According to the Digital News Report Austria, around 43% of respondents report using the internet more than ten times a day. Studies also confirm that Austrians, on average, use the internet more intensively than citizens of many other European countries. Overall, the findings for Austria reflect a broader European trend: The internet has become an integral part of everyday life, and for most Austrians, it is indispensable.
When it comes to costs, Austrians benefit from significantly lower prices compared to Germany, which ranks among the most expensive countries in this regard. However, in a broader European comparison, Austria still ranks in the upper range in terms of internet costs. Accordingly, Austrian consumers have every right to expect high-quality connections. Frequent outages, dropped connections, or slow and unstable data transmission are valid reasons for dissatisfaction – and ultimately for switching providers.
The Fixed-Line Internet Provider Test 2025, conducted by zafaco GmbH, a leading technology and market expert in broadband network testing, in cooperation with IMTEST, offers a well-founded basis for choosing the right internet provider.
Balanced market among Austrian fixed-line Internet providers shows only slight preferences
Austria’s nationwide market is shared among four major providers: Magenta Telekom, A1 Telekom, Telematica, and Hutchison Drei. The market leader is A1 Telekom Austria with around 37% market share, followed by Magenta Telekom with 25%, and Hutchison Drei with 21%. The test also includes Telematica GmbH, a relatively new provider based in Graz, even though no specific user figures are currently available.
zafaco tests under realistic everyday conditions
In the current test, zafaco evaluates providers across five categories and 55 quality indicators, focusing on what matters most to consumers: stability, telephony, data performance, browsing, and streaming.
The testing process is not based on isolated snapshots. Instead, it involves continuous monitoring and analysis over a four-week period – from April 28 to May 25, 2025 – with more than 1.1 million individual measurements. The test includes specific usage scenarios that reflect the reality of Austrian households: multiple devices such as desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs typically share a single internet connection and place high demands on performance and stability.
The results, published by IMTEST on July 5, 2025, are broken down into an overall rating and detailed assessments for each individual performance category.
National providers impress with excellent overall performance
All of Austria’s nationwide providers performed very well. Magenta Telekom secured first place with an overall score of 1.34. The competition also performed strongly: A1 Telekom follows closely with a 1.40, Telematica comes in third with a 1.53, and Hutchison Drei ranks fourth with 1.55.
Only in the “Stability” category – where zafaco measures network reliability – did the overall winner fall behind two national competitors. However, since this category contributes only partially to the final score, the impact on overall results is minimal. Still, this module highlighted some providers’ weaknesses, most notably Hutchison Drei, which struggled to match the competition in terms of network stability.
Regional providers on equal footing
In addition to national providers, zafaco also tested three regional providers: Salzburg AG, LIWEST, and kabelplus. All three earned positive ratings. Salzburg AG ranked first among regional providers with a “very good” score of 1.38, followed by LIWEST at 1.44. kabelplus received a solid “good” rating of 1.59.
Salzburg AG performed particularly well, matching the performance of some nationwide competitors and even leading in the “WebServices” category, which evaluates the general user experience when visiting websites. However, kabelplus, like some national competitors, showed room for improvement in network stability.
The detailed test results, published by IMTEST, provide consumers with valuable insights to assess providers based on their personal priorities.