Deutsche Telekom homes in on total 5G coverage

Deutsche Telekom is closing the gap between its 5G and 4G networks in Germany, reporting that 5G now reaches 99 per cent of households, just short of LTE’s 100 per cent. In October, the operator added 145 new mobile sites and upgraded 417 locations, mainly in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Lower Saxony, as part of its ongoing domestic network build-out.

The company is tying the mobile upgrades to its hybrid fixed-mobile tariffs, which switch to the mobile network when it can deliver faster speeds than DSL, offering up to 500Mb/s down and 50Mb/s up without a fibre line to the home. Deutsche Telekom plans to equip all mobile sites with low-band spectrum for wide coverage and add mid-band spectrum to 90 per cent of them for higher data rates and lower latency. It is also linking 85 per cent of mobile sites to a fibre backbone capable of 10Gb/s, to support the increased traffic from its 5G rollout.