From Europe or about Europe

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From Europe

or about Europe

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Why Germans put up with snail-speed internet (english.elpais.com)

submitted 1 day ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/europe@sopuli.xyz

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

During the last UEFA European Football Championship, it wasn’t just the trains that were always running late or the fact that many stores only accepted cash that made Germany look bad. Criticism of the country’s terrible wi-fi connections was also shared with the rest of the world. Germans seem resigned to their spotty coverage, and the country has been trying to deal with the issue for years. At this point, some residents take the problem in stride. “Of course, it’s normal that there’s no signal here, there are a lot of us in the same place,” said a German journalist after leaving a screening at the Berlin Film Festival, upon hearing the complaints of her foreign peers about the lack of reception. Some of the writers from other countries jokingly pointed out that they had better wi-fi in any remote town on the island of Mallorca than they did right there. in the center of Berlin.

Germany has a serious mobile and internet coverage problem, not just in isolated areas, but also in big cities like Berlin and Munich. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken about the issue, and what it means for businesses, on various occasions, and has mentioned Spain as an example of a country that has done well in the area of digitalization and high-speed internet.

Some Germans did note that the subject of artificial intelligence appeared to be absent from the last German elections. “How are we going to debate about AI if we don’t even have internet in downtown Munich?,” two young people seated in front of their laptops at a café in the capital complained, only half jokingly.

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[–] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago

The #1 reason for slow progress in mobile (cell) availability and data speed in Germany was not even mentioned in the article: Radio licenses for frequencies in UMTS and LTE were auctioned by the state, and telecom providers had to pay absurd sums to be able to even participate. On top of this financial burden of course they had to invest into their infrastructure. As companies have to make a profit to survive, this lead to high prices and slow expansion of infrastructure.

Reason #2 is probably Deutsche Telekom. This is the privatized prior state monopoly and they profit off of their dominant position in the market and some extra regulation in their favor. They still operate much like a government agency and this stifles progress and makes it hard for other companies to compete.

TL;DR it's an absolute shitshow