Vodafone Germany has announced that from the summer, customers will be able to make calls via its 5G network for the first time at some locations. The new Voice over New Radio (VoNR) service will enable faster call connections and clearer voice quality, while also saving battery life. In addition, Vodafone is rolling out tri-band carrier aggregation (3C) to increase the speeds and capacity of the existing 5G network. While the operator already combines the 3.5GHz and 1800MHz bands, it is now set to add the 700MHz band which is suited to covering a wide area. The new service is already available at more than 500 locations and is now being gradually expanded. The first smartphones to support 3C include the Samsung models S23, S23+, S23 Ultra and Xiaomi 13.
‘We are not only expanding our 5G network across the board. We are also strengthening it by bringing new technologies to the network and thus making the potential of 5G tangible for our customers,’ said Tanja Richter, head of technology at Vodafone.
Since the beginning of January, Vodafone has installed 119 new LTE base stations and 26 5G base stations, while 4G or 5G technology was also installed in more than 500 existing base stations. In total, Vodafone has equipped 37,000 antennas with 5G, including 3,400 5G Standalone (5G SA) stations with around 10,000 5G SA antennas.
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2023/04/18/vodafone-enhances-5g-network-with-3c-and-vonr/