Internet connections in Germany leave a lot to be desired. Nothing new there. But now a new study has unearthed the scale of the problem. 

Survey uncovers Germany’s internet woes

As essential to everyday life as water, electricity and gas - especially now that so many of us are working from home - the internet in Germany is still a long way from being dependable. According to a new survey, one in three users in the federal republic experiences issues with slow data transmission several times a week, sometimes even every day. Just one in 10 says they never notice delays in surfing and streaming. 

The representative survey of almost 5.000 internet users was commissioned in mid-February by De-Cix, one of the world’s largest internet hubs, based in Frankfurt. They found that, in particular, younger users between the ages of 18 and 39 found that they were dropping out of video conferences, or reported picture and sound quality deteriorating, video streams stuttering or internet pages loading very slowly. 

42 percent of households with children complained that their internet connection is disturbed several times a week or even daily; for adults without children, the figure was 29 percent - but it should be noted that this group contains the statistically less tech-savvy older generation. 44 percent of respondents also reported encountering issues when streaming videos, while 25,4 percent complained about delays in live streaming, for example from concerts or sports events. 12 percent reported issues while playing video games online. 

Not enough data centres in Germany

When it came to the question of what was causing the internet issues, most respondents were clear: 57 percent suspected that the delays were due to the poorly developed network infrastructure in their region, while 53 percent assumed that the network was temporarily overloaded. Only 12 percent said that the problems could be due to their own equipment, such as their router or laptop. 

De-Cix, on the other hand, has an alternative theory: they suggest that the delays could be due to excessive latencies. In other words, the data centres are often too far away from internet users in Germany. “We need more data centres that are as close as possible to the end user,” said Thomas King, technical director at De-Cix. “This is the only way to guarantee more networking and robust expansion of the last digital mile into households.”