Germany prepares to expand its 5G infrastructure by 2022, says report

Germany is preparing for the introduction of the new 5G mobile communications standard. "If we want to continue to play in the premier league of technology countries, we must now set the course for this," said Dirk Woessner, management board member of Deutsche Telekom at a press conference at the consumer electronics fair IFA in Berlin on Friday.

The frequencies for 5G are expected to be auctioned at the beginning of 2019. The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) had already presented first conditions for the auction on Thursday. "We always wanted to be in front when it comes to the allocation of frequencies," agency president Jochen Homann told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Xinhua reported.

The targets set by the network agency stipulate that by 2022 at least 98 percent of households in Germany should have access to an internet connection with a minimum of 100 megabits per second.

Motorways and federal highways are too be supplied with at least 100 megabits per second by 2022. With at least 50 Mbit/s, the speed target for mobile broadband on short and long-distance passenger railways is half as high.

Unlike 4G the current mobile standard, 5G will not have national roaming, as 5G providers will not be required to give competitors access to their networks. "It is legally not possible to oblige network operators to make their networks available to other providers," emphasized Homann.

A quarter of the 5G frequencies will be reserved for local and regional applications and are not intended to be auctioned off. This should enable "as many business models as possible in the industrial and agricultural sectors", as the Bundesnetzagentur resolution states.

The German Federal Network Agency is not expecting a bidding war like in 2000. Back then, almost 50 billion euros ($58.2 billion) were generated at the UMTS license auction. "The Bundesnetzagentur does not aim for maximizing revenues," Homann said.