Hello, everyone
The wife and I moved to Germany recently, and we need a new internet contract, but we’re unsure of the speeds here. In Japan, we had a plan which stated “up to 1Gb/s”, but it reached us at about 300mbp/s, which was plenty but not even close to the advertised.
So, which plan you guys use, and what’s the speed it actually reaches?
by narabyte
9 comments
May be off topic, but may not be:
Why do you say exactly that in Japan your internet was only 300Mbps? As in – how did you measure that?
Because 300Mbps is around the usual limits of a typical WiFi router. Perhaps, had you connected via Ethernet directly to the router, you’d get the 1Gbps?
More on topic, I lived in Berlin for 3 years, had 100Mbps, got 100Mbps, but for better answers you should probably specify providers you have available and area.
First: Check how good the available quality can be. All large providers have a website to check it. You add your address, and it’ll show, what is possible at your home.
Second: Check if you need a cable or glass fibre contract. (The screenshot is for cable). Glass fibre is always quicker. (E.g. at my house, we don’t have glass fibre connection, only cable, so our max. speed is around 250 Mbps down). Some houses only have glass fibre, some have both. Check this out.
Third: Compare different providers. Telekom is probably the largest, but it’s also pretty expensive. But in general, Telekom is pretty neat. For the first contract in Germany, it should be ok (keep in mind that contracts are usually made for 2 years, and you cannot terminate them early, just under very special circumstances)
I initially had 500 and then changed to 250. I didn’t notice any major difference for my usage.
Go for the speed you need / want. You‘ll usually get the advertised speeds. There may be other limiting factors in your home setup of course.
What are you using the internet for? Even the 50mbit would be enough for two people streaming in 4k and doing some light browsing at the same time.
I would also check the amount of traffic per month. There are quite a lot of high-speed offers with 100 Gb per month limit.
Whatever you choose, there will be an option for a router upgrade, for your own sake I highly suggest you to take that one. The standard routers are hot garbage.
The contract will state, as you suspect, “up to“ those download rates. They must also include a number for “available at all times”, usually no less than half of what’s advertised.
I have been using the 1000Mbps cable plan for 6 months. Maximum speed I got is around 300 to 400 Mbps, now I am using the 500Mbps plan and both are almost the same speed. I have also heard that cable connection speed depends on the number of users.
The internet providers in Germany are legally bound to reach the speed you pay for. Of course it can vary to a certain level but if you pay for 250 Mbit/s you should get about 200 up to 250 Mbit/s. If not so you have the right to resign from the contract depending on how bad it is. I would recommend a speed of 100 to 250 Mbit/s, that’s probably enough for your household.