Germany is downgrading • Hacker News Board

Re: Germany is downgrading

#61

Post by Vivtek » Thu, May 02, 2013, 2:57 PM UTC

FnF_VE wrote: post #59

Vivtek wrote: post #31

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 s…

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 y…

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.

I'll have to take another look.

Re: Germany is downgrading

#62

Post by kayoone » Thu, May 02, 2013, 3:02 PM UTC

kybernetyk wrote: post #44

daliusd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I had similar internet when I was living for 3 years in Poland (Gdansk). 125mbit for ~50 PLN (which was around EUR 15). Now I'm back in Germany and have fabulous 16mbit for nearly 50 Euros. (Fastest internet I can get here.) Also it's ridiculous that my internet access in Poland was set up within 2 days and here I had to wait 6 weeks for everything to work properly.

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.

Re: Germany is downgrading

#63

Post by wolfgke » Thu, May 02, 2013, 3:08 PM UTC

walshemj wrote: post #50

raverbashing wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define 'consumer grade' and 'serious startup' Code is not big, other resources like images, etc, may take more space, but that's often not an issue. More importantly, 'consumer grade DSL' may be all that's available depending on the location. Of course, the website is not being served from there.

You can't get business ADSL, SDSL or a leased line in Germany I woudl be surprised if that is the case. In fact knowing Germany I am not surprised that using a consumer line for business is not breaking some rule.

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).

Re: Germany is downgrading

#64

Post by wolfgke » Thu, May 02, 2013, 3:29 PM UTC

thomasjames wrote: post #7

shell0x wrote: post #6

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 counte…

As a German I say:

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.

Re: Germany is downgrading

#65

Post by FnF_VE » Fri, May 03, 2013, 3:12 AM UTC

Vivtek wrote: post #61

FnF_VE wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 y…

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. I'll have to take another look.

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.

Re: Germany is downgrading

#66

Post by walshemj » Fri, May 03, 2013, 10:57 AM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #63

walshemj wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't get business ADSL, SDSL or a leased line in Germany I woudl be surprised if that is the case. In fact knowing Germany I am not surprised that using a consumer line for business is not breaking some rule.

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).

That was my point

Re: Germany is downgrading

#67

Post by Vivtek » Sun, May 05, 2013, 3:42 PM UTC

FnF_VE wrote: post #65

Vivtek wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I'll have to take another look.

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 s…

Köszönöm szépen, de nem minden amcsi tehetetlen a nyelvekkel.

Re: Germany is downgrading

#68

Post by thomasjames » Mon, May 06, 2013, 10:42 AM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #64

thomasjames wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 counte…

As a German I say: 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…

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.