DSL provider: How to make your network connection faster - or at least cheaper

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My brother is a farmer, his farm has been family-owned for 400 years, and he knows how to handle a plow. That's why he dug himself - and now he has really fast internet.

Their experience brings the farmers recently an unexpected location advantage: The farmers on the border of Westphalia and Rhineland have namely founded an association and laid their fiber optic cables themselves. This is not as easy as it sounds: you need the right equipment, straight furrows must be pulled over long distances and hardenings in the soil are properly assessed. Employees of the Stadtwerk of the neighboring municipality Rhede have helped the farmers, the whole thing was really cheap for new connections in the country, and their connection now has 100 megabits per second (Mbps). For businesses, the Stadtwerk also offers 200 Mbit / s.

On the other hand, I am sitting in the inner city of Berlin with a so-called 50 Mbit / s connection and can not even get close to this value. I checked that myself with a test program of the Federal Network Agency. Telekom writes succinctly, at 50 Mbit / s, they guarantee 27.9 Mbit / s. I had not imagined that, but even this contractually promised performance I do not get. I was even allowed to be happy to have any network at all: The telecom technician needed two attempts at that time to find a working socket for the DSL in the 30-year-old attic apartment.

I would even have a choice if necessary. In our house is not only DSL. We also have a TV cable, so I could switch to cable provider.

If the connection is correct, then you have the big choice. Because the fight for the fast and cheap net rages everywhere in the republic. With these five tips, you benefit the most:

First, if you have a cable connection in your house and not very high demands on your network, take the chance. Cable Internet is more reliable and almost always cheaper. A good family cable connection, where your kids can use Netflix and YouTube while digitally watching the "news" and looking for your wife or husband in the digital spaces for the best summer vacation deal, is under $ 30 to have. If you have an older tariff, the chances of saving are particularly pronounced. Because it applies like the mobile phone: Today you get more power for less money.

Second: If you do not have a cable connection, check the different offers of DSL providers. The cheapest is currently often O2 with its tariff "my home M". Two euros more expensive is "Red Internet 50 DSL" from Vodafone. Such 50-Mbit fares will loosely wrap the family program when the contracted service is available.

Third, if it does jerk, check the power quality. To this end, the Federal Network Agency offers a free tool. However, the network agency has just reported in its annual report that in the fixed network, just under 13 percent of customers actually get the contractually promised performance and almost 30 percent not even half of the promised minimum performance. Why the network operators are politically not yet held accountable because of this deception, you have to ask Federal Digital Minister Horst Seehofer.

Fourthly, you can prove that the service was not provided in accordance with the contract, for example by showing that the "contractually agreed minimum speed is not reached for at least two measuring days".

You have to be persistent and go step by step. First, check if it's up to your devices. If they are OK, check with the service provider (call the hotline) and their after-sales service to see if the speed can be increased by readjusting or repairing.

If all else fails, change the system if you can, from DSL to cable or vice versa. If that does not work either, use your measurements for a discount from the supplier. The arbitration board can help the Federal Network Agency - or the consumer centers.

This can all take Easier is up-to-date, at least priced to optimize what you get.

Fifth, if you 're home alone, you do not need 50 Mbps. So you can save and choose the low rates with less speed. Benefits have households with cable in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse and NRW. There, the distribution company Easy offers cable connections from Unitymedia 20 Mbit / s with all utilities and discounts for less than 18 euros a month. In East Germany including Berlin, the cable combination Pyur offers the same performance for 25 euros, with the extra advantage of short contract terms. The corresponding DSL offers are here in the price range just under 30 euros.

Last Monday, I saw a report from the Bundesnetzagentur's 5G auction. Again it's about the fast internet, this time mobile. And again I know that currently the frustration in the republic is great. Not even 20 percent of the network customers get from the mobile companies at least half of the network performance that is contractually promised.

I can not get my brother's smile out of my head when he proudly presented his own misplaced cable. A great feeling, if you can help yourself.