telecommunications
Dead spots remain a nuisance
53 percent of citizens often or very often have network failures. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
If you believe the reports from the network operators, the expansion of the German mobile network is picking up speed. So everything ok? A survey by Verivox shows the opposite.
Although Germany’s mobile phone companies regularly announce progress in network expansion, dead spots remain a serious problem from the perspective of mobile phone users.
As a survey by the comparison portal Verivox showed, 53 percent of citizens often or very often have network failures or broken connections. For commuters, the figure is even 62 percent. Many people are annoyed about bad connections, especially on the train and on the freeway. The representative survey was conducted in March, 1011 people aged 18 and over took part, according to the information.
“Traffic routes are the Achilles’ heel of the German mobile network,” says Jens-Uwe Theumer from Verivox. “Even in 2022, many kilometers along the rail and road network will still have dead spots, especially in sparsely populated areas.” External factors such as tunnels or radio-impermeable windows in trains exacerbated the network problems. Theumer notes that even in 2022 it is still not a matter of course to be able to make calls and surf the web with your smartphone without interruption when travelling.
At the end of this year, a deadline for the network operators expires: Downloading at 100 Mbit per second must be possible everywhere on all motorways, on the most important federal highways and on well-frequented rail routes. However, there is one restriction: where mobile phone companies absolutely do not get land for a radio mast or are not allowed to build one – for example because the location is in a nature reserve – there will still be dead spots in the future.
According to a paper by the Federal Network Agency with data from January, all three domestic network operators – i.e. Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica (O2) – still have homework to do when it comes to network expansion along the transport routes: the coverage range achieved on motorways is 93 to 99 percent, on the most important federal highways only 90 to 96 percent of the route and on the railways 92 to 97 percent. The range refers to the coverage information of the worst and the best network operator – who this is in the different segments is not clear from the paper from the Federal Network Agency.