Delays in tower deployment at Vantage Towers are continuing to slow up 1&1’s implementation of a greenfield 5G cellular network being built in Germany by Rakuten Symphony. Vantage’s problems began last year when it missed a deadline to deploy 1,000 towers in six months. In February, 1&1 complained that Vodafone, which co-owns Vantage Towers and will compete with 1&1, is the cause of the tower network roll-out delays, in a filing to the Federal Cartel Office.
“The expansion targets planned for the first quarters of 2023 are expected to be missed by a wide margin. An end to Vodafone’s preferential treatment of Vantage Towers’ roll-out activities for Vodafone at the expense of thus still does not appear to be in sight,” the complaint reads.
Rakuten Symphony chief business officer Rabih Dabboussi pointed out that, “the towers issue is the main issue. There’s been a lot of noise recently,” but he added that the network core, IP multimedia subsystem and the radio access network technology are all installed and ready, according to TelecomTV.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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