Germany’s digital infrastructure minister, Alexander Dobrindt (pictured), unveiled the country’s 5G strategy, which fleshes-out plans to rollout a “high-quality” wide area network by 2025.

The country’s regulator already earmarked some of the spectrum it plans to use to enable the new service, with further frequencies set to be allocated by the end of 2018.

In a statement, the German ministry responsible for the rollout – the Bundesministerium fur Verkehr und Digitale Infrastruktur – said its new strategy would make Germany the innovation leader in 5G.

The document outlines plans to test a range of smart city use-cases across several – as yet unidentified – urban areas, with applications invited from local authorities.

It also states “powerful fibre” should be used to connect mobile base stations, and a range of federal assets ranging from government buildings to traffic lights, are to be used to house infrastructure.

Announcing the release of the 27-page 5G-Strategie fur Deutschland, Dobrindt – Germany’s Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure – said: “5G is the foundation of the gigabit company. With the super-fast mobile phone standard we give the starting shot for the digital real-time age.”

“We are the first country to present a comprehensive 5G strategy. We want Germany to provide a high-performance 5G network by 2025. We are pushing the grid rollout, providing frequencies and testing 5G in cities and municipalities.”

He added the approach will “put Germany at the forefront and create the foundation for digital value creation.”