- Deutsche Telekom is holding its Capital Markets Day this week
- Tim Höttges says DT has made 5G a winning strategy for its markets
- He wants to change the narrative in Europe that 5G is a bad thing
During Deutsche Telekom’s Capital Markets Day on Thursday, DT group chief executive Tim Höttges recounted a conversation he’d had with T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert when his U.S. counterpart asked him why Europe is so negative about 5G.
In Höttges’ words, Sievert said, “Tim, what is going on in Europe? Everybody’s complaining about 5G and saying 5G is not a business case. You’re nuts. How can you talk it down? 5G is the best [thing since] sliced bread.”
Höttges conceded that “I was one of the guys complaining that there is no business case for 5G.”
He decided to check out the situation, and found that 5G has been beneficial to the group in a number of ways, such as helping to improve market share as well as network productivity and efficiency.
“Since we have deployed 5G, we have grown our market share in Germany on an annual basis by three to four percentage points,” he said. “The customers are willing to pay us more. Our ARPU is not shrinking anymore with the speed as it did before. The profitability of that is positive and the NPV is already positive on the 5G investments which we have taken,” he said.
Höttges added: “I cannot talk for everybody because I know the European industry; 65% of all European mobile players don’t earn their capital costs. But I can tell you one thing: We made 5G, for all the markets, a winning strategy. We are changing the narrative that 5G is a bad thing. For us, it’s a great thing, and we will pursue everything to accelerate our 5G services.”
Last with 5G SA
According to DT, it currently offers 98% 5G population coverage in Germany and 78% coverage across its European footprint.
At the same time, the operator has not yet officially launched 5G standalone (5G SA) services in Germany. It recently said it remains on track to launch its 5G SA this year, becoming the last of the three incumbent mobile network operators to offer services that rely on a 5G core network.
In September, DT said that 12,800 5G antennas now operate in the 3.6 GHz frequency band.
Meanwhile, domestic rival Telefónica Deutschland (O2) also chose Thursday to boast about the progress of its 5G SA network in Germany, noting that it now covers 96% of the population.
According to Mallik Rao, chief technology and information officer at O2 Telefónica, the “5G decade is now picking up speed.”
Earlier in the week, Vodafone Germany said its 5G SA (5G+) service is also now available in more areas after it activated an additional 10,000 more base stations. It has now equipped more than 16,000 of a total of 26,000 base stations with 5G SA.
“This means Vodafone supplies around 92% of people with 5G – and more than 90% can now also use 5G+. Coverage is expected to be 95% by mid-2025,” the operator said.