Only five masts in operation in 2022
1&1 wants to build 3000 locations for 5G every year
6/4/2023 9:04 p.m
1&1 auctioned mobile frequencies in 2019, but has been lagging behind its own claim to its own network since then. That should change now. 3000 locations are to be created every year, explains 1&1 boss Dommermuth.
The mobile phone provider 1&1 has announced a significant acceleration of its network expansion. By the end of 2022, the company had only commissioned five instead of the prescribed 1,000 5G locations.
“Can I shine today? No, I can’t,” said 1&1 boss Ralph Dommermuth of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “But the construction capacities are growing and if things go as contractually guaranteed by our expansion partners, then we will complete 3,000 locations in each of the next few years.” This would also meet the long-term requirements of the Federal Network Agency.
1&1 had auctioned frequencies for the first time in 2019 to build its own network. It would be the fourth German mobile network after the networks of Telekom, Vodafone and O2. 1&1 also blames its contractual partner Vantage Towers, in which the competitor Vodafone has a stake, for the sluggish construction. In abuse proceedings, the Federal Cartel Office is examining whether Vodafone obstructed the company in violation of antitrust law.