display

Maintal / Munich (dpa) - The expansion of a fourth mobile network in Germany can begin: 1 & 1 Drillisch has accepted a contract offer from its competitor Telefónica for national roaming, the company announced on Monday.

The final details of the contract should be clarified by May, but the agreement is already binding.

This will give Drillisch access to the O2 network in the future.

The cooperation is the prerequisite for Drillisch to be able to build its own network.

There are currently mobile networks in this country from Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica (O2), and Drillisch will become number four in some time.

display

In 2019, the company bought frequency spectrum for the first time for around 1.1 billion euros.

However, Drillisch only wanted to use this for its own network when its mobile phone customers were not sitting in the radio gap away from their first locations during the years of construction, but were supplied via national roaming, similar to international roaming abroad.

Without this access, the company would have a bad hand in the race for customer favor.

The newcomer negotiated for a long time with all three long-established network operators, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica.

He came to a trade agreement with the Munich group.

The agreement is positive for both sides: it enables Drillisch to enter the market as a network operator, while Telefónica can better utilize its network and receive rental income. 

The two telecommunications companies have been working together for a long time, and as a so-called virtual network operator, Drillisch primarily uses the capacities of Telefónica.

This agreement from 2014 was only valid on condition that Drillisch did not have its own network.

Thanks to the new contract, the cooperation continues. 

display

However, this is only about 2G, 3G and 4G - the new 5G cellular standard is not included in the cooperation.

Drillisch wants to make this possible for its customers via its own antennas.

The company, based in the Hessian Maintal, belongs to the telecommunications group United Internet from Montabaur in Rhineland-Palatinate.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210215-99-446029 / 2

Message from Drillisch