Deutsche Telekom has unveiled its plan to bring 5G to Germany. At its annual networks day in Berlin, the company also defended its fixed broadband strategy, saying it will continue to roll-out VDSL while ramping up FTTH gradually, in cooperation with partners.
The company issued an eight-point plan for a "fast, successful" launch of 5G. It includes a proposal to offer 5G coverage to 99 percent of the population and 90 percent of the territory by 2025. The same level of geographic coverage should be possible over 4G by 2021.
The targets are in line with the proposed coverage under the first 5G licences to be auctioned in Germany next year. For the 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz band, the regulator wants operators to cover at least 98 percent of the population and all major freeways and highways with speeds of 100 Mbps by the end of 2022, compared to a minimum 50 Mbps under the current spectrum licences.
Dirk Woessner, the head of DT's German operations, said the company was breaking the silence in the industry over covering less-populated areas. Politicians, including members of the governing CDU, have been calling for the regulator to impose stricter coverage requirements in the next spectrum licences in order to close the current network gaps, and a number of states have already agreed deals with operators to boost coverage in outlying areas.
5G for forests
Woessner said Deutsche Telekom's plans for 5G roll-out include cities, towns, autobahns, main roads and train paths as well as business parks and schools. However, he noted that more than 30 percent of Germany is forest, and only "when it makes sense to cover these areas with 5G applications, we'll do so". In rural areas, the company wants to cooperate more on sharing masts and said it will also open its transmission towers to others to rent.
On the fixed front, the company said it was laying its 500,000th kilometer of fibre at a ceremony in Aegidienberg (North Rhine-Westphalia) the same day, while it's also recently passed 20 million lines upgraded to IP. Targets for upgrading households connections remain unchanged from those issued in May at Telekom's Capital Markets Day. Another 1.3 million homes received VDSL supervectoring in Q3, to take the total with speeds up to 250 Mbps to 10 million. Telekom aims to reach 28 million households with 250 Mbps in 2019.
The company again defended its decision to focus on copper upgrades rather than FTTH, saying the former will get faster speeds to more people quicker. "Of course we could have installed fiber to the home directly, but due to the shortage of underground construction capacity and the high investments needed, we'd only be serving 20 percent of households at most, instead of the 80 percent we do now," said Woessner.
While the group has started deploying FTTH in some areas, the roll-out is limited. Telekom reiterated a plan to ramp this up to 2 million new fibre lines per year from 2021. The company said it will look to work with operators on expanding the fibre coverage, including for 5G backhaul, as under its recent agreement with Telefonica.
