Two antennas for 5G mobile communications have been added in the past few days.

But there are still 995 stations missing, which should have been in operation by the turn of the year.

The delays could cost the mobile phone company 1&1 dearly.

Fines of up to 50,000 euros are threatened for each missing location, in the worst case a total of almost 50 million euros.

In addition, penalties can be levied and grace periods can be set in order to hurry the company.

This can be seen in a report by the Federal Network Agency to its advisory board, which this Monday will deal with how far cell phone operators have come in expanding their cell phone networks and eliminating dead spots.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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The inventory is about the requirements and obligations from the 2019 frequency auction, which should pave the way for the 5G network.

Every mobile operator should have at least 1000 stations for the new radio standard in operation at the beginning of this year.

According to their own statements, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica O2 and Vodafone are well above that, while the newcomer 1&1, a subsidiary of the Internet group United Internet, has only installed 5 antennas so far.

1&1 shifts the responsibility onto its suppliers, first and foremost the radio mast group Vantage Towers, which is majority owned by the competitor Vodafone.

Vantage was actually supposed to build at least 650, in the best case even 850 stations.

But then delivery problems, the consequences of the pandemic and the shortage of skilled workers intervened.

Already last summer, 1&1 had to sheepishly admit that it would take longer.

Decision on fines will be made by March

The network agency will now check to what extent it accepts the reasons for the delay.

"When sanctions are imposed, an overall assessment takes place, in which the respective individual case is to be assessed," the paper says.

This also applies to the question of whether the established mobile communications companies have complied with their coverage requirements for fast LTE and are responsible for delays themselves.

All three network operators consider themselves to be on the safe side when it comes to the required coverage of the population – fast mobile Internet for at least 98 percent of households in every federal state.

However, none of them met the requirement to eliminate white spots, i.e. areas without any cell phone reception, on time.

The test should be completed by March and a decision made on possible fines.

Observers believe that it is impossible for 1&1 to get away scot-free.

The company has now announced to the network agency that it will meet the coverage requirement by September 2023.

The contract with Vantage had been renegotiated, and 1&1 had commissioned another partner to acquire the site.

According to a spokeswoman, 235 locations are currently under construction.

The antennas would be installed on 50 radio masts in the coming weeks.

With the current technology, 1&1 can only provide W-LAN coverage in a few places.

"In the next step, we are expanding our product range as planned to include tariffs for smartphones in the summer," said the spokeswoman.

Because their own antennas will not be nearly enough, 1&1 wants to use national roaming in the Telefónica network.

In this way, customers can immediately be offered area-wide reception.