Within a year, the 5G coverage of the largest German stadiums in the telecommunications network has grown from 75 to 97 percent. Only 4G surfing is currently only possible in the Heidenheim Voith Arena. In six stages, the speed over 4G / LTE is just as fast as over 5G; In the Gelsenkirchen Veltins-Arena and in the Leverkusen BayArena, the maximum speed above 4G is even slightly higher.

Gigabit speed can only be reached via the Telekom network in the Munich Allianz Arena and the Hanover HDI Arena. “5G does not automatically mean gigabit speed,” says Jens-Uwe Theumer, Vice President Telecommunications at Verivox. “The bandwidth drops, for example, when 4G and 5G are used in parallel on a cell tower.”

Vodafone recorded the largest 5G growth german stadiums 5g

A year ago, Vodafone’s 5G share in the largest German stadiums was only 14 percent – today, football fans can surf the 5G in 83 percent of Bundesliga stadiums via Vodafone. Gigabit speed is possible in four arenas (Wohninvest Weserstadion Bremen, Deutsche Bank Park Frankfurt am Main, Volksparkstadion Hamburg and Volkswagen Arena Wolfsburg).

According to Vodafone, other 5G arenas have a maximum surf speed of up to 650 megabits per second (Mbit / s). In the stages that are not yet supplied, between 100 and 500 Mbit / s can be achieved via 4G. In the RheinEnergie Stadium in Cologne, Vodafone customers surf 5G at just 200 Mbit / s – slower than in some of the 4G stadiums.

Telefonica offers 5G in only seven Bundesliga stadiums

In September 2020, not a single stadium with 5G was connected to the O2 network; today there are seven (Signal Iduna Park Dortmund, Sportpark Ronhof Fürth, Mewa Arena Mainz, Allianz Arena Munich, Volksparkstadion and Millerntor-Stadion Hamburg as well as Mercedes-Benz Arena Stuttgart). With the exception of the stadium at Millerntor, only limited 5G availability is displayed for all arenas.

Telefonica is the only one of the three network operators to have 3G availability for 69 percent of the 36 Bundesliga stadiums. “Telekom and Vodafone already cut the old 3G network in the middle of the year, O2 can still be switched off completely until the end of the year,” says Theumer.

Network density is important at major events german stadiums 5g

In everyday life, the often higher speed in the 5G network usually has only minor effects. “The difference between 500 Mbit / s in the LTE network and one gigabit in the 5G network does not change mobile surfing significantly,” says Jens-Uwe Theumer. “5G scores elsewhere: At major events such as soccer games with lots of simultaneous access and overloaded networks, the surfing experience improves noticeably if the load is distributed more evenly. The 5G network can handle significantly more participants per radio cell than the 4G network. ”

A 5G-capable smartphone and a corresponding tariff are required to use the 5th generation of cellular networks. Most network operator tariffs have 5G on board at no additional cost; sometimes 5G is offered as an additional option for around 3 euros per month. german stadiums 5g