Deutsche Telekom announced plans to test standalone (SA) 5G using an antenna site in a town just outside Munich, in what the company hailed as a first in its home market.

An antenna at the site in Garching will be connected to a trial SA 5G core network using cloud infrastructure. Deutsche Telekom plans to test a range of devices and applications using the system in the coming weeks.

Deutsche Telekom’s current 5G network, based on non-standalone architecture, covers 68 per cent of Germany’s population.

The company noted it was important to be at the forefront of developments in the evolution of 5G, pointing to the advantages offered by network slicing and edge computing expected to be enabled by the move to SA.

Walter Goldenits, CTO at its German business Telekom Deutschland, said the trial would help it “gain necessary and important experience with” SA 5G.

He added subsequent rollouts in that part of the country would depend on customer requirements in the region.

The company did not disclose which vendors are providing equipment for the trial.

Last month, Samsung announced it was partnering with the operator group’s operation in the Czech Republic on a similar project.