Telefonica Deutschland said it added nearly 2,000 new LTE stations to its network in the third quarter and upgraded existing locations with additional LTE capacities. In total, the O2 network has been expanded by around 5,000 LTE stations this year.
The company said it's meeting its goal of a denser LTE network not just in the cities, but also covering more rural areas with faster speeds. In cities, the operator said it conducted a double-digit number of LTE upgrades in Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Leipzig, Mannheim, Duisburg, Hanover, Stuttgart, Bremen, Essen, Aachen, Bonn, Dresden and Oberhausen. In the largest cities Berlin and Hamburg, there was almost a triple-digit upgrade. The upgrades raised speeds where data usage is growing and also helped improve coverage indoors.
In rural areas, around 125,000 new people per week were supplied with LTE in the third quarter. New locations to the LTE network were added in all 16 federal states, benefiting towns such as Werlte, Rhede, Neulehe and Surwold in Lower Saxony's Emsland region or Schlotheim, Ebeleben, Bleicherode, Leinefelde-Worbis and Dingelstadt in Central Germany. Telefonica also pushed ahead with LTE expansion in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in recent months, and tourist areas such as the island of Usedom, the Uckermark, and other places along the A20 coastal motorway were covered with LTE.
In the coming months Telefonica said it will continue to push ahead with the expansion of LTE. As the network integration of O2 and E-Plus is expected largely completed by the end of 2018, the company will be able to concentrate its resources in the coming year entirely on LTE expansion in rural areas, network densification and further network optimization. In addition, the company is focusing on providing LTE along important transport infrastructures such as motorways and ICE lines.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/telefonica-deutschland-adds-nearly-2000-lte-sites-in-q3--1267000