Vodafone to bring LTE to Dresden

Vodafone Germany plans to expand its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband network to Dresden this year, bringing maximum download speeds of up to 100Mbps to the Saxony city. Under the terms of its 800MHz spectrum licence, the UK-based company was required to roll out LTE in rural areas unserved by broadband services of any kind before it could launch the 4G technology in urban parts of Germany. According to a Vodafone press release, the company has fulfilled the rural coverage obligation in Saxony, meaning that it is now allowed to expand LTE services to the state’s main urban areas, beginning with Dresden, and followed by other towns and cities including Leipzig and Zwickau. To date over 2,700 of Vodafone’s base station sites have been upgraded to support LTE, providing coverage to more than 14 million households and representing around 40% of the country’s territory. The company eventually plans to upgrade all cell sites in Germany to LTE.