As Deutsche Telekom upgrades its HSPA network to support downlink speeds of 42 Mbps by the end of the year, the company has revealed its roadmap for commercial LTE services. Starting in early summer, the company confirmed it will conduct further "friendly" user trials with selected business customers, and expand LTE coverage across most of Cologne using the 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
The company is anticipating that its commercial LTE service will be capable of providing downlink speeds of around 100 Mbps. The company installed its first LTE base station in August in Kyritz, Brandenburg.
The company also confirmed that LTE in the 800 MHz band was being used, together with DSL and HSPA, to provide broadband coverage to underserved rural areas. Wireless technology was used to provide broadband services to around 50 per cent of the indentified black spots. The work will continue this year with another 1,500 locations being served with high-speed data services using either HSPA or LTE.
Deutsche Telekom added that it would be expanding its Wi-Fi hotspot network, currently available in 8,000 locations, and would see it fitted into additional ICE trains from Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa aircraft.
Separately, Mark Haas, O2 Germany's managing director of corporate affairs, has indicated that the company might bring forward the date of its LTE launch from the start of July by one month.
For more:
- see this LightWave article
- see this The Financial article
- see this Total Telecom article
- see this teltarif article (German)
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