Vodafone Germany flagged progress with an aim to provide standalone (SA) technology from all of its 5G sites, stating more than 15 million people in the country now had access to the service.

The operator launched its first commercial SA 5G services in April with 1,000 compatible antennas, having begun non-standalone (NSA) deployments in 2019.

Vodafone previously planned to activate SA at all 5G sites by 2023, however former CEO Hannes Ametsreiter in March indicated a timeline of 2025 for the service to be available to most of the population.

In a statement today (26 July), Vodafone added its NSA network now covered 55 million people, with the activation of an additional 13,000 antennas in the year to-date taking it’s total to 34,000.

Vodafone added its 5G network now transports around eight-times more data than mid-2021, handling around 1,500 terabytes of data in the last week of June alone.

Technical director Tanja Richter stated Vodafone is “building new stations, modernising existing antenna technology and enabling 5G at more and more locations”.

“In many places, we are completely decoupling our 5G network from the existing infrastructure”.

Vodafone is also continually upgrading its older 4G network, noting 4,200 LTE construction projects have been completed so far this year, with a further 3,000 planned by end-December.