On 7 November 2019, the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) published a map with the results of all measurements carried out to date by the ‘Funkloch-App’(an app that documents areas with no reception), which was presented in October 2018.
The Funkloch-App is an extension of the broadband measurement application and supplements it on smartphones with the option of documenting the existing network availability or recording dead spots. Users can use the app to log whether there is mobile coverage at the measurement location and which mobile technology (GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G) it is based on. According to the BNetzA, with around 187,000 installations on mobile devices, almost 160 million measuring points were identified by users of the app throughout Germany within a year. The resulting map with the results of the measurements is divided into honeycombs. These can be changed in nine zoom levels so that the user can view both a nationwide aggregated display and a detailed regional view of the measurement results. In addition, individual technologies or the supply of a network operator can be filtered and individually queried according to time periods. The representation of the supply depends on the number of measurements within a honeycomb. This means that the more measurements taken in the area assigned to a honeycomb, the more meaningful the results shown. In this context, the Federal Network Agency points out that the measurement points were generated by users of the app with their own end devices and mobile phone contracts. Therefore, the map display cannot provide conclusive information about the network technologies available locally from a network operator. However, it does provide an initial indication of possible coverage. Widespread coverage with a powerful and modern mobile network is a particularly important factor for the establishment of digital applications and processes in both urban and rural areas. Autonomous driving, smart farming and campus networks for industrial use require access to fast and reliable mobile communications. You can find more information on the Funkloch-App and the Federal Network Agency’s broadband measurement at https://breitbandmessung.de/. The download links for the app are also available there. You can also find further information on mobile network coverage in the Federal Broadband Atlas.