Internet in Germany

The prevalent means of connecting to the Internet in Germany is DSL, introduced by Deutsche Telekom in 1999. Other technologies such as Cable, FTTH and FTTB (fiber), Satellite, UMTS/HSDPA (mobile) and LTE are available as alternatives.

DSL

In Germany, DSL is the prevalent internet access technology with over 30 million subscribers. For residential services the Annex B versions of ADSL, ADSL2+, and VDSL2 are used. With over 12 million customers the incumbent Deutsche Telekom is the market leader.[1] Other DSL providers either operate their own hardware on local loops rented from the incumbent in a local loop unbundling (LLU) arrangement, and/or purchase bit-stream access from a provider that operates DSL hardware.

As of January 2014, a typical monthly cost for "dual flatrate" internet and telephone service start at €25 for ADSL2+ (16 Mbit/s downlink, 1 Mbit/s uplink) and €30 for VDSL2 (50 Mbit/s downlink, 10 Mbit/s uplink).[2][3] Some of the major nationwide DSL providers are:[1]

Providers such as Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone also offer DSL-based triple play services with IPTV, which requires at least 16 Mbit/s for HD quality.

Starting in 2013, all newly deployed Deutsche Telekom VDSL2 nodes support G.vector technology.[4] Beginning in August 2014, vectored VDSL2 service with data rates of up to 100 Mbit/s downlink and 40 Mbit/s uplink is available from Deutsche Telekom.[5] Existing VDSL2 deployments in major cities will be upgraded to G.vector in 2016.[6] Deutsche Telekom is planning to introduce 500 Mbit/s service using G.fast in 2017 at the earliest.[7]

Symmetric DSL (SDSL) connections using G.shdsl technology are marketed to business customers. Providers offering SDSL include Deutsche Telekom, QSC, and Versatel.

Alternative technologies

While DSL is the prevalent connection technology in Germany, other technologies may offer lower prices or better availability and speed.

Cable

Internet via cable is offered by Kabel Deutschland and Unitymedia (separated geographically). Additionally there are some small providers as well which do not operate nationwide.[8] The typical available download speed is between 10 and 200 Mbit/s. In April 2015 Tele Columbus started offering up to 400 Mbit/s.[9] A typical 2-year subscription with 120Mbit/s internet and telephone costs about €35 per month,[10] with additional HD cable TV about €60.[11] Since November 2014 both Unitymedia and Kabel Deutschland offer connections with up to 200Mbit/s in downstream.[12] Unitymedia started its 400 MBit/s connections in January 2016, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland offers 400 MBit/s since June 2016.[13]

FTTH and FTTB

Deutsche Telekom started offering FTTH/FTTB in select regions in 2011, with up to 200 Mbit/s downstream and 100 Mbit/s upstream.[14] As of January 2014, Deutsche Telekom FTTH was available in 884,000 households, at a price point of €55 for 100/50 Mbit/s and €60 for 200/100 Mbit/s service.[15][16] Regional providers also offer FTTH/FTTB services, e.g. M-Net in Munich, wilhelm.tel in Hamburg, NetCologne in Cologne, and NetAachen in Aachen.

Satellite

Satellite internet is geographically more widely available than land-based technologies. In places where land-based internet access technology (DSL, cable, FTTx) is not available, satellite and UMTS/LTE are the primary means of high-speed internet access. As opposed to UMTS/LTE, satellite internet providers offer flatrates.[17]

UMTS/HSDPA and LTE

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone offer fixed location internet service on their UMTS and LTE networks.[18][19] As of December 2014, there are no flatrates available. The included data volume is generally higher for fixed location service than for mobile service at the same price point. As of December 2014, both Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone limit the speed to 384 kbit/s after the data volume of between 10 and 30 GB is used up.[18][19]

UMTS/HSDPA with up to 42.2 Mbit/s and LTE with up to 375 Mbit/s is offered by all four network operators: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, o2, and E-Plus. In 2013, Chip measured average downstream UMTS/GPRS data rates of between 2.4 and 7.9 Mbit/s and average downstream LTE/UMTS/GPRS data rates of between 3.2 and 16.0 Mbit/s, depending on both provider and location (rural vs. city).[20] In the same test, LTE coverage was measured at between 15% and 80%, depending on provider and location (rural vs. city).[20] A typical 2-year contract with 2GB of LTE speed, unlimited minutes and texts costs around €40 per month.[21][22]

History

The first email from the US to Germany was sent in 1984.[23] Until 1995, Deutsche Telekom (DTAG) was a government corporation linked with Deutsche Bundespost. As a government run and owned corporation, Deutsche Telekom was the monopoly ISP until its privatization in 1995, and the dominant ISP thereafter.[24] Until the 21st century, Deutsche Telekom controlled almost all Internet access by individuals and small businesses.[24]

Bildschirmtext (BTX) was an early data network service offered by Deutsche Telekom starting in 1983. Later it served as an alternative to the Internet, but was discontinued by 2001.[25]

DSL

Prior to the introduction of DSL and cable internet, voice-band modems and ISDN BRI were the most common residential internet access technologies. ISDN was widespread, with 333 ISDN BRIs per 1000 persons in 2005.[26] DSL was introduced in Germany by Deutsche Telekom on July 1, 1999 under the brand name T-DSL, with 768 kbit/s downstream and 128 kbit/s upstream.[27] T-DSL speeds were increased by Deutsche Telekom to 1536/192 kbit/s upstream/downstream in September 2002, 3072/384 kbit/s in April 2004, and 6016/576 kbit/s in mid-2005.[27] Deutsche Telekom introduced ADSL2+ service with 16000/1024 kbit/s in spring 2006 and VDSL2 with 50000/10000 kbit/s triple play service under the brand name Entertain in October 2006.[27][28] VDSL2 service without bundled IPTV was introduced in June 2009.[28] In 2011, Deutsche Telekom introduced Voice over IP (VoIP) services over ADSL2+ Annex J. In February 2013, Deutsche Telekom started switching existing POTS and ISDN voice service subscribers to VoIP service.[29] In August 2014, Deutsche Telekom became the first service provider to offer vectored VDSL2 using G.vector technology, offering 100/40 Mbit/s.[5]

In 1998, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) established regulations for local loop unbundling, enabling providers such as Vodafone, Telefónica Germany (O2), QSC, and Versatel to rent the local loop from the incumbent Deutsche Telekom and to operate their own access networks, placing their DSLAMs either in their own central offices (CO) or co-located with the incumbent's.[30] These ISPs either offered their services directly to the subscriber, or sold bit-stream access to other ISPs.[31] To compete with the incumbent's POTS and ISDN voice services, alternative providers introduced voice over IP (VoIP) bundled with their DSL internet services under the name Komplettanschluss.[30] Starting in 2004, Deutsche Telekom provided IP-level bitstream access to other providers under the name T-DSL resale.[32] The "resold" T-DSL was only available to subscribers of Deutsche Telekom's POTS/ISDN service.[32] In July 2008, Deutsche Telekom introduced bitstream access which does not require the incumbent's POTS/ISDN service, enabling competing ISPs to provide combined internet and VoIP service (Komplettanschluss) on Deutsche Telekom-operated local loops.[32] G.vector is not compatible with local loop unbundling, because G.vector can only be feasibly deployed by one provider per serving area interface. The regulator BNetzA conceived a "vectoring list", on which providers can claim cabinets on a first-come-first-served basis. To prevent a monopoly, this provider is required to offer bit-stream access to its competitors.[33]

Cable

Cable internet access in Germany began with pilot projects in December 2003 and wide deployment followed in late 2004.[34] A number of political reasons prevented an earlier market adoption of cable internet in Germany.[35] Until 2001, Deutsche Telekom was the monopoly owner of the German coax cable network, and had no intention to offer in-house competition to its DSL service.[35] Pressure from regulatory agencies forced Deutsche Telekom to sell its cable network, however Deutsche Telekom took measures to delay a possible cable internet offering.[35]

LTE

LTE internet access was introduced by Deutsche Telekom in 2010 and by Vodafone in 2011.[36] As part of the 2010 spectrum auction, the regulatory agency BNetzA required bidders to use the spectrum to provide broadband internet access to regions with only limited land-line broadband (DSL, cable, FTTH) access.[36] For the purpose of land-line broadband replacement, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone introduced fixed location LTE service.

Internet censorship and surveillance
Main articles: Internet censorship in Germany and Internet censorship

Internet censorship in Germany is practiced by law as well as the effect of some court decisions. An example of content censored by law is the removal of web sites from Google search results that deny the holocaust, which is a felony under German law.

Most cases of Internet censorship in Germany, however, occur after state court rulings. One example is a 2009 court order, forbidding German Wikipedia to disclose the identity of Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber, two criminals convicted of the murder of the Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr. In another case, Wikipedia.de (an Internet domain run by Wikimedia Deutschland) was prohibited from pointing to the actual Wikipedia content. The court order was as a temporary injunction in a case filed by politician Lutz Heilmann over claims in a German Wikipedia article regarding his past involvement with the former German Democratic Republic's intelligence service Stasi.[37]

gollark: What's that one again?
gollark: Time to initiate Protocol -3125-B.
gollark: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
gollark: Yes.
gollark: ++remind 1d It must be up.

See also

References
  1. "Q2 2014: Kabel Deutschland überholt o2 DSL bei Zahl der Breitband-Kundenverträge" [Q3 2013: Kabel Deutschland overtakes o2 DSL in number of broadband subscribers]. DSLWEB Breitband Report Deutschland (in German). dslweb.de. 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-03.
  2. "Vertragsrechner Festnetz Telefon und Internet via VDSL, DSL, Breitbandkabel (16000+)" [Cost calculator for telephone and Internet via VDSL, DSL, cable (16000+)] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  3. "Vertragsrechner Festnetz Telefon und Internet via VDSL, DSL, Breitbandkabel (50000+)" [Cost calculator for telephone and Internet via VDSL, DSL, cable (50000+)] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  4. Neuhetzki, Thorsten (2013-11-18). "Telekom: Erste Städte "ready" für schnelles Internet mit 100 MBit/s" [First cities are "ready" for speedy 100 MBit/s Internet] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  5. Neuhetzki, Thorsten (2014-08-28). "Telekom: Schnelles Internet mit VDSL 100 ab heute in 20 Ortsnetzen möglich" [Deutsche Telekom: Fast internet with VDSL 100 now available in 20 exchange areas] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-08-29.
  6. Neuhetzki, Thorsten (2014-10-19). "Telekom: VDSL 100 kommt in Großstädten erst 2016" [Telekom: VDSL 100 in major cities in 2016] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  7. Deutschbein, Rita (2014-02-15). "Mehr Tempo in Kupferleitungen: Telekom will G.fast-Technik noch dieses Jahr testen" [More speed via copper: Telekom to test G.fast technology this year] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  8. "Die Kabelanbieter in Deutschland" [The cable operators in Germany] (in German). Internetanbieter.de. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  9. "Tele Columbus startet 400 Mbit/s in Potsdam" [Tele Columbus starts 400 Mbit/s in Potsdam] (in German). Tele Columbus. Archived from the original on 2015-07-20. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  10. "Internet & Telefon: 2play Kombipakete von Unitymedia" [Internet & Telephone: 2play Packages from Unitymedia] (in German). Unitymedia. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  11. "Internet TV Telefon: 3play Kombipakete von Unitymedia" [Internet TV Telephone: 3play packages from Unitymedia] (in German). Unitymedia. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  12. "Unitymedia Kabel BW: Geschwindigkeit auf 200 Mbit/s erhöht und Horizon-Verfügbarkeit ausgebaut" [Unity Media, Kabel BW: Speed increased to 200 Mbit / s and expanded Horizon availability] (in German). Mobiflip.de. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
  13. "Vodafone bietet bis zu 400 MBit/s im Kabelnetz" [Vodafone offers up to 400 mbit/s] (in German). Internetanbieter.de. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  14. Neuhetzki, Thorsten (2011-04-07). "FTTH: Glasfaser-Anschluss der Telekom kostet offenbar 54,95 Euro" [FTTH: Fiber optic Internet from Deutsche Telekom is apparently going to cost 54.95 Euro] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  15. Sawall, Achim (2014-01-03). "Deutschland braucht das schnellste Netz der Welt" [Germany needs the world's fastest network] (in German). golem.de. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  16. "Call & Surf Comfort Pakete" [Call & Surf Comfort packages] (in German). Deutsche Telekom. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  17. "skyDSL2+ FLAT S". skyDSL Flat, Tarife und Tarifübersicht (in German). skyDSL Deutschland. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  18. "Call & Surf Comfort via Funk: Highspeed surfen im besten LTE Netz!" (in German). Deutsche Telekom. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  19. "Vodafone RealLTE". Vodafone. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  20. "Der härteste Handy-Netztest Deutschlands: Telekom, Vodafone, O2 und E-Plus im Test" [The toughest mobile network test in Germany: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, O2, and E-Plus under test] (in German). chip.de. 2013-09-02. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  21. "o2 Blue All-in L" (in German). Telefónica Germany. Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  22. "Handytarife-Rechner für mobiles Telefonieren, SMS und mobiles Internet" [Cost calculator for mobile telephone, SMS, and Internet (voice flat, text flat, 2GB)] (in German). teltarif.de. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  23. "Historic First Email From U.S. to Germany Arrives in 1984 | Internet Hall of Fame". www.internethalloffame.org. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  24. Waesche, Niko Marcel (2003). Internet Entrepreneurship in Europe: Venture Failure and the Timing of Telecommunications Reform. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 162–164. ISBN 978-1-84376-135-8.
  25. de:Bildschirmtext
  26. "ISDN-Verbreitung" [ISDN market adoption] (PDF), Studie (in German), DE: BMBF, archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-02
  27. de:DSL (Telekom)
  28. de:Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line#VDSL2 in Deutschland
  29. Mansmann, Urs (2012-02-21). "Telekom beginnt mit Umstellung herkömmlicher Telefonanschlüsse auf VoIP" [Deutsche Telekom starts transitioning POTS service to VoIP] (in German). heise.de. Retrieved 2014-01-04.
  30. de:Entbündelung
  31. de:Bitstromzugang
  32. de:T-DSL-Resale
  33. Neuhetzki, Thorsten (2014-07-30). "VDSL Vectoring: Die Ausbau-Liste für schnelles Internet startet" [VDSL Vectoring: Deployment list for fast broadband introduced]. teltarif.de. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  34. de:Kabel Deutschland#Geschichte
  35. de:Netzebene (Kabelfernsehen)#Betreiber und neuere Entwicklung
  36. de:Digitale Dividende
  37. Efroni, Zohar (16 November 2008). "German Court Orders to Block Wikipedia.de Due to Offending Article". Center for Internet and Society Blog. Stanford University Law School. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
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