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Logos of the three German network operators: The order is no coincidence
Photo: Manngold / IMAGO
Tests of the mobile networks of the three major German providers belong to the run-up to Christmas like gingerbread and candlelight - they are just not that cozy. For years, trade magazines have been competing to choose the king of mobile communication, the provider with the best network. While the differences between the network operators - Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica / O2 - are becoming smaller and smaller, the testers seem to be testing more and more complex.
The "Chip" claims to have covered a total of 10,633 kilometers on motorways and country roads for its network test with several vehicles full of measurement technology. At the same time, a measuring team and equipment drove 1832 kilometers in ICEs, while other testers hiked 79 hours through large cities with backpacks full of equipment. For the test of "connect", in turn, measuring vehicles drove 13,196 kilometers of German roads and an additional 5580 kilometers in Austria and 6400 kilometers in Switzerland. Of course, testers also wandered through the cities here and took the train around.
In addition, both magazines evaluate crowdsourcing data. To this end, “thousands of popular apps” with an unspecified number of users checked in the background every 15 minutes “whether there is contact with the network, which network technologies are available and what data rate and latency is being used for the transmission,” it says, “if the User has consented to the completely anonymous data collection «. The data collected once a day and sent to a server consisted of only a few bytes, "so that they hardly burden the data volume of the user," explains the magazine.
The question of who has the best, the second best and the third best network is answered by "connect" author Hannes Rügheimer: "Despite the stormy times, the ranking in our mobile network test remains stable." Telekom is once again in first place with its mobile network It is said, "at a clear distance from the field of pursuers." The "Chip" also sees Telekom as the test winner because it has the best 5G network and enables the best connections in long-distance trains. However, the lead is melting away, writes "Chip", "because the level of the three German networks is becoming more and more similar."
Overall, all three providers have improved their networks, according to "connect".
Vodafone achieved »the greatest increase in points compared to the previous year«.
O2 has also improved significantly, but has some catching up to do when it comes to supplying rural areas with fast data connections and 5G technology.
In the cities, however, the 5G expansion of O2 is exemplary.
Delay in the train
While the testers are satisfied with the expansion of the networks, especially in urban regions, they still see room for improvement in cell phone coverage in rural areas and in the railways.
All network operators were still "asked to further improve their performance on German trains," writes "connect".
In their test, the network quality in trains has even fallen “to a lower level” compared to the previous year, according to the “Chip”.
In the O2 network in particular, the reliability of data connections is lacking, so the network only just missed the mark of "sufficient".
In the end, little changes in how the two specialist journals rate the three networks.
Everyone has gotten better, and the Telekom network is again rated as the best, ahead of Vodafone and Telefónica / O2.
It is noteworthy, however, that O2 is catching up strongly with the 5G expansion in cities.
For Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt am Main, the "Chip" O2 attests the best availability of the particularly fast but low-range 5G networks in the 3.6 GHz frequency band.
The fact that the company still lags far behind the competition in the overall 5G rating of the “Chip” is also due to the fact that O2 limits the 5G data rate to 500 megabits per second (Mbit / s).
The competition achieved significantly higher values.
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