Deutsche Telekom noted that its 5G network already reaches 95% of the country’s population

German carrier Deutsche Telekom (DT) said that a total of 8,600 antennas are already providing 5G services via the 3.6 GHz band.

In a release, the European carrier noted that its 5G network already reaches 95% of the country’s population. Deutsche Telekom had previously said that it expects that its 5G technology could reach 99% of the Germany population by 2025.

The carrier has over 80,000 antennas currently transmitting 5G across its fooprint. Its LTE coverage currently reaches 99% of Germany’s households, Deutsche Telekom said.

DT said that it has also increased mobile network capacity at 824 locations already in operation.

In June last year, Deutsche Telekom announced it was, for the first time, using spectrum in the 700 MHz range to provide 5G service. The European operator said that the use of the 700 MHz band improve mobile communications coverage in rural areas across Germany.

The telco is offering 5G services via three different frequencies. In addition to the 700 MHz frequency, the telco also provides 5G via the 2.1 GHz and 3.6 GHz spectrum bands.

The telco said that 5G Standalone (SA) is technically available in the 2.1 GHz frequency band, adding that commercial use of 5G SA for residential customers will start as soon as applications are available.

Deutsche Telekom kicked off the rollout of its 5G network in a limited number of cities across Germany at the beginning of July 2019.

Earlier this year, Deutsche Telekom announced a partnership with Nokia, Fujitsu and Mavenir for the initial phase of its commercial Open RAN (O-RAN) deployments across its European footprint.

The German telco noted that Nokia and Fujitsu have been chosen as partners for an initial commercial O-RAN introduction in Germany from 2023 onwards.

In addition, Mavenir has been chosen as partner for an initial multi-vendor deployment in Deutsche Telekom’s European footprint starting this year.

Deutsche Telekom also highlighted that the sites at Neubrandenburg are built on a multi-vendor O-RAN architecture with open fronthaul support and equipment from Nokia and Fujitsu. Nokia will deliver the baseband units, while the O-RAN compliant remote Radio Units (O-RUs) will be provided by Nokia and Fujitsu.

For further deployments in the the telco’s European footprint, Mavenir will provide the Cloud-Native baseband software for the 4G and 5G distributed units (O-DU) and central units (O-CU), including for the open fronthaul based mMIMO radio units.

Deutsche Telekom also said that it plans to announce additional partners for O-RAN deployments.

Earlier this month, Deutsche Telekom confirmed it had reached a 50.2% stake in T-Mobile US after years of steadily increasing its ownership in the American company. Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Timotheus Hoettges said that company has been pursuing a majority stake in T-Mobile US since 2021. DT’s ownership of T-Mobile US was diluted to 43% when the U.S. carrier merged with Sprint, as Sprint’s owner SoftBank took 24% of the combined entity.