The Federal Network Agency has published the detailed findings of their fourth broadband test today.
“Once again there have been a few changes over previous years. Regardless of broadband category or provider, customers are often not achieving the maximum speed promised by their provider. Hence, there’s still need for action by broadband providers," says Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency.
Fixed network results
Across all broadband categories and providers, 70.1% of fixed broadband users received download speeds of at least half the contractually agreed maximum speed (2017/2018: 71.3%). For 16.4% of users (2017/2018: 12.0 %), the delivered speed equalled or exceeded this.
Results once more varied between the individual broadband categories and providers. Most customers again rated their provider’s service between very good and satisfactory during the current reporting period. At 61.4%, the proportion of satisfied customers continues to decline slightly (2017/2018: 62.0%).
Mobile broadband results
The general quality of mobile broadband connections in the current reporting period remained significantly below that of fixed broadband connections. Across all broadband categories and providers, 14.9% of mobile broadband users received download speeds of at least half of the contractually agreed estimated maximum speed (2017/2018: 16.1%); for 1.5% of users, the delivered speed equalled or exceeded this. This represents no change over the previous year.
The findings revealed that the percentage of connections delivering the contractually agreed estimated maximum download speed tended to be lower among the higher performance broadband categories. As in the fixed broadband sector, the findings also revealed differences among the mobile broadband providers.
Once again, the vast majority of end customers rated their providers between very good and satisfactory (74.3%; 2017/2018: 74.7%). The fact that the calculated broadband measurement percentages remain low suggests that mobile broadband users still rank mobility and availability of service more highly than receiving the promised download speeds.
Broadband coverage cannot be inferred from measurements
The broadband measurement results depend on the tariff contract between the user and provider. Consequently, no statement can be made about broadband coverage or the availability of broadband internet services on the basis of the broadband measurement. The sole purpose of the test is to compare the speed actually received by customers with the speed contractually agreed with the provider.
The report covers the period between 01 October 2018 and 30 September 2019. In total, 829,426 valid measurements were analysed for fixed broadband connections and 527,558 for mobile broadband connections (2017/2018: 900,579 fixed; 384,999 mobile).
The complete report has been published at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/breitbandmessung. The validation, methodology and measurement results are explained in detail in a separate document, also available at this address.
Further information and charts – especially on all providers – can be seen in the interactive presentation of results at https://breitbandmessung.de/interaktive-darstellung.