Ahead of the European Football Championship in Germany, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica O2 are significantly expanding their mobile networks. From June 14, millions of fans are expected in stadiums and on fan miles in the ten host cities. The European Championship could “break records in streaming demand,” O2 Telefonica announced. The mobile phone companies have therefore upgraded their 5G networks for extremely fast transmissions and large bandwidths.
Telekom, which plays a central role as a network supplier, national sponsor and TV rights holder, laid 50 kilometers of fiber optic cable in the ten European Championship stadiums. The network operators are working together there: one is taking the lead, the others are joining in with their technology. In Gelsenkirchen, Cologne and Leipzig, for example, Vodafone is taking over the management of the expansion, from which Telekom and O2 and their customers also benefit. In the other seven stadiums, the situation is the other way round: here Vodafone benefits from the project management by its competitors.
On the fan miles at the venues, at train stations and parking lots, but also at the training quarters of the national teams, the network operators are relying on their own mobile 5G transmitters as well as on temporary masts, which will be dismantled after the European Championship.
Mobile base stations for the EM
O2 plans to set up its own 5G transmitters in Munich’s Olympic Park, on Berlin’s Platz der Republik, on Hamburg’s Heiligengeistfeld, on Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz, Augustusplatz in Leipzig, Nordsternpark in Gelsenkirchen and on the Eiserner Steg in Frankfurt, among others. Vodafone is setting up mobile base stations in Dortmund’s Westfalenpark, among others, and is equipping advertising columns in Düsseldorf with 5G technology.
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Deutsche Telekom says its 5G antennas reach around 96 percent of households in Germany, O2 95 percent and Vodafone 91 percent. Vodafone wants to have strengthened its network with 650 construction projects at 50 locations by the time the European Championship kicks off. Telekom had announced that it would expand its mobile network in 430 locations.
Vodafone expects particularly rapid growth in data traffic in the 5G network during the European Championship. O2 also sees football as a driving force for mobile data usage: “Last year, seven of the ten highest traffic values were due to Champions League games with German participation. This trend will continue in 2024: the semi-finals in the European premier class have also been a high point in terms of data usage by fans,” O2 said.
Ahead of the European Football Championship in Germany, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica O2 are significantly expanding their mobile networks. From June 14, millions of fans are expected in stadiums and on fan miles in the ten host cities. The European Championship could “break records in streaming demand,” O2 Telefonica announced. The mobile phone companies have therefore upgraded their 5G networks for extremely fast transmissions and large bandwidths.
Telekom, which plays a central role as a network supplier, national sponsor and TV rights holder, laid 50 kilometers of fiber optic cable in the ten European Championship stadiums. The network operators are working together there: one is taking the lead, the others are joining in with their technology. In Gelsenkirchen, Cologne and Leipzig, for example, Vodafone is taking over the management of the expansion, from which Telekom and O2 and their customers also benefit. In the other seven stadiums, the situation is the other way round: here Vodafone benefits from the project management by its competitors.
