And it plans to expand the service to Hamburg and Leipzig by the end of the year, and add another 13 to this year’s seven by the end of 2020.
The company made the announcement on the eve of the giant Berlin trade show, Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA). Last year the IFA attracted 245,000 visitors.
A total of 129 5G antennae are transmitting genuine broadband 5G, said the company, with a bandwidths of 1Gbps and more. Some 66 antennae in Berlin’s Mitte (central) district “form the largest coherent 5G coverage area in Germany, at around six square kilometres”, it added.
Deutsche Telekom said it is gradually expanding its 5G network clusters in these five major cities, so that larger areas can be served “and not just isolated spots around individual antennae”.
Michael Hagspihl, head of consumers at Telekom Deutschland, the group’s operating company in Germany, said it is also boosting the speed of fibre broadband.
“For the first time in many years, we have succeeded in surpassing the range of cable companies with a bandwidth of 50 megabits,” said Hagspihl.
More than 30 million households can now enjoy speeds from 50Mbps to 250Mbps, and around some 1.1 million households have 1Gbps, said the company.
