As of: March 1, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Markus Schwarzkugler
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No connection at this number: outages in the telephone network have increased recently.
And the civil engineering repairs were a long time coming.
Even home emergency calls were affected. Water – the enemy of all cables. Help via app is often quickest ©: Peter Kornatz/Karl-J.
Hildenbrand
Telephone “dead”, and has been for months: This winter, citizens' frustration with Deutsche Telekom seems to be particularly great.
In the past few weeks there has been one article after the next in our newspaper: again and again people who haven't been able to make a phone call since November or December.
District - When our newspaper asked, the company quickly took action and fixed the problems.
Time for an overview of the cases we know of - and an attempt to explain by Telekom, which, according to its own statements, is having a hard time with the weather this year.
Our newspaper first reported from the southern district.
It was about lengthy telephone outages in the communities of Walpertskirchen and Finsing.
Partially affected there and elsewhere: seniors and their home emergency call.
Our newspaper also followed up in the community of Lengdorf, whereupon a family from Grafing, a suburb in the southern area of the community of Fraunberg, contacted us.
The analog connection there no longer worked, due to a defective copper cable.
In all cases, the frustration was so great not least because those affected had repeatedly called Telekom, but Telekom ultimately did not resolve the problem.
Until our newspaper followed up.
After that, and we are now reporting on this for the first time, citizens from Holzland got in touch.
In Pirka in the municipality of Steinkirchen, the network has been dead since mid-December, interrupted by a very short phase in which you could make phone calls.
When asked, Telekom reported that six connections in the village were affected.
Initially, the company announced that due to the groundwater situation, a so-called “remediation date” could not be promised.
The water levels would have made the necessary civil engineering work considerably more difficult and in some cases impossible.
A main cable was full of water.
A total of 50 households beyond the town are affected.
The main cable needs to be replaced.
A few days later, Telekom finally reported to us: The problem had been resolved.
At the same time, our newspaper was made aware by her family of a senior citizen in Arndorf (municipality of Kirchberg) who was cut off from the network for a similar length of time - one of the 50 households in question, as it turned out.
In some cases the internet didn't work either.
In an exchange with our newspaper, Telekom regrets that older people in particular are particularly badly affected by such disruptions.
An accusation that quickly becomes loud: Telekom continues to enjoy a kind of monopoly position in its field in many places and can easily afford to let incidents lie for longer.
Or is the company simply overwhelmed?
In any case, Telekom describes the weather this winter as difficult: floods, constant rain and frost have recently “made repair work on our cables even more difficult” – or in some cases made it impossible.
“Unfortunately, our network is not spared from the weather.”
“Both cables laid above ground via wooden poles and cables that are underground are affected.
For this reason, in individual regions, troubleshooting may take more time than usual and may be delayed.”
Some areas of damage are not accessible or cannot be approached.
In some areas, civil engineering is not possible due to rising and flowing flood water or groundwater.
The company reports that the extent to which it is possible and justifiable to work on affected cable sections is examined every day and decisions are made.
“The safety of our colleagues on site who work on the construction sites has the highest priority.”
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The particularly large amounts of water in the ground this winter “penetrate our cables and technology.
This means that troubleshooting can take longer than normal.
Because everywhere we dig, we come across even more water,” says Telekom, which reports that things were much worse elsewhere in Germany: “The persistently long and difficult weather conditions at the end of last year affected, among other things, our network Infrastructure, especially in Lower Saxony, but also northern areas of North Rhine-Westphalia, is severely affected.”
In order to shorten waiting times on the Telekom hotlines, she recommends the self-service offers at www.telekom.de or via the MeinMagenta app.
Compensation can be claimed from customer service if the fault has also been reported.
As a rule, the basic fees would be reimbursed for the duration of the disruption.
The service hotline can be reached around the clock, seven days a week, on the free phone number (08 00) 3 30 10 00.