Gossip for Telekom, Vodafone and o2: Customers don t feel like it

No good prospects for the German mobile phone providers. While Telekom, Vodafone and o2 want to set up their future-oriented 5G networks and make them even more powerful, there is little enthusiasm among customers.

Bitter for o2 and Co: Hardly anyone cares about 5G in Germany

With 5G, the German mobile networks are set to enter a new era. The network operators Vodafone, Telekom and Telefónica/o2 keep outdoing each other with new reports on the development of 5G coverage, application examples for high data rates on the move and suitable contract offers in which 5G is integrated. So far, however, this firework of promises does not seem to have caught on with customers.

Their interest in 5G is reluctant at best. Only 15 percent of those surveyed said that access to 5G is important to them, as an analysis by Statista shows:

There may be a number of reasons for the reluctance. On the one hand, the number of users who depend on 5G speed will be small. It is not for nothing that Telekom and Co. advertise 5G as a future standard for industrial applications, among other things. If you don't want to stream your favorite series in 4K quality while travelling, 4G will do just fine.

Spending a lot of time at home during the pandemic could also play a role. It is better to run data-hungry applications in the home network, where they do not attack the data volume. Interest in fiber optic expansion is also low, although Germany is lagging behind in a country comparison.

Is DSS dampening interest in 5G?

Ultimately, the expansion of the 5G network is likely to play the most important role : In its current test, Stiftung Warentest found that 5G is not standard in Germany - even if a lot is being invested in network expansion.

Manufacturers like Samsung have long relied on 5G support in the mid-range:

In addition, there is the DSS process (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing), in which 5G has often been offered so far. Here 5G and 4G share the frequency ranges. With a corresponding contract and a 5G-enabled smartphone, the cell phone then dials into the 5G network whenever possible. But often over the slower frequencies, so that there is practically no speed advantage for the user. It's no wonder that expectations aren't overflowing.