Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet • Hacker News Board

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#61

Post by geff82 » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:20 PM UTC

I recently did vacation at the North Sea (land side, not the islands). It was heartbreaking. In many areas the iPhone showed "No Service", in most areas we had "Edge" connection with virtually no data throughput. Even when it showed "3G" I was mostly unable to use WhatsApp. And this is a region where people live!

And let's not talk about the landline broadband.... our rented appartment had a meager 1MBit download speed and 10MBit upload (yes, the reverse from what you would expect).

On the Autobahn, on many, many kilometers we had Edge only.

Compare that to my last travel to Iran: we had very fast LTE almost everywhere especially in the middle of the desert (it was heavily censored, but the infrastructure was working).

Even very close to big cities like Frankfurt, having an uninterrupted phone call is a difficult thing to have.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#62

Post by gingabriska » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

foepys wrote: post #3

It's really expensive for companies, too. The company I work for (small to medium sized) has a 34/34 Mbit/s fiber connection and it costs us 600€ per month. Included are 8 IPv4 addresses and an 8h response time (which has never been met and when we sued after a week of non-working internet, we lost in court). It's just ridiculous how expensive it is for businesses. We simply cannot afford a 100/100 MBit/s connection…

When I worked for Audi in Germany, they had 1Gpbs internet.

Maybe German government wants everyone to work for big German companies instead of small ones.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#63

Post by crawdingle » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:23 PM UTC

siddhant wrote: post #2

It’s not just the speed. The costs are depressing as well. A 50Mbps connection (DSL, because cable is not even available in this area) at my current location costs €40/month. 40! It’s mind-blowing.

110 CAD (~83 USD) for 7Mbps Down 0.5Mbps Up in Atlantic Canada.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#64

Post by segmondy » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

It's not just Germany. Tons of places in the US have crappy internet connection. I'm average 2-3Mbps on really good days, on a bad day, I see below 1. On Comcast, $40 a month plan, suppose to be at least 10Mbps, it's not my modem. I was getting up to 15Mbps when I was paying $80 and suppose to get 50Mbps. It's oversubscribed or capped by Comcast. No competition, no other providers.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#65

Post by geff82 » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #15

I don't have faith in that chart. Average US internet speed is 120 mbps?! Do they mean advertised max speed? No way the average internet household speed is that fast. Maybe half. Maybe. I like to live away from town, but even when I could get FiOS, the normal package was 50 mbps. I happen to have 400 mbps now (which flies in the face of my argument, I know). EDIT: oh, I see. They are charting megabits not megabytes.…

There are many areas where only 16Mbit are available max, some even only with 6Mbit. When buying a house, checking your potential internet connection with the providers is crucial, even for houses that are close to big cities. Where I live, in a city neighbouring Frankfurt, 50Mbit has only been available for about 4 years now.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#66

Post by jotm » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:26 PM UTC

lonesword wrote: post #41

I recently moved to Germany. I used to work as a software dev in India before this. I was horrified to learn that (urban) India has way better internet than Germany. When it comes to mobile data it's even more depressing - back in India I used to get 1.5GB _daily_ 4G mobile data for 200 rupees (around 2.5 euros) a _month_. Even after adjusting for purchasing power, 2.5 euros a month for virtually unlimited mobile dat…

You're getting ripped off on O2 or Vodafone. Get an Ay Yildiz Prepaid card, 25 Euros for 12GB and there's an option to top up of you run out. It's an EPlus MVNO, speeds are pretty good on 3G (~8Mbps).

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#67

Post by nesadi » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:27 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #61

I recently did vacation at the North Sea (land side, not the islands). It was heartbreaking. In many areas the iPhone showed "No Service", in most areas we had "Edge" connection with virtually no data throughput. Even when it showed "3G" I was mostly unable to use WhatsApp. And this is a region where people live! And let's not talk about the landline broadband.... our rented appartment had a meager 1MBit download spe…

The crazy thing I think is how expensive internet is, in whatever form, in Germany compared to the rest of Europe while simultaneously being so terrible.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#68

Post by throwitawayday » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:27 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #61

I recently did vacation at the North Sea (land side, not the islands). It was heartbreaking. In many areas the iPhone showed "No Service", in most areas we had "Edge" connection with virtually no data throughput. Even when it showed "3G" I was mostly unable to use WhatsApp. And this is a region where people live! And let's not talk about the landline broadband.... our rented appartment had a meager 1MBit download spe…

Having recently visited the Yellowstone National Park, the situation you describe for the North Sea side of Germany applies but worse, the cell phone data connection being non-existent, and with the added issue that only one hotel offered wifi, and it was out of service for the entire duration of our visit.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#69

Post by gingabriska » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:27 PM UTC

I am in Yoga city of India and this hilly region, I am getting 50mbps up and down.

So yea, it's finally getting better in India?

Food delivered in middle of nowhere in 20 minutes.

Everything is soo good here except the heat but now with monsoon it's more bearable.

I wonder what Germany will do. Maybe Germany wants everyone to work for big automobile companies because when I worked at Audi, we had 1gbps internet.

Re: Germans Grow Frustrated with Their Slow-Poke Internet

#70

Post by nesadi » Mon, Aug 05, 2019, 6:29 PM UTC

jotm wrote: post #66

lonesword wrote: post #41

I recently moved to Germany. I used to work as a software dev in India before this. I was horrified to learn that (urban) India has way better internet than Germany. When it comes to mobile data it's even more depressing - back in India I used to get 1.5GB _daily_ 4G mobile data for 200 rupees (around 2.5 euros) a _month_. Even after adjusting for purchasing power, 2.5 euros a month for virtually unlimited mobile dat…

You're getting ripped off on O2 or Vodafone. Get an Ay Yildiz Prepaid card, 25 Euros for 12GB and there's an option to top up of you run out. It's an EPlus MVNO, speeds are pretty good on 3G (~8Mbps).

Coverage is pretty bad on anything that isn't D1 or Vodafone. O2 has okay coverage in cities, but anywhere else it's mediocre to bad.