The cable network operators market Internet access with up to 1 gigabit per second (GBit/s). But what sounds like high speed is sometimes pretty lame. Especially in the evening hours, for example, there may be picture and sound dropouts when streaming.
For a long time, the cable network only provided television and radio. With high Internet bandwidths, however, the cable network operators are now outstripping the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). While a household receives a maximum of 250 megabits per second (Mbit/s) via a DSL connection, it is up to 1,000 Mbit/s with cable Internet, i.e. gigabit speeds. The trick is in the “up to”, because the booked bandwidth is only achieved under almost ideal conditions with both DSL and cable Internet. This is due to the network structure. A certain bandwidth is made available for a certain number of households, which the connected households have to share. One speaks here of a divided, a shared medium. And this circumstance means that the cable Internet is often much slower, despite the promised high bandwidths.
The cable network as a shared medium
The shared medium effect is comparable to a freeway. If only one car drives on a certain route, the driver can press the accelerator pedal. However, if thousands of cars are on the road, the average speed drops.
This also applies to the data highway. Instead of cars, the cable network is about the connected households. They are grouped into groups called clusters. A concrete total bandwidth is available for each cluster, which the households share.
Too big cluster, too many users
But if the DSL network is also a shared medium, why is the term so often used in connection with cable networks? The cable network operators have become victims of their own success. Too many households subscribed to cable Internet too quickly. According to the association of cable network operators ANGA, the number of customers has increased by 40 percent to 8.4 million in the past five years. Every third new customer of the ANGA network operator chooses a tariff with more than 200 MBit/s. To date, around 1.7 million customers have booked bandwidths of more than 400 Mbit/s.
The cable network operators are therefore forced to expand their networks. They shrink the clusters. As a result, fewer households share the total bandwidth per cluster. However, the grid expansion is not going fast enough. And it entails costs that are often avoided in the tough competition with DSL providers. The result: the clusters are too large, too many households share the total bandwidth and cable Internet is too slow.
Cable Internet users feel this particularly in the evening hours, when a particularly large number of households go online. If you’re stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway after work, you’ll find yourself in the rush hour of the data highway. The sharp increase in the use of digital applications such as video conferencing or streaming during the corona pandemic has recently exacerbated the problem for cable Internet users.
Perform speed test and check router
Anyone whose cable internet is regularly too slow and who is struggling with picture and sound problems when streaming, interruptions in online gaming or long download times as a result should carry out a speed test of their internet connection. Recommended is the Broadband measurement by the Federal Network Agency. It is best to do them at different times of the day. In this way you can see when the bandwidth drops particularly sharply.
However, if the bandwidth is consistently too low, an outdated router could also be the problem. If the router’s network ports are only operating at 100 Mbit/s, an Internet plan with 200 Mbit/s or more is of little use.
Also interesting: How much internet speed do I really need?
Request support, change provider
In addition, streaming problems or long downloads can also be related to the number of devices that are online at the same time in the household. 50Mbps cable internet may not be enough when streaming to three devices at the same time. If the cause cannot be determined, the support of the cable network operator should be consulted.
Be careful if you are advised to take out a tariff with more bandwidth. Under certain circumstances, this can be of little help, because the shared medium effect does not decrease if more bandwidth is demanded in the same cluster. Then only the provider change helps.