deutschland, which provides services under the brand name O2, says it has met the requirements for network coverage expansion that were established by the Federal Network Agency (FNA) as part of the 5G spectrum auction which concluded in June 2019. Since 2020, Telefonica has worked on around 20,000 mobile sites in order to further improve its network and achieve the required coverage values by the 31 December 2022 deadline. As required by the expansion requirements, Telefonica says it now supplies at least 98% of households in each of the 16 federal states with a speed of at least 100Mbps, and has revealed that nationwide, 99.3% of homes can now access these data rates. The firm claims it has also exceeded the obligation to put 1,000 5G base stations into operation, adding that its 5G network currently covers over 75% of the population. Finally, it states that it has also fulfilled the obligation to supply the most important traffic routes, including motorways, other roads and railways, with speeds of at least 100Mbps, having reached 99.9% coverage of federal motorways, around 100% for major roads, and 99.2% coverage of rail lines with more than 2,000 passengers a day.

In addition, the FNA gave each network operator a requirement to set up 500 base stations in previously defined ‘white spot’ underserved areas across the federal states, and the companies are cooperating to divide up the network rollout to the locations. Telefonica says it is responsible for around 167 base stations and has so far been able to set up 61 base stations, stating that on average it takes three years for a new site to go into operation, due to the planning, legal requirements and logistics involved in the process.

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