Vodafone Germany is the first European carrier to conduct live tests with LTE Broadcast in collaboration with Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung. The trial took place at Borussia Monchengladbach's stadium on Saturday 22 February, when they played 1899 Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.

LTE Broadcast - also known as evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) - puts no additional load on the network, enabling smartphone users in device dense locations to watch TV channels in high-quality.

The service uses Single Frequency Network technology (like DVB-T) to distribute the signal to an unlimited number of recipients. The user only needs an LTE-enabled device with an LTE Broadcast app.

"There is growing demand for high quality video content on mobile devices and LTE Broadcast gives our customers a brand new mobile media experience," said Eric Kuisch, CTO Vodafone Germany. "This technology enables multiple broadcast sessions to be viewed simultaneously, so our customers will be able to watch Sky's Premiere League Summary or exclusive video content from the stadium they're in."

As part of Vodafone Germany's network modernisation programme, LTE Broadcast could soon be available in further German stadia.