It could have been such a beautiful evening. The snacks were prepared, the drinks were cold, the subscription to the streaming provider was taken out – and then this: instead of a fast-paced Champions League game, there were only static images, the action freezing every few seconds. Experiences like this are not that rare in Germany. For almost two thirds of all users, the network failed completely at least once within a year. This was the result of a study by the comparison portal Verivox, in which 1,022 people between the ages of 18 and 79 were surveyed.
Users who are connected to the Internet via television cable had the most trouble with complete Internet failures. 68.5 percent of cable customers said they had already experienced a complete failure. For DSL, i.e. Internet over copper lines, it was only 58.2 percent of those surveyed and for fiber optic connections 62.2 percent. This is a bit surprising, because fiber optic connections are actually not only considered powerful, but also particularly reliable. However – this is also a result of the study – the failures of the fiber optic connections were usually rather short. In the case of TV cable connections, on the other hand, the outages lasted longer and they often occurred several times a year, as the survey showed.
There is a clear gap between the different age groups. Younger users reported significantly more failures than older users. The reason for this is probably that younger people use the internet more intensively, often to work from home and for streaming services. There are also differences between north and south. In the north, where there are most fiber optic connections in Germany, around ten percent fewer outages were reported than in the rest of the country.
TV cable has long been notorious for failures
Although representative, the results of the survey should not be taken lightly. For example, six percent of DSL connection users said they did not know whether there were outages, while the figure for TV cable customers was as high as 7.1 percent. Among fiber optic users, only 3.7 percent said they didn’t know. This can distort the results. In addition, problems in the apartment can also distort the picture.
Internet via TV cable was notorious for failures and low bandwidths more than ten years ago. This is due to the technology used there, which is different from other types of Internet access. In order to attract customers, providers back then offered very low fees. However, since the customers in a certain area share the overall bandwidth, the high level of customer support meant that individual users often received little service – especially at times when the network is used by many people at the same time, such as in the evening. At that time, providers had problems keeping up with the expansion of their network infrastructure. However, this now only applies in a few areas.
Customers who access the network via DSL copper lines or fiber optic cables can also be affected by bottlenecks. After all, all individual lines eventually run into one of the large lines, the so-called backbone network – the backbone of the network infrastructure. Things can get tight there too.
However, total failures usually have other reasons. The most obvious one is when pipes are damaged during construction work. Patching these back together can take time, especially if unfavorable circumstances arise. In the case of a failure in northern Germany, for example, the affected area was next to a railway track. Customers had to be patient for a few days. Something like this cannot be ruled out. That’s why no provider promises that the network will always be available.