BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The Federal Network Agency wants cell phone networks to cover almost the entire area of Germany by the beginning of 2030, making dead spots largely a thing of the past. The head of the agency, Klaus Müller, presented a set of rules in Berlin on Monday according to which the network operators Deutsche Telekom, O2 Telefónica and Vodafone will each have to cover 99.5 percent of the area with a download rate of at least 50 megabits per second by 2030. This would be the first area requirement and thus a tightening of the previous state mobile network expansion obligations. Up to now, such requirements have been based on households and not on area - as a result, sparsely populated areas have hardly been included in the statistics. This is set to change in future.

At the beginning of this year, Deutsche Telekom covered 91.6 percent of the area with 4G mobile communications, Vodafone achieved 91.3 percent and O2 86.4 percent. However, these figures from the network operators are only comparable to a limited extent with the 50 megabit target now being considered by the Federal Network Agency. It is possible that the percentage values already achieved for a 50 megabit category are somewhat lower than the 4G values. The head of the agency, Klaus Müller, emphasized the importance of better cell phone networks in rural areas. The requirements are ambitious, but appropriate, he said.

In return for the almost nationwide expansion, usage rights that the network operators Deutsche Telekom, O2 and Vodafone currently hold to certain frequencies are to be extended by five years. Müller presented a draft version of the regulations, which contain further conditions, and the final decision is to be made in the fall./wdw/DP/stk