70 billion minutes, 920 petabytes, 23 Mb / s and 666 LTE-M base stations - Orange concludes 2019.

Orange boasted records that it recorded in 2019. Thanks to this, we know how much data customers have transferred, what was the average download speed and how much network traffic passes through LTE base stations. And this is not the end of trivia.

Polish mobile operators have been developing LTE for years, and 4th generation connectivity has already taken over most of our traffic in our country a year before the expected debut of commercial 5G. This means that 3G and 2G technologies are becoming less and less important.

Orange has just praised the state of its network, which consists of over 11.2 thousand LTE base stations.

Over the course of 2019, 200 new base stations belonging to Orange Polska appeared in our country, which improved coverage in areas where a year ago you could meet the so-called White stains. However, this is just the beginning of the work that the orange telecom has done in the last 12 months.

The operator boasts that it has expanded up to 5,000. existing base stations in Poland. Thanks to this, 22 percent from over 11.2 thousand base stations - twice as many as in 2018 - uses aggregation of 4 frequency bands. To achieve the maximum possible bandwidth.

Thanks to this, LTE from Orange Polska in compatible smartphones and modems reaches speeds of the order of several hundred Mb / s.

Last year, the number of base stations supporting three bands increased - by 1300 units. In addition, Orange Polska does not lay down its weapons, refarming, which covered 4,000 locations last year, is still ongoing. Transmission to a 10 MHz LTE network from the 2100 MHz band results in an increase in network capacity.

Most of this type of work was done in Mazovia, but a lot of changes were also made in the Śląskie, Dolnośląskie and Małopolskie voivodships. Network modernization involving aggregation of bands and refarming, which covered 40% all Orange Polska base stations, increased capacity by 35 percent

Thanks to this telecom managed to maintain or slightly improve the average speed despite a 34% increase in traffic.

Last year, the amount of data downloaded and sent on the Orange network in 2019 increased by more than 1/3. Only thanks to the fact that the operator is constantly modernizing the network, it was possible to maintain the bandwidth at the same or even slightly better level than in the previous year.

There is also no doubt that when it comes to data transfer, LTE is the most important - as much as 90 percent. Orange traffic uses a 4th generation network. Telekom reports that even five years earlier, i.e. in 2015 it was only 8 percent. Data consumption is also growing, which was 30% in December. higher than in January.

In total, in 2019, the orange operator transferred as much as 920 PB data.

It turns out that the most data is used by base stations not in the vicinity of blocks, where access to cable and optical fiber is often not a problem, but in the vicinity of single-family housing estates. These are places where stationary infrastructure is often not as well developed as in e.g. city centers.

The operator also notes a paradox that on the one hand residents of such regions want to have fast mobile internet, and on the other hand often protest against the construction of base stations, because they do not want to see them from the window. As a result, network development is often not as fast as customers expect.

However, this does not bother base stations located close to such estates to break records.

The most data was transferred in Stara Milosna, and last year's leader from Greater Poland in Śrem had to give priority. Orange boasts that it cares for the environment and reduces power consumption per gigabyte of data transmission. We managed to reduce them seven times from 1.4 kWh to 0.2 kWh in a few years.

When it comes to talks, it remained stable at 70 billion min. However, there is a certain trend and the connections with the use of VoLTE technology lasted longer than those via the 2G network, although only selected devices from brands such as Sony, Samsung and Apple support this solution.

And what about 5G in Orange ?

We are still waiting for the commercial launch of the new generation network, but it is to take place this year. At the end of 2019, PEM standards were increased , so that 5G could be launched on a large scale. The tests are already underway, but we are still waiting for the frequency auction , which will distribute the bands between telecoms .

Orange could launch a 5th generation network all over Warsaw, using the frequencies used by LTE today - such is the plan of Play and Plus - but the telecom decided that there is no such need . He wants to offer clients "real 5G" and plans to buy at least one 100 MHz block in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band.

5G network tests in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band are currently underway in Warsaw and Lublin .

The average speed of downloading data during tests using compatible devices is 300 Mb / s, and it accelerates to even 1 Gb / s . In addition, telekom is testing, as the only one in Poland, the 5th generation network within the 26 GHz band in Zakopane. There, the result was 1.5 Gb / s.

It is worth mentioning that Orange has already commercially implemented LTE-M for IoT (Internet of Things) equipment and subsequent connection with 5G. As at the end of 2019, this network was supported by as many as 666 base stations, i.e. 566 more than a year ago, and another was launched in 2020.

70 billion minutes, 920 petabytes, 23 Mb / s and 666 LTE-M base stations - Orange summarizes 2019.