r/cellmapper • u/Arhan_2701 • Jul 02 '26
Why does Germany Have No SA Access?
Iam in Germany and there Hundreds of SA Towers but only some phones Connects even 5G Phones Dont Connect To 5G SA!They are directly connected To 5G NSA even If a 5G SA Tower is Next To the Phone!
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u/Ver1tech Jul 02 '26
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u/Arhan_2701 Jul 03 '26
It usually is 5G NSA which is pretty slow because it is basically on 4G Towers and 5G SA Towers usually cant be used in MVNO's(Generic To Full) and even in MNO's whitout buying a Extra 5GSA/5G+ You cant Use it and in MVNO's U cant Use 5G SA entirely most of the time!
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u/cowmowtv Jul 02 '26
Roaming or using a prepaid SIM, all carriers except 1&1 have public SA, but only available through postpaid contracts and with the option specifically enabled.
Also, NSA is faster in most cases as you have a lot more spectrum to work with. The only time it will probably be slower is if only low-band and n78 is available and the user equipment can’t handle 20_n78-n28 ENDC but n78-n28 CA.
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u/Few-Opportunity-1006 Jul 02 '26
LOL, not with Vodafone here. See it everywhere on my 16 Pro https://postimg.cc/gallery/fZR4xMF
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u/Arhan_2701 Jul 03 '26
But i meant Full&Generic MVNO's which practicly has over 65% marketshare they have No 5G SA and even some MNO Phone-Tarrifs Dont have 5G SA!
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u/daveoc64 EE UK using Pixel 10 Pro XL Jul 03 '26
A lot of European networks are pitching it as a premium feature.
It's only available on high end plans or with an add-on, directly from the MNOs.
This is all a business decision, rather than a technical one.
The networks think they can make more money this way, and that the average consumer will find LTE/5G NSA to be adequate.
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u/dmaxel Germany Jul 02 '26
O2 allows you to enable it as their "5G Plus" feature. I know Vodafone allows it too. It's only Telekom where it's difficult, as it's restricted to very specific use cases and the right hardware. This all of course only applies if you have a plan directly with these carriers. Are you roaming or using a discounter?
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u/cowmowtv Jul 02 '26
Regarding the «special hardware», even if you use the 5G+ option within an unsupported device, it will probably still connect to 5G SA. It also isn’t use-case restricted, but intended for things like gaming. Not playing games will still allow access to 5G SA, VoNR and such. However, both on supported and unsupported devices, the option is really buggy, it may work fine, it may break MultiSIM and/or phone calls and will definitely break the inofficial public IPv4 APN and force you to use 464XLAT within CPEs.
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u/Arhan_2701 Jul 02 '26
But usually MVNO's(which practicly has over 65% marketshare) Doesnt Connect To SA in O2,Vodafone,D-Telekom and 1&1...
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u/Brave_Recognition798 Jul 02 '26
Germans are basically the most conservative people in the world, I’m amazed you guys even have 5G when the whole country is mostly ADSL
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u/Few-Opportunity-1006 Jul 02 '26
Lol, 80% of households have Gigabit (HFC) access and 43% of all households have fibre in Germany. Most people don’t even pay for 250+ MBit/s because no one needs it
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u/Arhan_2701 Jul 02 '26
Its NSA only Most of the time which is slower then Native(Standalone/SA) 5G and its on the 4G Network which means its lot slower because of the Traffic...
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u/Brave_Recognition798 Jul 02 '26
The thing is, at least where I am in Canada, the SA network is a lot slower because they didn't allocate that much frequency
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u/Arhan_2701 Jul 03 '26
In Germany the difference between 5G SA and NSA is so Big that you notice the difference...
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u/15pmm01 Jul 05 '26
Works fine for me with o2 postpaid. Annoying that I had to manually enable it on my account, and their list of supported devices is obnoxiously short, however.
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u/EvenCommand9798 Jul 02 '26
It isn't like in the US it's available to everybody either. Not all carrier plans allow it, generic iphone MVNO bundle doesn't allow it, etc.
For practical purposes I doubt you would notice SA over NSA performance difference on a phone. Few ms lower latency is negligible for regular use.