UK mobile operator Vodafone announced today that it is planning to launch its LTE service in Germany at the start of December.
The new service will be available to customers in areas with poor or inadequate broadband access, the so-called “white spots”….
UK mobile operator Vodafone announced today that it is planning to launch its LTE service in Germany at the start of December.
The new service will be available to customers in areas with poor or inadequate broadband access, the so-called “white spots”. From December 1, these customers will be able to access LTE through a USB or “Surfstick”, which has been developed by Samsung, which along with Huawei and Ericsson is a Vodafone technology partner on the project.
By the end of March 2011, Vodafone plans to have equipped 1,500 locations with LTE, which will be offered in three packages – the fastest of which will provide speeds of up to 50Mbps.
Vodafone has managed to launch LTE ahead of its two major competitors in the German market, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica O2 Germany, which also won licences for 800 MHz last May 20. One condition of these licences was that the companies had to focus on areas that had inadequate broadband services.
Earlier in November, Vodafone was reported to be considering a joint national 4G network run with DT and Telefonica O2.
None of the companies commented, apart from Vodafone, which said: “As far as the joint 4G network is concerned this is something that was raised by the German regulator Bundesnet/agentur. Vodafone Germany is continuing to push ahead with its roll-out.”
Telefonica announced on Friday that it would be testing its own LTE networks with several hundred users in December. DT put its first 4G base station into operation in August, and plans to bring its 4G service to some 500 sites by the end of 2010.
