On Horseback in Deepest Germany
A local photographer in the town of Schmallenberg-Oberkirchen set himself the ultimate challenge of trying to send a 4.5 gigabyte data file via the internet to a printer 10km [6.2 miles] away. Rather than accepting the inevitable fate, this photographer had a brilliant idea. He organised a backup, a friend on horseback who delivered a DVD with the images to the printer. The data transfer and the horse set off at the same time. The horse arrived first.
Germany is wealthy but it has one of the worst telecommunication infrastructures in the EU, and the absolute worst mobile telecom infrastructure. There are many places with no connectivity whatsoever.
This is why, in 2021, digitalisation is still a thing in German politics. Politicians list digital alongside green investment in their order of priorities. Germany, as a country, collectively underestimated the implications of several important technologies, such as the electric car and the mobile telephone. Most households are connected to the internet through copper cables. Only 1.4m households use fibre optic cables, compared to 5m in the UK.
When German governments auctioned off telecoms licences, they maximised revenue, rather than maximising service. Half a trillion euros of underinvestment later, horses have become competitive again.
The above amusing story is courtesy of Eurointelligence. It seems Germany needs at least parts of the US bipartisan infrastructure plan.
Can anyone tell me what decent internet service costs in Germany?
Mish
If you cherry pick data of course you’ll arrive at whatever conclusion you want. In the analogy above try creating a scenario where you are sending 5 gigs of data from Germany to Australia. I’m pretty sure horses aren’t competitive. It would take at least several months of fast riding, swimming, ferry riding etc, to get that horse to Australia with your data. No, horses are not competitive with the internet. They get tired. They have to eat. They have to rest. etc. A cable needs none of those things.
German internet services may be slow, but if it really wasn’t competitive with horses we’d see horses delivering data. Capitalism would guarantee that result.
Musk’s Starlink offers speeds of around 139.4 Mbps in
France which is quite well. It should increase as they plan to put up 12,000 satellites
in couple of years. With volume the price should decline from it’s now $99.
They installed optical fiber in my neighborhood in 2016. A technician
came to our door and asked if we wanted the upgrade. I asked how much it would
cost and he said it’s the same price as we pay now but your internet would be
50 times faster. My wife said we have to think about it first. I immediately
took over and told him to take my money now. He installed the box in my home
the next day. I never had problems with Orange come to think of it but I use
them only for the home.