BERLIN, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Alexander Dobrindt, parliamentary group leader of one of the German ruling parties CSU, has called for direct governmental action to push the expansion of the new mobile phone network 5G, national newspaper Bild reported on Thursday.
"We want a powerful expansion offensive with a new state-owned infrastructure company," Dobrindt told Bild.
Germany, as a major economic nation, would need to have "one of the best mobile phone networks in the world", said Dobrindt, who is also former German minister for traffic and digital infrastructure.
Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of another governing party SPD, also called for a nationwide coverage of the cellular network standard 5G. "We want and need complete mobile network coverage also in rural areas."
The upcoming auction for the allocation of frequencies for the 5G is scheduled to take place in early 2019 but the process has already caused problems. On Wednesday, German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom confirmed that it was suing the German federal network agency (Bundesnetzagentur) which is allocating the 5G frequencies.
"From our point of view, the conditions for the auction are unrealistic and create legal uncertainty," a Telekom spokesperson told newspaper Welt on Wednesday.
Back in December, the two network operators Telefonica and Vodafone had already filed lawsuits against the Bundesnetzagentur.
