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Tool of the Federal Network Agency: broadbandmessage.de
Photo: Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / dpa
In many cases, fixed-line Internet is still significantly worse than contractually agreed.
As the Federal Network Agency informed the German Press Agency on request, almost 15,000 so-called measurement protocols have been created for consumers as part of a reduction right that has been in force since December.
It was "almost exclusively" that claims for reductions were found - the performance was so bad that consumers were entitled to a price reduction.
However, the logs do not state how high the claim for reduction is – consumers must clarify this with their providers.
Netzagentur boss Klaus Müller said that they are pleased that the measurement tool will be well received widebandmessage.de.
Internet tariffs contain a product information sheet in which the provider specifies the maximum, minimum and data rates normally available.
There must be no "significant, continuous or regularly recurring deviation" from these specifications, as a law states.
Legal claim only for about three months
However, the results of the measurements show deficits from which legal claims can be derived.
Most often it is about the normally available transmission speed.
In addition, the download is more affected than the upload.
The still relatively new right to reduce prices strengthens the role of the consumer in relation to his provider.
The measurement tool required for this has been available since mid-December.
The desktop app will provide information as to whether the landline at home meets the requirements and whether the deviations are so great that consumers are entitled to a price reduction.
Similar measurements via the Federal Network Agency's app had already been carried out in previous years, and they had also revealed deficiencies.
A legal claim did not result from the older measurements - this has only been the case for about three months.
In order to create a measurement protocol (in the form of a signed PDF file, see page 74 in the detailed description of the procedure), a total of 30 measurements on three different calendar days are required under the new law.
There should be at least five minutes between measurements and at least three hours between the fifth and sixth measurement of the day.
The total period for the “measurement campaign” – as the prescribed series of 30 tests is called – must not be longer than two weeks.
These specifications make it clear that consumers have to be really serious about the check - you just don't get the measurement report like that.
On the one hand, the network agency announced that in the period from mid-December to the end of February, almost 15,000 measurement campaigns were carried out by consumers in accordance with the specifications and corresponding measurement protocols were created.
On the other hand, about three times as many campaigns were started but not completed.
It is unclear why so many consumers dropped out of a campaign before the final measurement.
Providers speak of »few« cases
And how did Internet providers react to the first figures on the new reduction law?
A spokesman for Deutsche Telekom said that relatively few measurement logs are currently being received from customers.
In the past two months it has been an average of ten per day.
"We always look for an accommodating solution," he said.
"If a claim arises after the cause of the measurement result has been clarified, we will of course grant a reduction on the monthly amount." The contribution varies depending on the customer and contract.
Vodafone said briefly that so far "few" customers have made use of the right to a reduction.
"We don't publish figures on this," said a spokesman.
Consumer advocates evaluated the numbers on the right to a reduction as evidence of a large gap between claims and reality on the domestic Internet.
Around 15,000 complete measurement campaigns within two and a half months are "not inconsiderable", after all the effort is high, said Felix Flosbach from the consumer advice center in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The number of consumers who obtain information on the subject from the advice centers is constantly increasing.
Federal Network Agency wants simplified compensation models
The consumer advocate complained that the amount of the claim was not clear.
After viewing the protocol, fixed-line users would have to decide for themselves how much less they wanted to pay.
The telecommunications providers then often only offer a small price reduction and do not explain how they came up with the amount.
"More transparency of the provider would be helpful," said Flosbach.
In fact, the situation for consumers could soon improve.
Because Federal Network Agency President Müller said that his authority was “in the interest of customers in dialogue with the industry in order to achieve simplified compensation models”.
The digital policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Maik Außendorf, expects broadbandmessage.de to increase the number of users, since this instrument is gaining in popularity.
As the vast majority of the approximately 15,000 measurement logs that were issued showed, the users paid "for a bandwidth that they ultimately didn't get," said the politician.
pbe/dpa