German telecoms company Deutsche Telekom has unveiled an eight-point programme for the development and launch of 5G mobile communications. The firm, which operates in its domestic market via its Telekom Deutschland unit, plans to launch 5G in 2020 and cover 99% of the population and 90% of the country by 2025. As part of its efforts, Telekom says it will increasingly partner with other companies that are investing in broadband upgrades, sharing the infrastructure needed for 5G with other network operators, particularly in rural areas.
Each year, Telekom plans to build over 2,000 new mobile sites, mainly in white spots, to reach a total of 36,000 by 2021, and it will also install 10,000 smaller radio cells to improve coverage at particularly high-demand locations or inside buildings. Around 22,000 of the firm’s 27,000 sites are already connected to its fibre-optic network, which currently stretches 500,000km, and will be extended by 60,000km annually. Telekom currently serves 24.4 million households with fixed broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps, and top speeds of up to 250Mbps are already available to around ten million households, with this set to increase to 28 million in 2019.