Sunday 23 May 2021

Germany gets Two 5G Standalone Networks

The analyst firm Tefficient recently said, "Germany goes from a European 4G laggard to a European 5G leader" as German operators reportedly built 19,371 5G base stations in 2020 as compared to 13,334 LTE base stations. It's true that Germans are not necessarily known for mobile technology advancements but the launch of second 5G Standalone network definitely adds them to the top 10 of 5G lists.


Just this week Telefónica Germany, a.k.a. O2 Deutschland announced that they have accelerated the 5G rollout. If I understand correctly (as the original article is in German), 5G Standalone will be using the 3.6 GHz spectrum while the 5G NSA uses Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in 1.8 GHz band. They are also going to add 700MHz for 5G, which I am assuming will provide the coverage for 5G Standalone.

The translated article says:

There are now around 1,300 5G antennas operating in around 60 cities. O2 has thus doubled the number of cities with 5G coverage within a few weeks. All 5G antennas use the powerful 3.6 GHz frequencies , which offer O2 customers high speeds, short response times and thus a better 5G network experience overall. In addition, O2 has reached a technological milestone: The provider has put its new 5G standalone core network into operation and is setting up the 5G standard on its own. Telefónica Deutschland / O2 The technological basis was created in their network at an early stage in order to enable private and business customers to use even the most demanding 5G applications in the future.

5G standalone scores in particular through the further lower latency of a few milliseconds and higher data rates in the gigabit range, by bundling different 5G frequency bands (carrier aggregation) arise. These advantages are for example for mobile gaming, virtual and augmented reality or networked drivingimportant to ensure optimal, delay-free connectivity. The company will offer commercial offers for O 2 customers as soon as 5G standalone brings real advantages for the mass market. By summer 2021 , the task now is to implement the new 5G core network nationwide in all of its own data centers. This means that the O 2 network is not only optimally prepared for the future requirements of the 5G era , it is also at the forefront of technology among German networks.


Vodafone Germany on the other hand, launched their 5G Standalone network last month. In addition to the announcement, they made a lot of infographics available and referred to 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) as "Training Wheels"

Some of the features of their Standalone 5G is listed as: 

  • Bandwidth: initially around 700 Mbit / s, soon more than 1,000 Mbit / s possible
  • Latency: data exchange possible in real time (10 to 15 milliseconds)
  • Network slicing: 5G networks with guaranteed bandwidth, latency and stability become possible
  • Capacity: 5G standalone can network 10x more people and machines
  • Greater range: antenna range increased by around 20 percent
  • Less electricity: the energy consumption of smartphones drops by around 20 percent

Also like the way they explain the different 5G spectrum in use:

Finally, with all these 5G advancements, Vodafone will be switching off their 3G network end of June. 2G is still active for users that can't do VoLTE or roamers.

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