Vodafone Germany plans standalone 5G rollout

Vodafone Germany plans standalone 5G rollout

The company hopes to leapfrog its EU competitors with a more robust 5G offering.

Vodafone Germany announced this week that it plans to deliver standalone technology from all of its 5G sites by 2023. The company claims this will turbocharge the company’s 5G rollout and give it the most modern mobile network in Europe.

Vodafone DE launched its first commercial standalone services in April with 1,000 compatible antennas. Vodafone DE began non-standalone (NSA) 5G deployments in 2019.

In a statement this week detailing its 2023 target, Vodafone pointed out that its standalone 5G network already covers 10 million people from 3,000 antennas. In addition, 35 million people are able to access their Non-Standalone (NSA) service.

By 2023, the operator plans to reach a target of 60 million people using its 5G network.

Vodafone originally deployed its 5G on the 3.5GHz spectrum. However, the company has subsequently switched to the 700MHz band.

Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter claimed the company was “activating the most modern 5G network in Europe,” noting the latest technology would provide “extremely short response times and network slicing to people and factories”.

“Our 5G network then reacts as quickly as the human nervous system and needs less and less power to transmit data.”