Federal Network Agency: Telefónica is the least able to meet LTE requirements

According to its own information, Telefónica cannot meet the LTE coverage requirements of the Federal Network Agency by the beginning of the year. That gave the Federal Network Agency on January 10, 2020, None of the network operators had fully covered the main traffic routes – ICE routes and federal highways – at the end of the year.

The insufficient supply is the reason for the mobile phone operators with external influences such as lack of rental options at locations as well as problems with building permits and the protection of monuments, nature and the environment. Telefónica also complains “company-specific features”that would have delayed network expansion. However, it is planned to meet the supply requirements this year with a further 7,600 locations.

In the allocation of the frequencies auctioned in 2015, the Federal Network Agency stipulated that from the beginning of the year 98 percent of households nationwide and 97 percent of households in each state should be supplied with a minimum data rate of 50 Mbit / s per antenna sector. The main traffic routes must be fully supplied.

The Federal Network Agency is reviewing the information provided by the mobile network operators and will conduct its own measurements in each federal state. These reviews will take several weeks. So far, the penalties for providers who do not meet the requirements have been low at up to EUR 100,000. A planned amendment to the Telecommunications Act provides for more severe penalties – from one million euros to two percent of global annual sales.

Around 98 percent of households are unlikely to cover more than 70 percent of the area in Germany, but this also includes forests and bodies of water. The network operators and the government always state only the population coverage, which does not refer to the supplied area in the Federal Republic, but to the number of inhabitants. When LTE radio licenses were issued, bidders were left open to cut out up to two percent of households. At that time it was already foreseeable that such a regulation would affect rural areas.

Measured in terms of area, Telefónica’s LTE mobile phone coverage in Germany was according to an earlier measurement by the P3 Institute on behalf of the Greens from December 2018 at just 46.8 percent, Vodafone’s share was only slightly better at 56.7 percent. Telekom was ahead with an LTE coverage of 75.1 percent.

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