O2 Germany will switch on its first commercial LTE networks on 1 July, the Telefonica-owned operator announced this week. The launch underlines Germany’s position as one of Europe’s most advanced LTE markets. O2 rival Vodafone Germany launched LTE at the end of last year, while market-leader Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) has previously hinted at an April launch. According to a report on German website Teltarif.de, O2 Germany did not reveal pricing details and noted that connection speeds would only be on a par with an average (fixed-line) DSL connection. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Huawei are O2’s vendors in the project having been awarded deals last month. The operator plans to deploy the network using both 800MHZ and 2.6GHz frequencies.

The German LTE rollouts were triggered by spectrum auctions in the country last year. Spectrum was acquired in several frequency bands, including 1.8GHz, 2GHz and 2.6GHz, most of which is being used to add capacity to the operators’ existing 2G and 3G networks. But it was airwaves in the 800MHz digital dividend band that commanded the highest fees and is deemed most suitable for LTE deployment. Under the terms of the 800MHz licenses, the three winning bidders (T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone) must first use the spectrum to provide service to rural areas underserved by fixed-line broadband. Dutch-owned E-Plus was the only incumbent operator to fail to secure 800MHz and is instead using 2.6GHz for LTE.