Germany’s cell phone users are increasingly surfing the 5G mobile communication standard. As network operator Vodafone announced, about 20 percent of all data traffic in its network in October was transmitted using this technology. A year ago the proportion was about ten per cent and two years before that it was five per cent – so every year it doubled.
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Competitor Telefónica Deutschland (O2) has also reported a much higher share of 5G, where it has doubled within a year. The company does not provide any specific data for this. “5G is now part of the everyday lives of smartphone users,” says Mallik Rao, O2 technology chief. “Especially in major German cities, 5G is now the mainstay of digital networking for consumers.”
different radio standards
The largest share of mobile phone networks is the previous standard 4G, also known as LTE. 2G used for telephony plays only a minor role and 3G has already been discontinued in Germany. 5G’s data transmission is up to ten times faster than LTE, with gigabit speeds possible in the most modern cell phone network technology. Connections are also more stable – if there are several users in one radio cell, the transmission speed drops significantly with 4G, but with 5G it is better.
“LTE is still ahead when it comes to mobile data traffic in Germany because there are still many older cell phones in use that do not support 5G,” says Vodafone Germany boss Marcel de Groot. “But we are seeing more and more clearly that more and more people are now using 5G with their cell phones.”
vodafone manager optimist
The share of 5G in mobile phone networks will continue to increase. The Vodafone manager justified this by saying that customers increasingly have 5G-compatible smartphones and 5G is being included in tariffs automatically and at no extra cost. “And finally, we are all using more and more apps and services where higher bandwidth provides the best quality – for example to share high-resolution videos with your friends,” says De Groot.
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