Internet slow: Providers promise more EU-wide than they hold

The Federal Network Agency ensured sobering certainty for DSL customers in the United States in 2012. The “up to …” data from Internet providers, which promise a certain maximum data transmission rate of the online connection are often not achieved. The difference between advertised and actual speed is sometimes enormous. For this, however, there are usually Internet contracts in different, ascending speed classes, which providers can be paid accordingly. The topic has been added to the file under the keyword DSL Speed ​​Lies.


The "Europe 2020 Initiative" has now published the results of a study that examined Internet connections in the EU on the same pattern. In October 2017 more than 8,500 measuring instruments were distributed in 30 countries, which carried out over 10 billion measurements in more than 66 million individual tests. It came out: In general, the advertised connection speeds are reached only in 75 percent of the cases. The cable internet is significantly better than the conventional DSL. For cables the value is 86.5 percent, with DSL only 63.8 percent. In both cases, this means a slight deterioration towards 2013. At that time, Kabel came to 89.5 and DSL to 63.8 percent. As seven out of ten households with Internet access in the EU are using DSL connections, a large part of the EU is affected by excessive Internet advertising promises.


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The EU initiative has also compared broadband quality with that in the US. Although the average download speeds in the EU are higher, there are virtually no discrepancies in advertised and actual Internet speeds in the US. US providers are more realistic and transparent in their data, as the EU also calls on local providers. Specifically, DSL users in the EU load an average of 8.27 Mbps (megabits per second) and in the USA with 7.67 Mbps. Cable users in the EU charge an average of 66.57 and in the US with 25.48 Mbps. Glass fiber customers in the EU reach 53.09 and in the US to 41.35 Mbps.


Reading Tip: Make DSL and WLAN faster


The EU initiative has also looked at Internet prices. According to the EU, these have fallen by around 12 per cent since 2012. There are also values ​​for the availability of broadband connections. According to this, 99.4% of EU households have access to at least one stationary or mobile broadband technology. The LTE availability rose compared to 2013 from 59.1 to 79.4 percent. For more information, see the EU 2020 initiative.