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Bonn (dpa) - Deutsche Telekom is making good progress in expanding its mobile network for the new 5G standard.
The network already reached the homes of 80 percent of the population, announced the group on Thursday in Bonn.
That is more than 66 million people who could use the 5G network on their property.
At the turn of the year, according to the company, the number was 55 million.
The company has already achieved its original goal for the end of 2021.
It is now aiming to cover 90 percent of the population by the end of the year.
More than 50,000 telecom antennas are already transmitting with the standard.
Usually a location has three 5G antennas.
There is no information on what percentage of the area is covered.
The former state monopoly is significantly ahead of the competition in the 5G expansion: At Vodafone, according to its own information, almost 8,500 antennas are currently radio with 5G and thus reach the homes of more than 20 million people.
The competitor Telefónica with its brand o2 started its expansion later and wants to present the latest figures in the coming week.
The 5th generation of mobile communications (5G) enables significantly faster downloads and real-time interaction.
The benefit for the consumer is still limited, however, because the previous wireless standard 4G (LTE) is sufficient for the vast majority of mobile applications.
New, 5G-capable smartphones are also required.
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The telecommunications industry sees great potential for 5G in online games and augmented reality applications.
The standard is also important for industry.
The expansion is expensive, and not only because of the high material and installation costs: For the frequency spectrum used for 5G, Deutsche Telekom committed itself to pay around 2.2 billion euros at an auction by the Federal Network Agency in 2019.
The auction brought a total of around 6.5 billion euros into the state's cash register.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210325-99-968404 / 2
Communication from Telekom