Lame mobile internet: up to 90 percent lower speed should be allowed

According to the most recent amendment to the Telecommunications Act (TKG), consumers have the right to reduce the monthly payment if the Internet performance is less than contractually guaranteed. For the fixed network, the Federal Network Agency established rules for this at the end of 2021. On Thursday, it published comparable specifications for mobile Internet access and put them up for discussion, which gives network operators a lot of freedom.

90 percent tolerable deviation

According to the Federal Network Agency, the reduced throughput test in mobile communications is significantly more complex than in the fixed network. This is because a contract here is not fulfilled in a fixed place. The deciding factor is how efficient the provider networks are in the individual regions.

Therefore, the regulatory authority wants your model “differentiated deductions” for the determination of a relevant deviation from the contractually agreed service. In urban areas, a 75 percent deviation from the promised maximum download and upload speed might be tolerable before compensation is due. In semi-urban areas, the deviation is likely to be 85 percent, in rural areas even 90 percent.

“These discounts may seem high,” admits the network agency. In view of often agreed maximum speeds of several hundred MBit/s, this still results in “high data rates” for most end customers.

Key points identical to the fixed network

According to the key points, the number of measurements required to prove a reduction must be 30, as in the fixed network. However, the authority has a different distribution in mind: the surveys should be spread over five calendar days in mobile communications, with six measurements per calendar day. Parallel to the stakeholder participation process, which runs until September 30, the Federal Network Agency wants to work on a special measuring instrument for verification. The head of the authorities, Klaus Müller, emphasized: “The goal at the end of this process is to help consumers to be able to assert their rights in mobile communications in the future.”

(bme)