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Network cables: Consumer rights are strengthened
Photo: Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / dpa
Many people are annoyed by slow internet connections, especially when they are working from home.
It makes you particularly angry when the contract you have signed means that access should actually be faster - which is a common occurrence according to the Federal Network Agency's broadband monitor.
These days there is now hope for affected consumers: In December, a regulation in the Telecommunications Act will come into force that will significantly improve the position of customers vis-à-vis their Internet provider: After a check using software for broadband measurement, customers can reduce their monthly payment if the service should be reduced be less than what is contractually guaranteed.
Internet tariffs contain a product information sheet that provides information about various things: the maximum data transfer, the data transfer normally available and the minimum speed. For the new reduction law, consumers must use the Federal Network Agency's broadband measurement desktop app. You have to connect your computer to the Internet via LAN cable and not via WLAN, because wireless access to the stationary Internet can lose speed.
Consumer advocates are enthusiastic about the new regulation.
"This is one of the greatest achievements for consumer protection," says Susanne Blohm, digital consultant at the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv).
For the provider this is a very clear indication that they have to describe contracts realistically and are no longer allowed to make unrealistic advertising promises.
When can customers pay less?
According to the law, the right to a reduction exists in the event of "significant, continuous or regularly recurring deviations".
The contract payment is "to be reduced by the ratio in which the actual performance deviates from the contractually agreed performance."
Means: If you only get half of the promised service, you only pay half the price.
The subject is not new. Consumers can already insist on lower payment if they get less pace than promised. If the provider did not see it, consumers had to take them to the local court. Data from the broadband measurement of the Federal Network Agency should help the consumer in the dispute with the provider, but the outcome of the procedure was uncertain. "To take 30 euros a month to court is a costly affair, and many consumers have shied away from that," says vzbv expert Blohm.
The new reduction law is now a much sharper sword.
If someone has the measurement log of the broadband measurement app in their hand and a poor performance can be seen from it, he or she is entitled to a price reduction in the future.
You should report to your internet provider with the measurement protocol.
He then has to react.
What matters
Frequent measurements are important if you want to enforce the new reduction law. According to a draft of a general decree submitted in September that specifies the legal requirements, users have to take ten measurements on two different days. If at least 90 percent of the contractually agreed maximum speed is not reached on both days, the right of reduction applies. This should also be the case if the agreed minimum speed is not reached on two measurement days or the normally available speed is not reached in 90 percent of the measurements.
After the draft was published, market participants were also consulted.
The final measurement specifications could therefore be a little different.
The fact that the right of reduction comes into effect is, however, a done deal - it comes into force on December 1st.
The broadband measurement app, which has been modified for this, will probably only be able to be used two weeks later.
Consumers who are annoyed by their connection will have to be patient.
Nobody knows exactly how big the average discrepancy between aspiration and reality is at the moment when it comes to the Internet speed.
The Federal Network Agency regularly publishes data from the measurement function of Broadband Measurement.de.
Most recently, only 73.6 percent of the users of stationary broadband connections achieved at least half of the contractually agreed maximum transmission rate.
But: Those who carry out such measurements at all tend to be rather dissatisfied with their connection.
It is unclear whether the negative results so far have given rise to any reduction claims.
The results cannot be related to the new reduction law either, after all, they were one-time tests and several will be necessary in the future.
Vodafone is promoting its own measurement tool
And what do the internet providers say?
A Vodafone spokesman emphasizes that the right to reduce the price will be »fully implemented« and, according to reports from customers, »work flat out to deliver the promised service«.
That sounds like: Before the providers accept even a cent less, they prefer to try to improve or at least give the impression that things are going well.
The Vodafone spokesman also points out that the measurement tool carries a »high risk of errors«.
The consumer has to switch off data traffic running in parallel for the measurement - such as WLAN connections to the mobile phone or television.
If it does not do this, the bandwidth that arrives and is measured in the computer via LAN cable could be lower than the actually available.
In addition, the measurement is generally inaccurate, especially with high bandwidths.
Vodafone asks to use its own measuring tool for cable internet (Vodafone speed test), which is more precise.
But it is also clear: Vodafone has to accept the measured values of the network agency desktop app.
However, the company reserves the right to follow up with customers by telephone in the event of suspicion.
The industry association VATM points out that the usual fluctuations in the network do not automatically mean a poorer use option for the consumer, for example if he only download emails or videos work smoothly even with a lower bandwidth.
"It is not the fluctuations that matter, but the usability," says VATM managing director Jürgen Grützner.
However, he is convinced that the network agency's measurement specifications expected for December will take this into account and will also benefit the public.
Wolf von Dewitz, dpa / mbö
