Germany and South Korea go nuts for 5G while Blighty subsists on test bed crumbs

It seems the rest of the world can't get enough of 5G – Germany has just raised €6.6bn (£5.8bn) in its spectrum auction, and more than a million folk in South Korea have subscribed to a 5G contract. Meanwhile, Blighty is still tentatively dipping its toes in the water. Teutonic titan Deutsche Telekom took on Vodafone and …

[big_D]

German telcos might well have paid over the odds for 5G, but I just wish they'd get 4G working first.

I have an "up to 500mbps" LTE contract. At home I get a whopping 10-15mbps, at work I get between 112 and 350bps (no, I didn't forget the "m") and the Speedtest app usually complains that there is no Internet connection.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're confusing capability with coverage.

For work, does speed significantly improve when you step outside the office? At least in central London, one of the main challenges with decent speed is the building you work in. A lot are very good at blocking 4G signal's.

[big_D]

Nope, I have to walk about 200M up the road to get a usable (Edge) data signal. I have 4 bars 2G in the office.

But yes, I know I am talking about coverage. I'd like to see them get the 4G coverage (or even 3G) right, before concentrating on 5G.

It feels like they are enthusiastic about one technology, but before they can roll it out properly the next "hot thing" comes along and they just drop implementing "yesterdays" technology in favour of the next thing, without getting it implemented fully/properly.

[Charlie Clark]

Consider yourself lucky: I'm on O2's apology for a service. Sometimes it feels like there are only 10 towers in the whole country!

[CountCadaver]

They do add bits, albeit often stymied by NIMBYs convinced it will give them brain tumours, lower their house price value (even though they are 80 something and have lived in that house their whole life) etc...

Locally O2 have a new mast and I now get good 4G coverage all over my small rural town, whereas before I only got 2G, even moving to EE got me $g only in some parts of town, about 3 years ago I checked the coverage checker and instead of NO 4G service, instead I was greeted with excellent coverage inside and out....and its been spot on (well apart from that massive fall down a while back)

TescoMobile customer, Sim Only 12GB for £15 a month.

[Charlie Clark]

Sorry, I should have been clearer: O2 in Germany.

[katrinab]

And one of them is outside my house, so I get 60Mbps in the one place where I don’t use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's *always* going to be a not spot. And inevitably those dwelling in one will raise coverage issues, which is sort of obvious.

However if this were common across the country, the operator would suffer, so it is very likely the economics of your area don't add up if *none* of the operators offer service.

So without understanding the numbers involved in getting coverage at your favourite spot N, it's hard to say that it can be cost effectively solved by yesterday's technology, if at all..

For eg if a NIMBY meant that it would cost £1 million per user to provide coverage, would that be a reasonable expectation? Isn't the problem then perhaps policy and not technology?

It would be fair to argue for cheaper plans with a "poor coverage" discount.

But to halt future technology until every not-spot is dealt with does not make any sense.

[JohnFen]

"A lot are very good at blocking 4G signal's."

If they're very good at blocking 4G frequencies, they'll be fantastic at blocking 5G frequencies.

[Anonymous Coward]

5g goes from ~600 MHz to ~4700 MHz in NR and 24-100 GHz in mmwave, so it depends on what band is chosen.

So a 5G signal can be stronger - it down to choice of spectrum. 5G has done its part by supporting the frequencies. The rest is down to the operator and spectrum costs.

[JohnFen]

True, my bad. I was referring to the GHz band, as that where any speed increases would come from. The buildings that block 4G, however, will still likely block the MHz 5G band to the same degree.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting, in America...

...we always hear how Europe has the best mobile / internet.

When I lived in the French Caribbean, France Telecom did indeed offer speedy DSL for 25 EUR / month.

Now I have Verizon FiOS gigabit internet for $89 / month.

I use MVNO TracFone for cell service and it's ubiquitous.

Pricey at $10/GB for data but real 4g pretty much everywhere.

[Saruman the White]

So lets just get this straight

Deutsche Telekom entered a bidding war against Vodafone (and presumably other operators, at least at the start) and eventually won, albeit with a price tag of €2.2 billion. It is no complaining that the price was too high and it can't afford to build the infrastructure. The irony of the situation is almost laughable; Deutsche Telekom could have pulled out of the bidding any time it liked; complaining because you won but paid more than you could afford is frankly plain stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So lets just get this straight

Looks like Deusche Telekom got themselves into the equivalent of an end-of-auction bidding frenzy on eBay and got carried away!

[stevebp]

Re: So lets just get this straight

I think what happened was, the guy from DT brought his 6 yr old into the auction room and he wasn't paying enough attention because angry birds on his phone was distracting him. So his son decided to wave the bidding board around for him. Before he knew it, he was the proud owner of an old set of recycled bandwidths at an exorbitant price....I wouldn't have liked to be him explaining that to his boss...

[Charlie Clark]

Re: So lets just get this straight

The real irony is that the costs can be offset against tax. Back in the UMTS days when over € 20 bn was raised in the auction, this meant that the Federal government got the cash, but this was essentially at the cost of the regional governments who took the writedowns.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth is really just part of the attempt to prepare shareholders for the lack of revenue as those "magical" 5G services fail to materialise and, hence, make any money.

Oh, and the government is mulling revising post-factum the terms of the auction, and breaking the approved 5G spec, by mandating a side-channel for the end-to-end call encryption. Which all just goes to show that there are cockwombles everywhere.

[NATTtrash]

Oh dear, what about those black holes..?

"Once again, the spectrum in Germany is much more expensive than in other countries. Network operators now lack the money to expand their networks," he grumbled, adding that the whole thing left a "bitter taste".

Yeah, I do remember their other "enthused" reaction in the German media when the German government made it a demand/ obligation that telco's should make sure coverage was 100%. So, yes, also in the rural areas.

So I suppose, now they had to put the money where their mouth is, this is a "win-win" situation for them, because "It was so expensive! Nein, no money left! Boo-hoo! Can really not do anything about those black holes!".

[Doctor Syntax]

"It splashed the most (€2.2bn) but complained of the high price it was forced to pay."

HPE/Autonomy 2.0. "We bid that much because we wanted it but we were overcharged"

Big hint, when you bid for something it's you who sets the price so don't complain about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Although there is progress in many countries there are also increasing efforts to limit 5G and have a look at potential side-effects first. Switzerland, Poland, etc..

We'll see. Personally I am more concerned about the ever increasing WiFi emitters, but maybe I'm wrong on that one.