Some regions in Germany, although 5G is already available and Huawei has recently started to develop the 5.5G Mobile standards has begun, some regions are still supplied with 3G. Vodafone and the German Telekom have announced that they will shut down their 3G networks on 30 June 2021. Telefónica Deutschland, on the other hand, originally intended to continue operating the 3G network until the end of 2022. Now the company has decided that the 20-year-old 3G technology will be switched off at the end of 2021.
According to Telefónica Germany, 97 percent of the 44 million customers have a 4G-capable terminal. Currently, over 90 percent of mobile data traffic is already being handled via 4G, in 2016 the proportion was only 40 percent. The 3G network, which is still active, is therefore becoming less and less important.
18,000 locations in Germany
Telefónica operates around 18,000 locations in Germany. A large part of the conversion to 4G is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2021, while a small number of the sites will be updated in the current year. According to Telefónica, there will only be short interruptions in network availability, because the 2,100 MHz frequency spectrum already used for 3G will only be converted to make it additionally usable for 4G.
Maximum data rate of 225 Mbit/s
The switch to 4G allows a maximum data rate of 225 Mbps. This also allows mobile streaming of videos and podcasts and other bandwidth-hungry applications. In the old 3G network, the maximum download rate under optimal conditions was 42.2 Mbps. According to Telefónica, the conversion of the sites will also reduce power consumption by up to 90 percent and significantly improve voice quality thanks to Voice over LTE (VoLTE).
Telephony and M2M still possible over 2G
Telefónica Deutschland customers who only want to make mobile calls and do not have a data tariff can still use the 2G network. This will continue to be operated parallel to the 4G and 5G network in order to offer services such as machine-to-machine (M2M) and E-mail to be able to offer.
This means that the changeover will only affect customers who have so far Data over 3G. If required, Telefónica Germany customers receive a free SIM card and hardware options. The contract terms and personal telephone number are not affected by the technology change.
