Why Telefónica’s Journey to Autonomous Network Level 4 Depends on Operations

At FutureNet World 2026, Nilmar Seccomandi David, Director of Autonomous Network & Infrastructure at Telefónica, gave an interesting update on the operator's journey towards Level 4 autonomous networks.

The presentation, “Autonomous Operations: Why the Journey to AN L4 Depends on It?”, went beyond the increasingly familiar discussion about using AI in telecom networks. The more important message was that Level 4 is not something an operator achieves simply by deploying enough AI use cases. It requires a much broader transformation of network technology, operational platforms, processes and people, together with a way of measuring autonomy across the whole organisation.

Telefónica launched its Autonomous Network Journey (ANJ) programme in 2021 with its three main operating companies in Spain, Germany and Brazil. David explained that it adopted a holistic approach from the beginning, covering the main network lifecycle processes of planning, testing, deployment and operations, as well as domains including IP, transport, radio, fixed access, core and cloud.

This is important because Telefónica does not view the autonomous network programme as a collection of isolated automation projects.

The programme has four main workstreams. The first is technology transformation, including more open, softwarised and disaggregated networks as well as the removal of legacy technologies. The second is what Telefónica calls the brain, its automation platform, covering data integrity, data lakes, OSS modernisation and the platforms required to implement automation and AI.

The third is the heart, involving process redesign. David's point here was that simply automating an existing process does not necessarily capture the full benefits of automation. Processes themselves may need to be redesigned as new capabilities are introduced.

The fourth is people, including new ways of working, reskilling and creating an AI culture.

This framework is not new. In his FutureNet World presentation a year earlier, David used essentially the same four dimensions, describing them as The Network, The Brain, The Heart and People. The 2025 material already included open and softwarised networks, data and automation platforms, process redesign and organisational change.

That earlier presentation also showed Telefónica moving from conventional automation towards what it called Hyper Automation, with GenAI, agentic AI, cognitive cross-domain AI and digital twins becoming increasingly important between 2025 and 2030.

The difference in 2026 is that the discussion has become much more focused on how the operator measures progress and what autonomous operations actually look like in production.

Telefónica estimates that when the programme started five years ago, its overall autonomy level was around 1.1. It has progressed through the maturity levels year by year and closed 2025 at 3.42.

The company has now made its longer-term objectives public. It is targeting an average autonomy level of 3.75 by 2028 and Level 4 by 2030 across Spain, Brazil and Germany. Those targets formed part of Telefónica's November 2025 Capital Markets Day and its wider Transform & Grow strategy.

David made an interesting observation about the importance Telefónica now attaches to the number: autonomy level has become a KPI followed by the company's board, alongside conventional indicators such as revenue and Net Promoter Score.

That raises the obvious question: what exactly does a figure such as 3.42 mean?

This was perhaps the most useful part of the presentation.

Image: Telefónica breaks its autonomy measurement down from Group and operating-company level through network domains, sub-domains, processes and individual activities. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

Telefónica uses the TM Forum Autonomous Networks framework as its basis, but David stressed that operators have to adapt the methodology to their own networks.

At the top level, Telefónica's Group autonomy figure consolidates the results from Spain, Brazil and Germany.

Within each operating company, the network is divided into domains such as IP, transport, radio, fixed access, core and cloud. Those can then be divided into sub-domains. Transport, for example, may include optical and microwave, while the core can include voice and packet-core functions.

Each domain is then assessed across processes such as planning, testing, deployment and operations. Those can be broken down again into individual activities. Operations, for example, includes areas such as fault and performance management.

The result is a large hierarchy of measurements which eventually rolls up into the Telefónica autonomy figure.

David's argument was that this complexity is necessary. Knowing that an operator has one, ten or even twenty impressive autonomous scenarios tells you relatively little about the autonomy of the network as a whole.

The same point was already visible in Telefónica's 2025 reporting. Its autonomy index showed progress occurring at different speeds across six network domains and multiple processes. IP and RAN were among the more advanced areas, while Core and Telco Cloud were further behind.

The 2026 results make that variation particularly clear.

Image: Telefónica's current autonomy assessment shows considerable variation between network domains and operational processes even though the consolidated Group autonomy level is 3.42. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

The slide shows the results in two different ways.

On the left are Telefónica's three operating companies. The countries are deliberately anonymised, but the data is real. IP is the most autonomous domain in all three operating companies, while Cloud is the least autonomous.

The right-hand view breaks the assessment down by process. Even inside IP, which is the most mature overall domain, testing is less autonomous than the other main processes.

This illustrates one of the difficulties with discussions about “reaching Level 4”. An operator does not suddenly become Level 4 everywhere. Different countries, technologies and processes progress at different rates, and the overall figure can hide significant differences underneath.

Telefónica closed 2025 with 12 individual Level 4 use cases, spread across Spain, Germany and Brazil. Two were associated with planning, five with deployment and five with operations. Telefónica describes Level 4 cases as those capable of acting autonomously based on an intention provided by a human.

These include autonomous network-capacity creation, transport digital twins, autonomous IP fault resolution, 5G Core self-healing, fibre planning, software changes and multi-domain correlation.

The first Level 4 operations example David discussed was NetOptimizer, a digital twin of the O2 Germany transport network.

Image: O2 Germany's NetOptimizer uses a digital twin of the transport network for network analysis, simulation and proactive bottleneck detection. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

NetOptimizer maintains an end-to-end representation of the German transport network and is used for analysis, simulation and bottleneck detection.

One particularly interesting capability is resilience testing. David explained that the system can periodically simulate the failure of individual links across the thousands of links in the transport network and analyse what would happen elsewhere.

Potential bottlenecks can therefore be identified before an actual failure exposes them.

The benefits shown on the presentation slide include 80% less time required for analysis, 40% fewer transport capacity issues, more than 90% fewer sites with very high capacity loading and a 5% latency improvement.

Telefónica has separately published the same figures for NetOptimizer, confirming the 80% reduction in time spent on planning, operations and network-optimisation analysis.

This is also worth noting because the automatic transcript of the presentation renders the first figure as 8%; the slide itself and Telefónica's published material make clear that the figure is 80%.

The second Level 4 example addressed IP interface flapping, where an interface repeatedly transitions between active and inactive states because of problems such as fibre attenuation, hardware faults, temperature or other instability.

Telefónica's system detects the condition, attempts to establish its cause and applies corrective action automatically. Where the problem cannot be resolved automatically, the affected port can be blocked and the appropriate field process triggered.

The company says the solution has reduced the impact of flapping on services by 70%, while removing the need for manual intervention in the closed-loop resolution process.

David then presented several other examples which are not yet Level 4 but are interesting because they demonstrate that Telefónica is not relying on a single flavour of AI.

One is Correlax in Brazil.

The starting problem was surprisingly mundane: NOC staff complained about gaps in the network inventory, which made it difficult to determine relationships between apparently separate incidents.

Rather than waiting for a perfect inventory, Telefónica applied graph techniques similar in principle to those used to establish relationships in social networks. It inferred relationships between network elements from available information and then used these relationships to correlate trouble tickets.

David said Correlax is reducing the relevant tickets by around 44%.

Another example is ATEA, an AI Factory deployed in Germany in collaboration with Google and using Gemini. One of the scenarios David described was cell-health analysis.

What had previously been a manual process involving the correlation of KPIs from multiple databases can increasingly be automated, bringing together information from different sources to analyse the condition of the network.

David also discussed rApps as a Service. Telefónica is testing an Ericsson solution using AWS which, according to the presentation, could be deployed in only a few days. The initial application involved anomaly detection, with additional agents being developed.

These examples are useful because the FutureNet World agenda specifically asked about the roles of predictive, generative and agentic AI, but the presentation suggests that this may be the wrong way to think about autonomous networks.

Telefónica is using whatever technique is appropriate to the problem: conventional automation, traditional algorithms, machine learning, graph analytics, digital twins, GenAI, rApps and increasingly AI agents.

The 2025 FutureNet World presentation made the same point in a different way. Telefónica already had more than 400 use cases spanning AI-driven network design, digital twins, capacity forecasting, GenAI document analysis, predictive maintenance, incident correlation and automated optimisation.

Its main case study that year was Vivo's Fractal system, which automated network creation using a mixture of DBSCAN clustering, Coral Reef algorithms, Telefónica's internally developed House of Cats algorithm and Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm. The accompanying TelcoTitans report said Fractal had helped reduce mobile-site deployment time from around three months to one week.

The progression between the two FutureNet World presentations is therefore quite revealing. In 2025, the centrepiece was an advanced individual planning and network-creation use case. In 2026, the discussion is much more about spreading autonomy through the wider operating model and measuring that transformation systematically.

One of the most interesting parts of the 2026 presentation was David's reminder that AI by itself is not always enough.

Image: Telefónica's RAN energy example illustrates the limits of software optimisation: power-saving features and AI can reduce consumption significantly, but further improvements may ultimately require hardware modernisation. Source: Telefónica / FutureNet World 2026

He used RAN energy consumption as an example.

Traditional network power-saving features can already deliver substantial reductions. David suggested savings of around 20–30% compared with a network that does not use them.

AI can then improve when and how those features are activated. Depending on the implementation, David suggested that another 5–10% might be achievable.

Eventually, however, optimisation runs into the physical characteristics of the installed equipment.

At that point, modernising the hardware can potentially produce another significant improvement. David suggested that combining power-saving features and AI with newer hardware could yield an additional 20–30% and allow the energy-consumption curve to track the traffic curve much more closely.

The precise savings will clearly vary between networks, configurations and equipment generations, but the underlying message is important:

software intelligence cannot indefinitely compensate for inefficient hardware.

This is a useful counterweight to the idea that every network problem will eventually be solved by more sophisticated AI.

The final example in the presentation brought service observability into the autonomous-operations picture.

Traditional network operations tend to concentrate heavily on network KPIs. David argued that improving the network view is not sufficient: operators also need to understand the service view.

The example combines network status with service information and external factors such as weather conditions. Problems can then be analysed not only according to what is happening inside the network, but according to which services and customers are actually affected.

David said this approach is reducing Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) by around 30% and helping Telefónica prioritise which field tickets need attention first.

This may ultimately be one of the most important requirements for Level 4. A genuinely autonomous network should not merely know that a KPI has crossed a threshold or that a network element has failed. It needs enough context to understand what that failure means for the service, decide its relative importance and take the appropriate action.

There has already been further progress since the FutureNet World presentation.

Recently Telefónica provided a newer update saying it now has more than 500 AI use cases in production, with 15 already at Level 4. The targets remain Level 3.75 in 2028 and Level 4 in 2030.

That update reinforces the main message I took from David's FutureNet World presentation.

Level 4 is not something an operator installs.

It is the result of progressively changing how the network is designed, observed, deployed and operated; improving the data and OSS platforms underneath it; redesigning processes around closed-loop operation; and changing how people interact with increasingly autonomous systems.

AI is becoming increasingly important to that journey, particularly as GenAI and agentic approaches mature. But Telefónica's experience also shows that autonomous networking is much broader than AI.

It includes digital twins, conventional algorithms, closed-loop automation, observability, modern network architectures, accurate data, process redesign and, where necessary, replacing the physical infrastructure itself.

Perhaps that is why the title of the presentation was so appropriate.

The journey to Autonomous Network Level 4 ultimately depends on autonomous operations.

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• Operator Watch Blog: Telefonica’s Journey Towards End-to-End Autonomous Networks
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• Operator Watch Blog: Telefonica's Vision of Open RAN from MWC 2022 

Telefónica Germany Pushes IoT Beyond Terrestrial Limits

The growing convergence of satellite and cellular connectivity is beginning to reshape how operators approach IoT, and a recent presentation by Miguel Rodriguez, Product Manager IoT at Telefónica Germany, offered a useful perspective on how this shift is playing out in practice.

Speaking at the “5G NTN and Satellite IoT” webinar hosted by Global 5G Evolution, Rodriguez outlined how Telefónica Germany is positioning itself to take advantage of non-terrestrial networks within its broader 5G IoT portfolio. Rather than viewing satellite as a disruptive threat, the company sees it as a natural extension of its connectivity capabilities, enabling it to address use cases that have traditionally remained out of reach.

Telefónica Germany has already built a comprehensive 5G IoT portfolio spanning high performance use cases with standalone and non-standalone 5G, as well as mid and low tier connectivity with RedCap, LTE-M and NB-IoT. The addition of narrowband NTN effectively extends this portfolio beyond terrestrial limitations, particularly for massive IoT deployments that require low power and wide coverage.

A key theme from the presentation was the idea of hybrid connectivity. The goal is not to replace terrestrial networks but to complement them, creating a seamless experience where devices can switch between cellular and satellite depending on availability. This approach is particularly relevant in areas where terrestrial coverage is patchy or economically unviable, such as remote infrastructure, agricultural land, transport corridors and maritime environments.

Rodriguez highlighted that even in mature markets like Germany, there are persistent coverage gaps. These are often in locations where investment in terrestrial infrastructure does not make commercial sense, yet where IoT data can be highly valuable. Satellite connectivity provides a practical way to fill these gaps, ensuring continuity of service and enabling new types of deployments.

On a global scale, the limitations become even more apparent. While low power wide area networks such as NB-IoT and LTE-M have achieved significant reach, there are still many regions without coverage or with limited roaming agreements. Satellite IoT offers a way to achieve truly global deployments, including in regions such as parts of Africa, Latin America and across oceans.

Telefónica Germany’s strategy involves working with multiple satellite partners to address different connectivity needs. For geostationary connectivity, it collaborates with Skylo, focusing on consistent availability and a well-developed device ecosystem. For low Earth orbit connectivity, it partners with OQ Technology, enabling intermittent but cost-effective communication suitable for periodic data transmission. On the broadband side, solutions involving Starlink are being integrated to support higher throughput use cases.

An important aspect of this approach is how it is packaged for customers. Telefónica Germany is aiming to simplify what could otherwise become a complex multi-network environment. The operator acts as a single contracting partner, providing one interface for connectivity management, data access and billing. This abstraction is critical in making hybrid connectivity accessible, particularly for enterprises that do not want to manage multiple providers and technologies.

Affordability also plays a central role. The ambition is to make satellite IoT viable for large scale deployments rather than niche applications. By integrating satellite usage into existing tariffs and enabling opportunistic connectivity, Telefónica Germany is attempting to lower the barrier to entry and support the expansion of massive IoT.

Beyond connectivity, the challenge of integrating satellite data into cloud platforms was also addressed. Narrowband satellite communication typically relies on lightweight protocols that are not directly compatible with standard cloud interfaces. Telefónica Germany’s Kite platform acts as a bridge, converting data into formats suitable for hyperscaler environments such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. This allows devices to remain efficient in terms of power and bandwidth while still enabling seamless cloud integration.

The energy sector emerged as a particularly strong use case for hybrid connectivity. From generation to distribution and consumption, there are numerous points where reliable data collection is critical. Satellite connectivity can support both primary communication in remote areas and fallback scenarios during outages, enhancing the resilience of energy infrastructure.

What becomes clear from this presentation is that non-terrestrial networks are not being treated as a separate domain but as an integral part of the overall connectivity fabric. The combination of terrestrial and satellite networks, supported by unified platforms and commercial models, is moving the industry closer to the idea of ubiquitous coverage.

For operators, this represents both a technical and strategic shift. The ability to offer global, seamless connectivity across multiple access technologies could become a key differentiator, particularly in enterprise and IoT markets. For customers, it opens up new possibilities for deploying connected devices in places that were previously considered unreachable.

The evolution of 5G into a truly integrated terrestrial and non-terrestrial ecosystem is still in its early stages, but the direction is becoming increasingly clear. Hybrid connectivity is no longer just a concept. It is starting to take shape as a practical and scalable solution for the next phase of IoT growth.

The talk is embedded below:

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How O2 Telefónica is Redefining the Network with NaaS and Open APIs

At O2 Telefónica Germany, the “network of the future” is no longer a distant vision, it’s becoming an operational reality. Under the leadership of Matthias Sauder, Director Networks, the operator has made substantial strides in transforming its end-to-end infrastructure to meet the demands of a highly agile, programmable, and customer-focused future.

At the FutureNet World conference in London (7–8 May 2025), where leading telco and tech stakeholders gathered to explore network automation and AI in telecoms, Sauder shared how O2 Telefónica’s evolution journey spans radio, transport, core, data centres, and cloud landing zones, all underpinned by a strategy that prioritises automation, flexibility, and openness.

The transformation began with a foundational goal: enhancing radio network quality. Once considered the underdog in a three-operator market, O2 Germany set out to radically improve performance by embracing agile practices and reshaping internal structures. Inspired by the Spotify model, the company introduced agility not just in project management but also in technical delivery. This included frequent software release cycles for radio, positioning itself as a global leader in rapid deployment and continuous integration.

A key initiative known as Tech Strategy 25 laid the foundation for modernising radio, transport, and core networks. Today, over 80 percent of the strategy has already been executed. With a largely cloud-native core in place, O2 Telefónica is among the pioneers of this architectural shift. Its collaboration with Ericsson produced one of the world’s first cloud-native digital cores, while a parallel effort with Nokia deployed core services for one million users in a public cloud environment.

The rationale behind both cloud-native and public cloud approaches is clear. Legacy architectures no longer support the operational agility or cost efficiency needed in today’s competitive telecom landscape. Cloud-native systems enable advanced capabilities such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, and seamless in-service software upgrades (ISSU). O2 Telefónica has shown these upgrades can be executed without disrupting live customer services, challenging the long-standing perception that such practices are too risky for telco-grade reliability.

Beyond infrastructure, the company’s future network model hinges on the integration of open APIs and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) capabilities. These aren’t abstract concepts, they’re practical tools enabling agility, programmability, and new revenue streams. Open APIs expose network functions to external developers and partners, unlocking opportunities for co-creation and monetisation that were previously out of reach.

This openness also extends to industry partnerships. A standout example is the company’s collaboration with Siemens, which now leverages O2's slicing capabilities to deliver tailored network services to its own customers. These kinds of arrangements demonstrate how NaaS, built on secure and standardised APIs, can unlock vertical-specific innovation.

But transformation isn’t just about technology, it’s also about mindset and culture. Simplifying and standardising network configurations (for example, reducing radio setups from over a hundred to just two) and promoting a service-centric approach are part of a broader shift. The focus is firmly on use cases and customer value, avoiding the trap of deploying technology for its own sake. Every new system or tool must demonstrate end-to-end value.

O2 Telefónica also recognises that data, rather than AI alone, is the foundation of intelligent automation. Without a robust data strategy, ambitions around AI, closed-loop automation, or service orchestration are unlikely to succeed. The company’s investment in OSS transformation and data-driven operations is laying the groundwork for intelligent networks that can scale, adapt, and optimise in real time.

As the line between network and IT continues to blur, O2 Telefónica is aligning its BSS, OSS, and IT systems with its network strategy. This integrated approach supports holistic innovation and positions the company to deliver services with faster time to market and greater cost efficiency.

The transformation journey shared by Matthias Sauder is more than a technical roadmap, it’s a call for industry-wide disruption. With revenues flat and operational costs rising, embracing NaaS, open APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure is no longer optional. It’s the only viable path for telcos to stay competitive, innovative, and relevant in a software-defined, platform-centric future.

Sauder’s full presentation at FutureNet World provides deeper insight into this journey. You can watch it below:

Germany is starting to catch-up with other European countries regarding Mobile Data usage

Germany hosts one of  Europe’s largest telecom markets and number of significant operators which offer effective competition in the mobile and broadband sectors. Telekom Deutschland remains the dominant provider in the fixed-line segment, though there is increasing competition from operators including freenet, Vodafone Germany, and Telefónica Germany, each of which is making use of regulatory measures aimed at facilitating wholesale network access to provide fibre-based broadband services.

It took many years for Germany with 83M inhabitants to pass Finland (5.5M inhabitants) in total mobile data traffic, but Germany is now clearly ahead. Italy and France much ahead of Germany, though. pic.twitter.com/DHd2bB4WxV

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 23, 2021

The German mobile market is driven by mobile data, with the number of mobile broadband subscribers having increased rapidly in recent years. With LTE now effectively universally available, considerable progress has recently been made in building out 5G networks. Telekom’s 5G service provided about 80% population coverage by March 2021. This was expected to be increased to 90% coverage by the end of the year.

There are currently three network operators left in Germany: Deutsche Telekom (formerly known as T-Mobile), Vodafone, and O2 (owned by Telefónica) merged with e-plus (acquired by Telefónica).

There are also a number of MVNOs each belonging to one of the three major network operators. MVNOs are particularly popular for prepaid in Germany and are mostly cheaper than the MNOs. They now have a prepaid market share of more than 40%, which is among the highest in the world.

Some visitors are surprised to find out that the leading industrial powerhouse in Europe still has quite patchy mobile networks. One cannot expect Korean or Japanese speeds and coverage. Local users, politicians and major CEOs alike now put pressure on the three operators to improve the situation that lags behind other European countries what 4G/LTE coverage and speeds are concerned sold locally at rather high prices.

Which operators in Europe had the fastest growth in mobile data traffic in 2020?

Preliminary:
1. Telia Lithuania 86%
2. @vodafone_es 76%
3. Bite Lithuania 75%

Germany is finally moving some more bytes as well, but @vodafone_de not where @DT_IR and @o2de are pic.twitter.com/0mGiImP56I

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 30, 2021

2G and 3G: GSM mostly up to EDGE speed is on 900 and decreasingly on 1800 MHz and 3G is on 2100 MHz like in most of Europe. Almost the entire country is covered by 2G, few remote unpopulated areas remain without any coverage. 3G/UMTS up to DC-HSDPA+ speed is available in most of the populated areas with rather extended blank patches left in the countryside. Telekom has announced that it will re-farm the 3G spectrum to 4G and 5G and gradually switch off 3G in starting June 30th 2021.

4G/LTE: LTE has been rolled out on most common 4G frequencies in Europe on all operators: 800 MHz (band 20), 1800 MHz (band 3) and 2600 MHz (band 7). From 2017 on 900 MHz (band 8) and 2100 MHz (band 1) has been re-farmed from 2G and 3G. Band 28 on 700 MHz will be added from 2019 after digital TV has left this spectrum.

Deutsche Telekom is the previously state-owned, incumbent provider. It is the market leader in Germany with the best network. For a time it was called T-Mobile like in the US, but has reverted to its old name in Germany. While it caters mostly for postpaid, it still offers prepaid that used to be called Xtra Cards. Note that their rates are the highest in the country and are sold often cheaper by its subsidiary Congstar and MVNOs, not to mention its competitors.

Telekom has won all network tests within the last decade in the country. It offers coverage where no other network does and speeds mostly faster than its competitors.  But this comes at the highest prices of all operators. 4G/LTE is available at locations that are not covered by any other network and is available for 97% of population.

On the downside, it's indoor power on 4G/LTE is sometimes lower compared to Vodafone or o2. That's because Telekom mainly uses 1800 MHz B3 and 2600 MHz B7 in towns without any 800 MHz B20 fallback. To fix this problem, they now add 900 MHz B8 and 2100 MHz B1 where 800 MHz is not available. Note that Berlin's underground U-Bahn system is only partly covered so far.

The operator expects its 5G network to reach 90% of the country’s population by the end of this year. They currently provide coverage to 80% of the population. By the end of March, more than 66 million people in around 5,000 towns and cities across Germany will be able to use their 5G network.

Over 50,000 5G antennas are already transmitting with 5G across Germany. Deutsche Telekom is using multiple frequencies for its 5G expansion. The focus is on the 2.1 GHz and 3.6 GHz frequency bands. At the end of March, 5G will be available in 30 cities on the 3.6 GHz frequency following the deployment of nearly 1,000 antennas in Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Jena, Kiel, Cologne, Leipzig, Ludwigsburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, Schwerin, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Wolfsburg.

According to Deutsche Telekom the primary 5G technology currently deployed in Germany is based on the 5G non-standalone (5G NSA) network architecture, which means that current’s 5G offerings are still technically dependent on a simultaneously available 4G network (LTE). With 5G standalone, the infrastructure in the core network will also be fully upgraded to a new, cloud-based 5G architecture.

According to the recent OpenSignal report Telekom remains the dominant operator as far as their awards table is concerned — the operator won five out of seven awards outright and is the joint winner for a sixth. However, it has been forced to share the 4G Availability award with O2 because of a surge in O2’s score since the last report. In addition, Telekom’s leads on Video Experience, Games Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Coverage Experience have all declined since last time due to its rivals in second place seeing larger increases in their scores.

Vodafone is considered the number two network in Germany which has become the biggest market of the UK-based provider. They cover almost 98% of the population by 4G/LTE in 2019.

Meanwhile their 3G network has been partly refarmed to 4G with only one remaining UMTS carrier (formerly three) in most cities. That is why Vodafone without 4G/LTE can't be recommended for heavy data users, because data speeds are often less than 1 Mbit/s in crowded areas on 3G.

Vodafone mostly uses 800 MHz (B20) frequency band for 4G/LTE away from large cities. Additionally, 700 MHz (B28), 900 MHz (B8), 1800 MHz (B3), 2100 MHz (B1) and 2600 MHz (B7) are employed.

5G has been started in a few places in 2019. All own branded Vodafone prepaid SIM cards can use it, but only a few handsets are so far capable of 3500 MHz (n78).

Vodafone Germany CEO has said they are the first in Europe to take off the so-called LTE training wheels of its 5G network, launching standalone (SA) 5G with vendor partner Ericsson.

All mobile radio sites in the 3.5 GHz range were switched over and now connect to an independent 5G core network, no longer relying on LTE. That includes 1,000 antennas in 170 cities and municipalities, according to Vodafone.

Large cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf, are on the list, as well as smaller locations Magdeburg, Solingen, Bremen and Mainz. By the end of 2021, the mobile operator plans to up the number of radios connected to 5G standalone in Germany to around 4,000 – which calls for additional spectrum bands.

Vodafone used Ericsson’s 5G radio system gear, along with its Cloud Core for the SA 5G network.

The partners also converted a Frankfurt data center to 5G for cloud data processing closer to the customer. Two more are planned, located in Berlin and Munich, and expanding to a total of ten 5G data centers by 2023.

Vodafone launched 5G in Germany in 2019. In moving beyond non-standalone (NSA) 5G, which is what most carriers have used for initial 5G rollouts, Vodafone cited a variety of performance improvements. That includes connecting about ten-times as many people and machines per square kilometer (up to 1 million) simultaneously, compared to NSA 5G. Moving to standalone is also key for network slicing, a technique operators are looking at to drive new revenue models by allocating parts of the network to different users or customers.

Vodafone recently announced that its 5G network now reaches 25 million people across the country, with this set to rise to 30 million by the end of the year, exceeding its original target to cover 20 million Germans by end-2021. The firm has switched on more than 10,000 5G antennas at over 3,000 locations. It plans to implement a further 7,000 mobile upgrade and expansion projects in the twelve months to end-March 2022, including 3,000 projects to activate 9,000 5G antennas, as well as rolling out its 5G Standalone (5G SA) network, which currently comprises 1,000 antennas. In addition, from the end of June Vodafone will reallocate its former 3G spectrum to boost LTE coverage at 18,000 base stations. The 3G switch-off has already been implemented in the cities of Mainz, Wiesbaden and Chemnitz.

O2, owned by Telefónica, has now grown from Germany's smallest network to its biggest after the merger with E-Plus, what number of subscribers is concerned. The shops of E-Plus/Base have been rebranded and each customers can use also the both 2G and 3G networks nationwide and 4G/LTE and is available for 85% of population. This gives a better coverage in the countryside, but still not as widespread as Telekom or Vodafone. 4G/LTE has been opened for prepaid in 2016 on its own brand and most of their MVNOs.

O2 Deutschland currently offers 5G using 3.6 GHz frequencies, with around 1,000 antennas covering 30-plus cities. Now it has upgraded one 5G facility at Helene-Mayer-Ring 10 in Munich using carrier aggregation to offer a faster service, provided customers have the appropriate device, of course; the operator named the Xiaomi Mi 11 5G as an example.

It did not specify which frequencies it is aggregating with 3.6 GHz, instead making vague references to the potential of the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz bands for boosting 5G.The operator has recently launched standalone 5G network. 

Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: Germany gets Two 5G Standalone Networks
• Operator Watch Blog: Deutsche Telekom - Another German Operator investing in AI & Analytics
• Operator Watch Blog: Big Data & Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Deutschland 

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"

First 5G standalone in Europe using Ericsson 5G core. Quite a few details in the link below (hat tip @tsirtsisg)

* All 3.5 GHz sites can operate in SA mode
* 1,000 antennas today, rising to 4,000 by end 2021
* Plans for 10 5G core data centers across Germany by 2023 https://t.co/PWmqEm9p3U

— Gabriel Brown (@Gabeuk) April 12, 2021

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.

Vodafone Germany is shutting down their 3G network by end of June. All of 2100 MHz will be used for 4G/LTE. 2G will continue to work for 3G devices and other devices doing CS Fallback. #2G3GShutdownhttps://t.co/JHClAUHh7s pic.twitter.com/H4dvTqvadJ

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) April 20, 2021

Related Posts:

• 3G4G: 5G Terminology
• 3G4G: 5G Spectrum - Long Version
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)
• The 3G4G Blog: The Politics of Standalone vs Non-Standalone 5G & 4G Speeds
• 3G4G: 3GPP 5G Specifications
• The 3G4G Blog: When will 2G & 3G be switched off now that 5G is here?
• The 3G4G Blog: When does your 5G NSA Device Show 5G Icon? 

Big Data & Artificial Intelligence at Telefónica Deutschland

Telefonica Deutschland, a.k.a. O2 Germany is Germany's largest mobile operator. As in case of many other advanced mobile operators, its looking at how to exploit Big Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve end-user QoE.

Telefonica's 3G coverage is close to 90% while the LTE coverage is over 80%.

Advanced Data Analytics  can be applied to big data with the intention of monetizing it. As can be seen in the picture above:

• Transport analytics can be applied to develop insights into human journeys to support customer decision-making (e.g. for traffic optimisation). This data can be useful to Transport companies, cities, out-of-home media, etc.
• Retail analytics can be used to better understand consumer behaviour in store and out of store to improve customer journeys. This data can be retail shops, operators of branch networks, etc.

At MWC 2018, Telefónica launched Aura, an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant that will transform the way customers interact with Telefónica and manage their digital life with the company. They first release of Aura was made available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Aura will be delivered to customer devices via a mobile application, but also via other third-party channels including Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

The intention of AI powered assistant is to increase customer benefits and reduce costs.

The end goal for Telefónica Deutschland is to become Mobile Customer & Digital champion. We wish them all the best!

Source: Telefónica Deutschland Capital Market Day 2018