Since December 2021 there has been a new law that allows users to reduce the monthly payment if Internet providers are permanently unable to deliver the promised speed. Now such a regulation is also to come for the mobile Internet.
Germany and digitization – unfortunately that’s one of those things. In many places, residents still do not have sufficiently fast Internet access. And if they do, there is no guarantee that they will actually receive the promised and paid for bandwidth. In this regard, the law has become much more accommodating for fixed-line customers thanks to the TKG amendment since December 2021. But even with mobile Internet, there are always cases in which users complain about connections that are too slow. It should also be easier for them to react to this in the future.
Proof of slow mobile Internet – the proposal of the BNetzA
Compared to the fixed network, there are a few hurdles with mobile access. The connections are not static, since they can be used throughout Germany and, in principle, have to perform equally well everywhere. It can happen that the mobile Internet is sufficiently fast in one place, but far too slow in the next. So when do customers have the right to a reduction in the basic fee for their mobile phone contract?
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has dealt with precisely this question and defined the first cornerstones for a possible new regulation. However, the verification procedure outlined in the document is, let’s say it carefully, not particularly user-friendly. The points described by the BNetzA are not yet set in stone. According to the authority, however, they form the “basis for a discussion process” from which the specific draft law is to be developed later. TECHBOOK has looked at the key points in detail and filtered out the most important formulations.
At first everything is understandable. Here the BNetzA writes, for example, that mobile phone providers are obliged to provide a clear and understandable explanation in their contracts of the estimated maximum and advertised download and upload speeds. From the point of view of the authority, the estimated maximum speed should be equated with the advertised speed. This means that what you book should also be delivered. But as is so often the case in life, this is usually not the case.
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Factors for slow mobile internet
The BNetzA lists the following factors that can lead to the mobile Internet being slower than promised:
Access not stationary: A mobile phone tariff covers the entire area of Germany. It is therefore only possible to determine the actual speed in areas with service.
Different technologies: 2G, LTE or 5G – the estimated maximum speed specified in the contract is usually tied to a technology. However, technology-specific values for the estimated maximum speed can also be specified, which most providers already do for LTE and 5G, for example. Vodafone is advertising up to 500 Mbit/s for its LTE tariffs, with Telekom it is up to 300 Mbit/s and with O2 250 Mbit/s.
Frequencies: The use of different frequency ranges essentially applies to all
cell phone provider too. In rural, sparsely populated areas, low frequencies with a large range but low data transmission rates are primarily used. In conurbations, on the other hand, mainly higher frequencies with higher data transmission rates are used.
Utilization of the radio cells: Mobile communications is a “shared medium”. The more users dial into the mobile Internet via a radio cell, the greater the load and the slower the data transmission.
Device used and position: The user himself also has an influence on the reception. For example, if it is in buildings, walls can shield the signal and negatively affect data transmission. Older smartphones with less powerful antennas can also be a reason for poor reception.
Also Read: Why Is Cable Internet Often So Slow?
BNetzA requires knowledge that many do not have
One sentence in the key points paper is particularly striking: “The cell phone sites in rural areas are currently not designed to achieve the estimated maximum speeds of up to 500 Mbit/s specified in the individual contracts. Rather, a nationwide supply should be achieved.” The problem with this sentence is that customers usually do not have this information at all. Who knows that the Vodafone tariff with the advertised 500 Mbit/s cannot be implemented in the country? The experts and authorities obviously require knowledge that many do not have.
Basically, the BNetzA comes to the conclusion that it should be noted that the performance of the mobile network and thus the network capacity available to the customer can vary greatly depending on the location and time. Providers are therefore obliged (Art. 4 Para. 1 Letter d TSM-VO) to provide information on the estimated maximum download and upload speeds. However, some providers interpret this by specifying a value that can be achieved under ideal conditions by a single user active in the radio cell. However, these conditions simply do not exist in normal everyday life. The indication of the very high data transmission rates as an estimated maximum in the tariff details is therefore misleading. The result: Customers book a tariff at a certain speed, but hardly ever reach these values. So what can they do?
Document slow mobile internet and get your money back?
As with the fixed network, the BNetzA would like to make it easier for those affected to take action against mobile Internet that is too slow and to apply for a reduction in the monthly costs. A proven, significant, continuous and regularly recurring deviation from the booked Internet speed should be a prerequisite for this. Sounds bulky, but it means nothing other than that users have to take regular measurements with weak connections in order to be able to prove certain deviations in the data rate. But this is where it gets wild – and user-unfriendly.
As with the fixed network, the Federal Network Agency requires a total of 30 measurements. In mobile communications, these should take place over five calendar days with six measurements per calendar day. There should be a three-hour break between the third and fourth measurement of a measurement day, and a five-minute break between all other measurements. Anyone who wants to document the slow mobile Internet will be busy for some time. The BNetzA writes that “this number of measurements should ensure the validity of the results”. An even higher number would affect users too much, and fewer measurements would conflict with demonstrating regularity.
Apart from the measurements, the BNetzA also sets the hurdle for a reduction claim high. In metropolitan areas, users have to accept deviations of up to 75 percent from the promised bandwidth. In semi-urban areas it is even 85 percent and in rural areas a whopping 90 percent. This means that a user who has booked a Vodafone contract with up to 500 Mbit/s but only gets 51 Mbit/s when surfing outside the city is not entitled to a price reduction. This would only be the case if it was permanently below 50 Mbit/s – provided that he could prove this reduction at all in accordance with the regulations mentioned.
The BNetzA justifies these high values with the fact that the promised data rates can only be achieved under the most favorable conditions in certain radio cells, but are still possible. This means that providers can advertise with artificially high values, even if they are almost impossible to implement in reality. If users notice this later, they lose out.
TECHBOOK means
In principle, it is good and important that the BNetzA tackles the problem of slow mobile Internet and wants to give those affected the opportunity to take action against it. But what is incomprehensible is the approach. The hurdles necessary for a reduction are set so high that users can only lose. In the end, they are and will remain the victims of overly flowery promises of bandwidth that hardly any provider can keep on a large scale. One can only hope that the BNetzA will fine-tune its cornerstones again and that the experts will find more user-friendly ways in their discussion of the draft law.