Why Is German Internet So Bad | Hacker News Reader

Why Is German Internet So Bad

russianvagabond.com

19 pointsgtirloni17 comments

You think Internet in Germany is bad? Wait until you enjoyed their 'service'. In 2018 it took Deutsche Telecom 5 (five!) weeks to install the line (big industrial city right smack in the middle), for which they sent out a service man, even though no work needed to be performed locally. They charged me for tv service, even though when ordering I explicitly stated that I had no need for that. Calling their support center to have the bill adjusted they told me, that they couldn't help me and that I needed to talk to the local branch which sold me the service. Naturally I wasn't quite happy with that and expressed as much, which earned me a call-back from one of their managers a few days later(!). The manager of the local branch refused to adhere to the earlier verbal agreement. And on and on, so much joy.

> Germany is Europe’s technological leader but ...

Uh huh.

I'd say Germany is leading in "middle tech": mechanical, machinery, industrial equipment and of course cars (although that might soon be disputed).

I grew up and went to university in Germany but spent all my working life in the US, doing a lot of industrial automation, optical engineering and a lot of software. I'm continually amazed how many little bits and pieces we use from Germany: connectors, cabling, enclosures, motors, controllers, encoders, cameras and optics. None of our computing equipment comes from Germany.

We (not myself luckily) also use SAP, which is a different story altogether.

>I'd say Germany is leading in "middle tech"

Relevant:

How Does Germany Do It?

>Manufacturing accounts for nearly 21% of the German economy", compared with 13% for US and 12% for UK. "While other industrialized nations have buckled under Asian competition, Germany has increased exports to China and the rest of Asia.

<https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/5jeps2/how_does...>

With the exception of the military sector where France and the UK are pretty strong I don't think that's a controversial claim. German industry both in small and middle-sized as well as large firms is still doing well.

Kind of relates to the article as well. Internet infrastructure isn't that important when it comes to Germany's economy. The big four are basically automotive, mechanical engineering, chemical and electrical industries.

Software side also does not look bright, France is doing much better innovative tech than Germany.

Swiss, Dutch and Swedes are all also doing much better imho.

was

For software it briefly was. It was then thrown away by incompetent politicians by not forcing fiber connections in the 90s and a low motivation by companies to treat software as a first class product.

I find myself being impressed by small-to-medium-sized german mostly "old-tech" companies again and again ("Mittelstand").

Not very impressed with german politics/"digital infrastructure efforts" though. Also not being overwhelmed by software startups from Germany.

Mobil: 360 down/50 up ~40€

Landline: 250 down/50 up ~50€

For the landline we also have the option of 1Gbps, but I dont want to pay for it.

These speeds look pretty good to me to be honest. What's the line between bad internet and good internet, seriously?

For personal use and regular work use wouldn't it be maybe 100 down?

I'm more concerned about data caps once my speed can reach 100down, at least currently.

edit:

Also stability is huge. My partner's old house had 100down, but it would bottleneck or drop out about every 10minutes which made the service garbage for everything other than casual static web browsing.

The connection is pretty stable and worked great during Homeoffice.

What is the actual speed you get? Also mobile coverage is so bad. My phone frequently drops to edge connection in the middle of a city in Germany. I haven’t had this bad mobile coverage in any country including several third world countries.

Those were the measured speed +-3 Mbps. Sometimes inside of buildings my connection also drops back down to edge but I think this got way better in the last 2-3 years.

Just curious, is there any data cap on those?

12gb on mobil. Landline is without a cap, but I heard if you consistently download 5-10Tbs per Month, customer service might call and ask if you want a „better“ contract ; )

European landline internet almost never has data caps.

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