BERLIN, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- While many countries are already moving ahead with advanced 5G standards, and even experimenting with 6G applications, Germany, once hailed as the "economic engine of Europe," is struggling on the track of next-generation communications.

Download speeds have improved only modestly, latency remains stubbornly high, coverage gaps persist and investment is losing momentum ... Germany's digital ambitions are running into obstacles that few had anticipated.

HIGH HOPES, LIMITED RESULTS

In June 2019, the country's mobile operators -- Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica (O2) and 1&1 AG -- spent around 6.6 billion euros (about 7.7 billion U.S. dollars) for spectrum licenses. The goal was clear: to usher Germany into a new era of real-time connectivity, laying the foundation for autonomous driving, remote surgery and smart factories.

Six years on, the reality is sobering.

According to the latest analysis by network testing firm OpenSignal, provided to German media outlet Handelsblatt, Deutsche Telekom managed an average latency of 23 milliseconds, while Vodafone and Telefonica (O2) both hovered around 29 milliseconds -- well above the 10-millisecond goal set by the international organization on telecom technologies 3GPP.

Deutsche Telekom may lead on speed, averaging 180 megabits per second, roughly three times faster than 4G, but high latency still keeps it from supporting true real-time applications.

It is, as some observers put it, like widening the road without optimizing the traffic lights. "Up to now, there is no real-time mobile communication in Germany. Operators have not expanded the network far enough," said Frank Fitzek, professor of Communication Networks at the Technical University of Dresden.

NOT FAST, NOT WIDE

For Germany's industrial sector, latency is no trivial matter. "Autonomous driving only becomes economically viable with real-time mobile communication," Fitzek said.

Fitzek offered an example: Waymo, Google's self-driving subsidiary, already runs robotaxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area, with vehicles capable of handling even complex urban traffic.

But such operations rely heavily on onboard sensors and computing power, a costly setup that is difficult to scale. Experts argue that to make autonomous driving mainstream, low-latency networks are needed so that multiple vehicles can be coordinated in real time.

If high latency keeps Germany's 5G from being truly fast, patchy coverage keeps it from being truly wide.

Data from the Federal Network Agency show that about 2.1 percent of the country are "white spots" with no 4G or 5G coverage at all, while roughly 14 percent are "gray spots," where only some operators provide service.

Spanish newspaper El Pais commented that the problem extends well beyond rural dead zones: even in Berlin and Munich, the country's largest cities, users often grapple with weak signals.

LACKING WILL, NOT TOOLS

Germany's 5G dilemma seems to be less about technology but more about investment and determination.

Bringing latency down to below 10 milliseconds requires far more than swapping out 4G antennas. It means multiplying the number of base stations and overhauling the transmission network behind them -- investments that run into billions.

Operators, wary of such high costs, have hesitated. According to Handelsblatt, this has created a vicious cycle: without the network, there will be no real-time applications; without applications, there is no incentive to invest in the network.

"Germany is not lacking in technology, but in pioneering spirit," the paper commented, while urging policymakers and operators to be bolder: Why not turn a city into a full 5G showcase, installing small base stations on every streetlight and building local data centers?

"If Germany wants to take 5G seriously, it must also be willing to test it seriously," it added. ■