I somewhat disagree with this article, at least from my experience. From my experience internet has always been cheaper, faster and more reliable than any time I have had a connecting on the US. I have mostly had experience with Kabel BW and Telekom.
For example in the US at the moment it costs me ~$80 for a reasonable cable connection from comcast 20Mb/s. I can expect my connection to go down for a few seconds/minutes about once a day and once or twice a month it'll be out for longer. I have had this and similar issues up and down the east coast in 5 different locations.
Maybe the experiences with Telekom in Frankfurt and with Kabel BW have been above the norm, but for I never/rarely had connectivity issues and it has always been much cheaper.
Depends on what state you live in, and what provider you have. Two neighboring towns can have two different providers with very different rates and speeds.
I pay $45 for 30Mb/s from Charter but if I lived in the next city to the south, I'd have Comcast.
It would be interesting to hear how much cheaper we are talking here about. E.g. here in Lithuania (Eastern Europe) I pay about 15$ for 100Mb/s (for 30$ I could get 300Mb/s).
Here in the Netherlands we have 100MB/s internet, TV with DVR settop box and cheap landline phonecalls for a little over 50 euros, and that's not even the cheapest option. It really surprises me, my friends live a stone's throw away from the German border (in Enschede), and they have cheap fiberglass internet there...
First of all, I moved to Berlin 9 months ago and in general I'm pretty happy with the service uptime and promised speed etc.
BUT the activation time of your connection is something unacceptable in Germany. Four weeks seems to be the normal case for a landline connection to be up and running. FOUR WEEKS, are you kidding me?
And the same problem is ahead of you if you're moving to another flat.
As I did. I moved one month ago. And I didn't know the new address until 1 week before the end of month. As soon as I knew about it I went to the ISP & asked them to make the switch to the new address.
I had to pay extra (which was ok) and WAIT ANOTHER FOUR WEEKS (which was not ok at all).
So in effect I was without internet for 3 weeks while paying the connection to my old address at the same time.
Someone was saying that here the bottleneck is on Telekom's end. And maybe so? The guy who eventually came after 4 weeks was from Telekom - he basically came around for max 10 minutes (probably 5) and made some magic tricks and voilà - internet working.
EDIT:
Wild guess #1: the problem is just too few people at Telekom.
Wild guess #2: If Telekom would offer a service that you pay 100EUR extra to get the connection in two days, they 1) could do it, 2) have loads of customers wanting that service and 3) give jobs to more people and 4) have more money in the pocket
The last 3 cable connections i ordered in germany where set up in under a week, one even on the same day!
For DSL ist different yeah, but its not a general thing in germany.
not "that" cheap, my father currently pays 40 euros (~$50) for TV service and a 50/10 Mb/s connection in southern Germany. In comparison I pay $80 for 20/2 Mb/s Internet only.
For me to add basic cable TV it would go up to $120
- In my city (not that large, about 200k residents), i have access to 16-50Mbit DSL connections or cable connections of up to 150 MBit/s (uncapped). Its the same in many other bigger cities
- i hardly know anyone who cannot get some type of broadband. My mom lives in a VERY rural area (one neighbour and then a half a mile of NOTHING) and she still gets 3Mbits DSL, not great but ok.
- the situation in the US is even worse, still alot of people on dialup in rural areas
- traffic caps are a step backwards i agree, but its just one ISP doing this right now and there are many other countries where this is common practice as well
Badly written article, lacking improtant facts and misrepresenting things (e.g. there is not just Telekom in Germany...) just to finally go all alarmist. :/
In many regions there is only the Telekom. Germany is not only Munich, Koeln, Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Many of my friends who do not live in a city have exactly the "choice" between Telekom or nothing.
Almost anywhere besides my place of living (which happens to be Munich, but we have alternatives here) or big parts of eastern Germany (where friends of mine live) or various rural parts of Bavaria (where parts of my family live) and so on.
I was thinking the same thing, I live in germany and am very aware of the net situation. I hoped to find a nice summary on the Telekom peering blackmail they do, the net neutrality issues of mobile internet and t-entertain/spotify, vdsl-vectoring, ds-lite (not telekom but unitymedia) and the very apparent anti-internet climate of the government and law enforcement. What I got was some incoherent rant of some very specific issue he personally had, useless.
Agreed. The article's a rant with little content (the Telekom 'no flatrates anymore' move IS crap, but only mentioned once).
There are usually good options available and usually you're up and running quite fast. I can recommend NetCologne (local, dsl/fiber), UnityMedia (cable) and 1&1 (Vodafone reseller) as providers of very nice, very dumb pipes.
The author obviously is frustrated and annoyed. That's okay, it happens. A rant might even help. But I wonder why that ends up on this site here: The internet in Germany isn't going away and is, frankly, quite usable and widely available.
If you are limited to a specific download volume, then it's not really a flat rate, right?
In my region are zero options, as the telekom refuses to give out lines (see article)
Widely available - i was living at various places in germany and the only place which gave me a good connection was Frankfurt. I am now living near munich, its just crap.
The internet isn't going away, nobody said so. But it's in danger to become a two-class internet full of service providers who a) pay to telekom for "managed services" or b) don't pay to telekom. I complain about not respecting "Netzneutralität".
At the same time that I think it's important to complain, the post seems too much like a spoiled complaint.
"Don't move your startup there"? Is the poster aware that several startups work with internet worse than that? Internet quality is one important factor, but it is not the only one. I'd even say there are more important factors.
Complains about D-Telekom but offers no alternative? (and that's why government monopolies are BS)
Disclaimer: I may be moving to Germany in a couple of weeks so I may still regret this post
True but thats a separate issue maybe you need to ask your MEP why they cut the budget for BB rollout to rural areas in the EU - But didn't cut the CAP subsidy for farmers
Of course you can get business ADSL, SDSL or a leased line in Germany. It's just a lot more expensive (on the other hand you often get a much better service).
I had exactly the same experience when I still lived in Germany. I lived in a rural area and the fastest internet connection was DSL 1000. It wasn't possible to watch youtube videos fluently, software upgrades took ages and video calls were a pain.
As an American living and working in Germany as an engineer for the past year or so (in a large city, at that), this really shocked me actually. I thought that maybe my landlady was cheap, but it turned out there were actually virtually no better options available. It seemed kind of out of phase with the image Germany tries to project. So many other utilities and services here are really much better than their counterparts in the States. This was kind of a shock.
German engineering is still of really high quality and there are lots of companies (especially in mechanical engineering) that make use of this knowledge.
But the German gouvernment has missed the information revolution and many powerful companies (Deutsche Telekom, TV companies, etc.) see anything that has to do with the internet as danger for their business models - thus they lobby a lot for laws against anything that endangers their business models and especially internet startups. See for example
> http://www.uni-muenster.de/Jura.itm/hoeren/materialien/Skrip...
to see how complicated the law has become there - full of legal mines.
For the same reason the idea to found a public corporation that builds a modern fiber network which internet providers can rent on equal terms (an idea that is discussed) will probably never be done.
Even though a lot of infrastructure (i.e., Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom) has been privatized, it is interesting how the former state monopolies are just still de facto monopolies within Germany. They also compete well internationally. I am personally looking forward to the US privatizing some more of its infrastructure and hope the results are positive. Also, I agree about German mechanical engineering... but I am biased. I work for a mechanical engineering consultancy out here. There is a very high level of professionalism among the Diplom-Ingenieur graduates from German universities. It is also nice how there are more jobs for mechanical engineering out here that aren't so tied up in the defense and aerospace industries. It's good for the soul.
why not use http://www.kabeldeutschland.de/? their service is available in most rural areas and goes up to 100Mb/s. i am actually surprised the author doesn't even mention them...
Kabel Deutschland is throttling as well. Unity media just revealed that they dont have any plans to do so. They also off 128 mbit for 60 eur per month.
Don’t live in a rural area then. With the money it takes to connect a few homes in the middle of nowhere to the high-speed network, you can easily equip many more with fiber in the middle of a decently sized city.
Which is kind of funny because here in rural Canada we have access to fibre in farmhouses, but if you look to the neighbouring cities it is almost non-existant in residential areas.
And even if it gets subsidies (which is the case here), I would expect it to spend the public’s money well instead of building kilometres upon kilometres of wiring to connect those three farm houses in the Black Forest.
It's depressing that many governments simply don't understand that providing high speed cheap internet should be the number 1 priority for encouraging growth in technology sectors.
Finland does :) It is the first country in the world to make broadband access a fundamental right of every citizen! And the speed is ensured to be at least 100 Mbps by 2015.
Last summer we listened to music in a rowing boat in a lake in the middle of nowhere in Finland. Streaming from YouTube. It felt somehow wrong. Like "into the wild", with a 20€ unlimited data plan, and the ability to send live video from the forest. Later, when driving back to civilization, we spent 2 hours playing our favorite tracks in a moving car. Again streaming.
The German government DOES understand this and has already announced to Telekom that they will thoroughly investigate the plans, implying that they may find a way to prevent this.
The German government just talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. They will rely on voluntary agreements of the Telekom and this will be it.
The current government just don't care about the net, acts even hostile against it.
They could just issue a mandate in the kind of "every citizen shall have 6MBit and no less" like they did with ISDN back in the 90s, but I don't think this will ever happen with CDU/CSU/FDP.
We have campaign period at the moment. The government will talk about everything to look competent. If they do something after the election I may be inclined to believe that they really understand the issue. Prediction (based on their actions in the last years): That won't happen.
T-Mobile in the States is, if possible, even worse. I visited Puerto Rico in February and decided on a T-Mobile stick because the one I use in Budapest works perfectly. In PR, though, there were URLs that simply didn't go through - and there is literally no support. None; you simply can't get support at all. No phone, no email - just a "community support" forum where you can post things if you feel like blowing off steam. And it still cost $10/GB.
Not only that, you can only purchase a new block of 5 GB after your current one has already been used up. Before then they simply don't take your money - unless you set up autopay. And you can't purchase time online, because the URL forwards to nowhere - see above lack of any support facility. You can't even report this breakage.
So you have to do it by phone. But there are two systems; first you have to load money onto your account, then you can use the money on your account to pay for a new 5GB block - but these are two different systems with two different numbers and they each require you to punch in your phone number and a PIN code. Different PIN codes, if I recall. And again, no human support at all.
But then let me tell you about our T-Mobile cell phones here in Budapest. My phone started sending me "premium" SMS messages at 1500 ft a pop (about $7.50 per premium message) until the entire balance was used up. As service messages so they don't show in the Inbox. T-Mobile was able to block that, but my wife's phone started mysteriously "accessing the Internet" (it's not a smart phone), again at something like 500 ft per access, invisibly, until her balance was used up. The only recourse is to go to a T-Mobile store and stand in line for half an hour, because they do kind of have phone support here in Hungary, but the only thing they can tell you is to go to the store and wait in line.
The store has no permission to escalate to technicians. The people in the store "disabled" Internet on my wife's phone three separate times; the theft continued each time. Sometimes they'd refund some money and apologize and swear up and down that everything was disabled.
Finally, it seems to have stopped on its own. Maybe it was a system misconfiguration, maybe not. It's impossible to know, because clearly T-Mobile itself has no idea.
Their Internet stick (in Hungary) works great, though. So I continue to use them - it's just that if there's ever a problem they are entirely unable to fix it. The entire company is so Balkanized and so incredibly poorly managed that they can only barely function if nothing goes wrong.
However, T-Mobile's advertising in Puerto Rico when they were expanding into the market a couple of years back was fantastic. Very well-localized. Most people have no idea at all they're a German company - my wife and I laughed that the only giveaway on their billboards was their heavy use of sans-serif fonts.
Fact: Magyar Telekom has the worst customer service of all telecom operators in Hungary according to government funded studies, year after year. I was involved in QA for a few months on a contract basis, bc the parent company (Deutsche Telekom) is apparently freaked out by this fact. So anyway, here are some tips on how to deal with them, unfortunately you can't avoid them forever, but I haven't been in a store for years.
Going to a store should be your last resort. Use My T-Mobile/My T-Home (on their website). If you have a really special problem, call them. Also, never buy anything in a store or on the phone, unless you're very, very good at negotiating, you get 10% off of your orders automatically on the website. Customer service agents use the very same interface (with more privileges of course) but you can do pretty much anything you would want on My T-Mobile. E.g. I know for a fact (I'm also a customer) that you can disable receiving premium texts and having an Internet connection altogether. It's worth checking out every service if they're enabled or disabled at least once, so you can avoid unexpected charges and activate things that you know you might need some day. Btw, your options are very clearly described, much better than how an agent would explain them to you.
If you absolutely must see someone in person, here are some more tips. Always go to T-Pont stores, those are the official reps of the company, never go to a store with a big T-Mobile sign, those are resellers, agents there receive poor training and all they want is to sell you stuff. Don't go to a store in the late afternoon/evening hours, they have the most customers then and you have to wait more. 30 min waiting time is actually not very common, if you go any other time you either won't have to wait or only have to wait a few minutes. Also check on My T-Mobile if you're a 'gold' or 'platinum' client. If you are, always choose that on the first screen in the in-store queue ticketing system, and you'll get to someone in a few minutes even if there are loads of people in the store, bc most people don't know about this.
Yeah, it's ridiculous that you have to know all these to get a good service, but you don't have to put up with it, e.g. Telenor's customer service is pretty good, or so I've heard.
Wow, I've never once seen any of that on the site. All our phones are on Domino prepaid plans, though (that might make a difference) because we're only in Hungary one year in three or so and a regular contract just wouldn't make sense.
Oops, my bad, looks like My T-Mobile is only available in Hungarian. If you're adventurous you could try using it with Chrome and automatically translating it. It's still better to call them tough, especially since the English IVR is (or was a few years ago) very basic, so you can connect to someone really fast. Also, the person who takes your call is probably confident and comfortable talking in English, unlike in stores where you get to whoever is free atm.
Although it's a US Territory it's pretty far from what you'd get in 'the states'. It's an island, they don't have the same kind of providers or infrastructure, something like only half the households in PR have a computer and only a little over half of those have broadband.
It's just nothing like you would have in say Florida, Texas, or another state.
T-Mobile is a national provider whose territory includes Puerto Rico. The lack of support is not PR-specific; it's the same company and same infrastructure.
Population density is a problem in Germany. In contrast to, for example France (?), the state does not nearly enough to bring internet to the countryside.
Broadband access is defined as 380kbit/s and customer service is terrible.
By the way: T-Mobile is part of "Telekom".
But if you choose the right street in the right city, getting 100mbit for 50euros (flatrate) is not a problem.
Shocking! I had no idea... It does not fit Germany's image. Portugal has most cities covered with fiber, at prices of around 30eur/month for 50mbps and about 40eur/month for 100mbps. Smaller cities are covered with coaxial cable, with last miles at 30mbps. Only in remote areas do you get stuck with ADSL (speed varies wildly with distance to POP). No traffic capping, and I'd wager the first provider that introduces capping will disappear from the market. ISDN is not common at all for individuals.
I guess the big difference here is that monopoly regulation went rather well. Many providers appeared in the late nineties, protected by laws mandating that Portugal Telecom rented last mile loops. Nowadays, the market, while not perfect, is competitive enough.
(fiber and coaxial networks are private, these are not the public debts you are looking for ;-)
That may be the reason we enjoy such a high standard of living (in most areas) - Progress depends on dissatisfaction with the status quo and complaining is the most visible form of dissatisfaction.
For example in the US at the moment it costs me ~$80 for a reasonable cable connection from comcast 20Mb/s. I can expect my connection to go down for a few seconds/minutes about once a day and once or twice a month it'll be out for longer. I have had this and similar issues up and down the east coast in 5 different locations.
Maybe the experiences with Telekom in Frankfurt and with Kabel BW have been above the norm, but for I never/rarely had connectivity issues and it has always been much cheaper.