Telefonica Deutschland said on Monday it would join hands with competitors Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone to build 6,000 new mobile towers in Germany to improve network coverage.
The approach, supported by the network regulator, seeks to meet coverage requirements without further straining the finances of network operators.
Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone recently spent 6.5 billion euros or $7.2 billion for purchasing 5G spectrum from the government.
Telefonica Deutschland, controlled by Spain’s Telefonica, said that 1&1 Drillisch – a virtual network operator that also won 5G spectrum and plans a fourth national network – had been invited to join the group.
Telekom Deutschland’s Managing Director Dirk Wossner, Markus Haas, CEO of Telefonica Deutschland and Vodafone Deutschland CEO Hannes Ametsreiter
Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone will reveal more details about the cooperation by spring 2020 at the latest, Telefonica Deutschland said in a statement. The joint network would be rolled out soon afterwards.
The spectrum guidelines imposed by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) force telecoms to spend additional funds to meet mobile coverage conditions.
Coverage of transport routes was a requirement that was imposed upon the operators in the scope of the spectrum auction. The planned agreement enables the network operators to offer their customers the maximum possible coverage along the transport routes.
