Six years after the launch of the multi-billion euro 5G frequency auction, Germany’s rollout of the new mobile standard is lagging behind key expectations. An analysis by industry specialists Opensignal, reported in Handelsblatt, reveals that none of the country’s three major network operators – Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica – are, on average, achieving the latency time of under ten milliseconds widely considered the threshold for real-time communication internationally.
According to the report, average delays within Telekom’s network currently stand at approximately 23 milliseconds, while Vodafone and Telefónica register at 29 milliseconds each. While download speeds have significantly increased compared to the previous 4G network, this improvement is insufficient for applications that depend on near real-time responsiveness.
Concerns are being voiced by industry representatives. Marcus Bollig, Managing Director of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), stated that the persistently high latency in the mobile network restricts applications reliant on real-time communication. Frank Fitzek, Professor of Communication Networks at the Technical University of Dresden, echoed this sentiment, asserting that, “Germany currently lacks real-time mobile networks. Operators have not yet expanded the network sufficiently”.
