MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) has accused mobile network operators of patchy coverage. Current measurements along about 5000 kilometers of federal highways and railroad lines in Bavaria showed that "the network operators do not fulfill the requirements in the Free State," Aiwanger said on Monday. The Federal Network Agency must now "consider penalties against the network operators".

Since the turn of the year, mobile phone users on most federal highways and railroad lines must be supplied with at least 100 Mbit per second. Technically, this is possible on 98 percent of the monitored federal highways and 96 percent of the railroad lines in the Free State. Deutsche Telekom was the best performer in the measurements commissioned by the ministry, meeting the requirements by around 90 percent in each case. Vodafone achieved 89 and 82 percent, Telefonica (O2) only 82 and 79 percent.

On some routes, the specialists from the Munich-based electronics company Rohde & Schwarz commissioned by the ministry found particularly low compliance rates, for example: Munich Ostbahnhof - Freilassing (Telefonica 62 percent), Nuremberg - Hof (Telefonica 65 percent), Plattling - Bayerisch Eisenstein (Vodafone 67 percent) or on the Lindau - Ulm rail line (Telefonica 67 percent).

Provided there were no legal or factual obstacles to the expansion, the legal requirements would not have been met for the second time in a row, Aiwanger said. However, there is one important restriction: "With the new crediting clause, the expansion of all network operators can be added together. If a section is supplied by one network operator, the requirement is considered fulfilled." This would actually bring them to 98 and 96 percent coverage. "However, this aggregation is of no use to customers, because no operator delivers nationwide and continuously and no one has three different sim cards in their device," Aiwanger criticized. "What remains is a patchwork quilt."

The next frequency allocations in 2025 would have to take place via tenders instead of auctions, he demanded. Auctions would bring the state a lot of money, but the citizens no optimal supply. In the future, the money must flow directly into expansion: Whoever wins the bid must commit to expanding the network./rol/DP/mis