Since the launch of the first European 5G Standalone Network, Vodafone Germany has continued innovating, to find the killer use case. Here are some of them that they have been working on this year.
First 5G Hospital: In the first 5G clinic in Europe, the network of the future will make innovative applications possible in the future that will significantly improve the medical treatment and care of patients. Whether in surgery, in the emergency room or even when calling the emergency services: "Digitization can save lives", says Vodafone Germany boss Hannes Ametsreiter. In order to expand the digital possibilities in hospitals, the D眉sseldorf network pioneer is now equipping the D眉sseldorf University Hospital (UKD) with 5G power. "We bring our real-time network directly to the hospital to support patients and doctors with new technologies."
5G Telemedicine: State-of-the-art technology, sensors and a direct line to a doctor await you when you visit the doctor in the telemedicine station. The US company Onmed has now launched one of the first treatment rooms for remote treatment on the market. Go in, get treatment, get medication, go out again. A visit to the doctor in the telemedicine station could be so easy. The first Onmed stations are to be set up in the USA and worldwide this year. And now let's take a look. This is what you can expect when you visit the doctor in the telemedicine station
Research on the 5G train: Vodafone builds campus network for test track in the Ore Mountains - Imagine you take the train from Hamburg to Berlin - and that completely without a train driver: in. How this can work is researched and tested by Vodafone in cooperation with the Technical University of Chemnitz. With 5G and the Internet of Things, the two partners want to digitalize rail traffic sustainably in order to make it safer and more efficient.
Sky 5G Multiview App: Anyone watching football matches in the stadium wants to see top sporting performance on the pitch and experience pure emotions. But fans in the stands do not always get every detail of the game and miss some crucial scenes. 5G technology from Vodafone and the Sky 5G Multiview app could soon change that. The Sky 5G Multiview app combines the advantages of a live sports broadcast on home TV with real emotions in the stadium. Because the new app provides fans in the audience with exclusive content and makes it possible to experience the top game directly on the smartphone from five camera perspectives.
Football live with DAZN: GIGA 5G from Vodafone kicks off the real-time broadcast - Vodafone and the sports platform DAZN want to make live sports broadcasting with 5G technology more environmentally friendly, more efficient and more flexible. The two partners are working on a sustainable football live stream that brings the impressions and emotions from the pitch to your home in real time. Live broadcasts at sports events usually work like this: Several cameras are connected to an OB van via cables. From there, the recordings are forwarded to a broadcasting center via satellite and played out from there. All of this requires a lot of technical and human resources. The data exchange via the 5G network from Vodafone can simplify these processes considerably. With the innovative solution from Vodafone and DAZN, the camera is simply connected to a 5G-capable router and the recordings are transmitted directly to the broadcast center. No annoying cables, no OB vans and almost no delay.
Please note: All news item from German has been translated to English automatically using Google translate.
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 Telef贸nica 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
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 Telef贸nica) merged with e-plus (acquired by Telef贸nica).
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?
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, D眉sseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Jena, Kiel, Cologne, Leipzig, Ludwigsburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbr眉cken, 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 D眉sseldorf, 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 Telef贸nica, 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.
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 Telef贸nica 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.
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. Telef贸nica 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
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.
Automotive 5G manufacturing production is now a reality due to the efforts of Vodafone and Ericsson who were challenged by e.GO to help them to develop an ‘industry 4.0’ factory to help them gain a competitive advantage through the use of mobile technology. e.GO was founded by Professor G眉nther Schuh, often characterised as Germany’s answer to Elon Musk, who is very much on a mission to create more affordable electric vehicles. The company was founded out of RWTH Aachen University in 2015 where the Professor was vice-rector for Industry and Business Relations. By then he had already developed an electric delivery van, StreetScooter, a company that was bought by Deutsche Post in 2014. Thanks to an array of StreetScooter vehicles and some 12,000 e-bikes and e-trikes, Deutsche Post DHL Group today operates the largest electric fleet in Germany.
Professor Schuh, now focusing on the 5G network believes it will deliver faster and more reliable production with constant access to relevant information:
"The assembly plant for e.GO Life is a true Industry 4.0 factory. In other words, it is fully networked in terms of information technology. Connectivity links the physical and the digital world.”
While according to Hannes Ametsreiter, Head of Vodafone Germany:
"Our automotive industry needs a fast network directly where the newest and most innovative cars are built. Data is an important fuel for modern automobile production.”
While Arun Bansal, President and Head of Europe & Latin America, Ericsson, says:
"5G is the key to opening the door to a new era in manufacturing productivity, speed, security and efficiency – and the automotive industry is a prime example of the beneficiaries. Our 5G technology leadership, including solutions and abilities specifically tailored to manufacturing, enables us to partner with companies such as Vodafone and e.GO to deliver the very best private networks solutions."
This 4.0 factory is a model that many other European companies might look to in the future.
The 16,000m2 e.GO site in Aachen is one of the first in the world to connect machines using a private ‘5G ready’ network rather than Wi-Fi. There have been 36 mobile antenna installed within the factory walls to connect all the machinery to the IT system and to send data back to the company’s network operations centre, the factory’s brain. The use of mobile technology provides e.GO’s development team with incredible power to analyse network data and automatically adjust factory processes with the press of a button. Mobile network slicing is being used for the first time in Germany to dedicate a slice of spectrum for the factory to ensure that critical manufacturing processes are never interrupted by inadvertent data packet loss. Another first is the use of multi-access edge computing (MEC) by the network to boost the processing power of the Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) which carry the chassis from station to station, replacing the classic production line. The factory will contain the world’s first AGVs to use 4G+ rather than Wi-Fi. These machines process environmental data, like unexpected objects in their path, near instantaneously (less than 10 milliseconds), ensuring both they and all other machines in the plant adapt their routines accordingly. In the future the AGV will be joined by smart forklifts and smart factory trains which will transport material between warehouses and production halls.
The use of such technology has given e.GO’s development team incredible power to analyse network data and automatically adjust factory processes with the press of a button. When the team decided to move from a steel to an aluminum frame it took just three months to install new machinery and adjust processes, around a sixth of the time it would take a competitor to do the same. The new e.GO electric car has taken just two years to develop, less than half the average time and has cost €70 million, four times less than the industry average development costs. This is a revolutionary project which can pave the way for other European businesses.
