Vodafone Germany: We were first with LTE; rejects NSN's claim

Nokia Siemens Networks' announcement that it was helping Deutsche Telekom launch the first LTE network in Germany has angered Vodafone, claiming that it was already operating an LTE network in the country.

NSN has been accused of being 'economical with the truth' following its press statement that Deutsche Telekom was the "first to deploy LTE in digital dividend spectrum," and that NSN would be supplying infrastructure, software and services required to set up and maintain the LTE network.

This rather grand proclamation caused Vodafone to see even more red than usual, declaring forcefully that it had already deployed LTE in several German locations and had published its LTE tariffs on the Vodafone website. 

"Vodafone has already deployed several LTE locations, one of them being Heiligendamm at the Baltic Sea," said a bristling Vodafone Germany spokesperson. "We have also started locations in Lower Saxony, three in total, the fourth is about to go 'live' in a few weeks."

Why this PR 'slip-up' by NSN has triggered such a robust snub by Vodafone is unclear. Perhaps its desire to be seen as first with commercial LTE in Germany might be aimed towards covering up the failure of its F1 racing team McLaren--to which Vodafone has just signed to sponsor for another three years--to win races.

This posturing does not bode well for the discussions that were said to be underway between the main German operators to share LTE networks to provide rural mobile broadband coverage.

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