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Cell tower near Sternenfels: 3G networks will soon be history
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
The end of the 3G mobile radio standard - also known as UMTS - is approaching.
On Monday, Telefónica announced that it would begin the shutdown in the first regions in July.
The changes should be completed nationwide by December.
According to the company, the freed up frequencies of the currently 16,000 3G transmitters will be used in the future for the more powerful 4G radio standard.
The adaptation is unlikely to create dead spots for mobile surfers, because most cell phones are already connected to 4G.
Only very old smartphones that are not 4G-capable face restrictions - you can then only make calls using the 2G standard or use online services at extremely low speeds.
According to the Verivox portal, almost all branded smartphones that have been released in Germany have been 4G-compatible since 2016.
This has been the case with Apple devices since 2013.
O2 is offering customers who have been using SIM cards that are limited to 3G a free card exchange.
The 3G technology was "getting on in years, so that we will replace it by the end of the year," said Telefónica Germany boss Markus Haas.
"The future of digital networking for business and consumers will then belong solely to 4G and, above all, to 5G." These mobile communications standards are much more powerful, more energy-efficient and they enable new digital fields of application, said Haas.
The auction of the frequencies brought in a record amount
3G is hardly used anyhow: One to two percent of the transmitted cellular data volume at Telefónica is accounted for by this radio standard, which was still all the rage a good 20 years ago and after an auction of the frequencies flushed around 50 billion euros into the state's coffers .
For comparison: In 2019, four companies paid around 6.5 billion euros for the 5G transmission standard, which is also very promising.
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The hope for highly profitable business with the Internet on the mobile phone was not fulfilled with UMTS, the payment obligations were too high.
Two companies did not make progress with the expansion and had to return their licenses.
Four network operators remained, whose names have since changed: T-Mobile became Telekom Deutschland, Mannesmann Vodafone, and today's O2 network, which is operated by Telefónica, was derived from Viag Interkom and E-Plus.
Similar to Telefónica, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom have already initiated the departure from 3G.
They want to pull the plug on their old networks by the end of June.
Telefónica said on Wednesday that from July 1, 1500 locations in Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would initially be rededicated, this would affect cities such as Potsdam, Wolfsburg, Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Hildesheim.
Telefónica plans to convert around 9,500 locations to 4G by the end of September, including Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Essen and Düsseldorf.
The last 4,500 3G locations will follow by the beginning of December, including Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig.
mbö / dpa