Telekom Deutschland CTO Walter Goldenits has revealed the company’s expansion plan for mobile, fixed broadband and LTE networks in Germany.Deutsche Telekom said it will increase the number of mobile base stations in Germany from 27,000 in 2017 to 36,000 in 2021.

Deutsche Telekom has recently set up 300 new mobile base stations in Germany – targeting both rural and urban locations. The strategy of Deutsche Telekom is to enhance customer experience and add customers from rivals. The main rivals of Deutsche Telekom are Vodafone and Telefonica O2. This statistics prepared by Statista shows the mobile market share of leading telecom operators in Germany in 2017.

The additional Capex related investment in telecom networks will assist Deutsche Telekom to expand mobile coverage and increase bandwidths. Deutsche Telekom said its LTE network will reach 98 percent of the population by 2019 from 94 percent at present.

The company said 163,000 additional customers can now access Deutsche Telekom’s LTE network. Population coverage increased by 0.2 percentage points to the current 94.4 percent.

Deutsche Telekom said this expansion is an important component for the future 5G network that combines fixed-network and mobile communications. Recently, Deutsche Telekom CEO said the government should sell 5G spectrum at cost effective rates. The strategy of mobile operators should be on shifting focus to networks.

“Focusing solely on fixed-network expansion when it comes to the gigabit society is a short-sighted approach,” says Walter Goldenits, chief technology officer at Telekom Deutschland. “With respect to 5G we cannot afford to ease up with mobile communications expansion. We must continue to drive infrastructure expansion forward”

Mobile phone customers can look up on www.telekom.de/schneller whether they stand to gain from the expansion. The advisors at Telekom shops and specialist outlets, as well as at the free hotline (0800 330 1000) can also provide further assistance.