1&1 recently said it expected to launch its 5G offering for smartphone users by the third quarter of 2023

Germany’s competition regulator Bundeskartellamt is currently assessing whether Vodafone Germany or its affiliated company Vantage Towers unlawfully impeded newcomer 1&1 in the deployment of its mobile network infrastructure.

In a release, the regulator said it had started this assessment following a complaint filed by 1&1.

“We welcome the intended market entry of 1&1 as a fourth mobile network operator in Germany from a competition perspective. It is clear that to develop its own mobile phone network a company has to make high investments and take entrepreneurial risks when taking such a step. It is a key task of competition law to set fair rules of play for companies’ business practices. Powerful and dominant companies must not unfairly impede other companies. We will therefore scrutinize whether there are sound reasons for a delay in the provision of antenna locations for 1&1,” said Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt.

1&1 had purchased spectrum for the provision of mobile telephony in 2019 with the aim of becoming Germany’s fourth mobile operator. In 2021, 1&1 and Vantage Towers contractually reached a deal to co-use a large number of locations across the country. However, during 2022, the provision of the agreed locations was delayed. The regulator noted that 1&1 relied on the use of these locations to start the deployment of its own mobile network, which is scheduled to become operational this year.

Irrespective of the competition regulator’s proceeding, the Germany government is currently examining whether 1&1 must be fined for failing to meet its obligation resulting from its purchase of frequencies at an auction in 2019 to commission 1,000 5G base stations within a specified period.

 “1&1 has fallen behind original expectations with regard to the passive infrastructure. After the first interim target of 1,000 5G antennas was missed by a wide margin at the end of the previous financial year, 1&1, together with its expansion partners for the radio mast infrastructure, established a new rollout plan in March intended to drive the expansion of antenna locations,” the telco said in a previous release.

The German carrier said this new rollout plan stipulates the provision of approximately 1,200 antenna masts by the end of 2023. “Beginning in 2024, plans provide for 1&1’s activation of an additional 3,000 antenna sites annually by Vantage Towers, American Towers and GfTD. Moreover, Eubanet, our fourth partner, supports us in the acquisition of new antenna sites.”

 “While the rollout targets were missed significantly in 2022, 1&1 is now confident that the commitments made by the expansion partners will be fulfilled in accordance with the contracts,” the telco added.

1&1 recently said it expected to launch its 5G offering for smartphone users by the third quarter of 2023, adding that it aims to provide 5G services to a quarter of German households by the end of 2025 and to half of them by the end of 2030.

The German telco had previously selected Japanese company Rakuten Group to design, build and operate a fully virtualized mobile network based O-RAN technology.