Internet in Germany

DSL is the prevalent means of connecting to the Internet in Germany, which other technologies such as Cable, FTTH and FTTB, Satellite, UMTS/HSDPA and LTE being offered as alternative options.

In Germany, DSL is the prevalent internet access technology with over 30 million subscribers. For residential services the Annex B versions of ADSL, ADSL2+, and VDSL2 are used. With over 12 million customers the incumbent Deutsche Telekom is the market leader. Other DSL providers either operate their own hardware on local loops rented from the incumbent in a local loop unbundling (LLU) arrangement, and/or purchase bit-stream access from a provider that operates DSL hardware.

As of January 2014, a typical monthly cost for "dual flatrate" internet and telephone service start at €25 for ADSL2+ (16 Mbit/s downlink, 1 Mbit/s uplink) and €30 for VDSL2 (50 Mbit/s downlink, 10 Mbit/s uplink). Some of the major nationwide DSL providers are:

Providers such as Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone also offer DSL-based triple play services with IPTV, which requires at least 16 Mbit/s for HD quality.

Starting in 2013, all newly deployed Deutsche Telekom VDSL2 nodes support G.vector technology. Beginning in August 2014, vectored VDSL2 service with data rates of up to 100 Mbit/s downlink and 40 Mbit/s uplink is available from Deutsche Telekom. Existing VDSL2 deployments in major cities will be upgraded to G.vector in 2016. Deutsche Telekom is planning to introduce 500 Mbit/s service using G.fast in 2017 at the earliest.

Symmetric DSL (SDSL) connections using G.shdsl technology are marketed to business customers. Providers offering SDSL include Deutsche Telekom, QSC, and Versatel.

While DSL is the prevalent connection technology in Germany, other technologies may offer lower prices or better availability and speed.

Internet via cable is offered by Kabel Deutschland and Unitymedia (separated geographically). Additionally there are some small providers as well which do not operate nationwide. The typical available download speed is between 10 and 200 Mbit/s. In April 2015 Tele Columbus started offering up to 400 Mbit/s. A typical 2-year tariff with 120Mbit/s internet and telephone costs about €35 per month, with additional HD cable TV about €60. Since November 2014 both Unitymedia and Kabel Deutschland offer connections with up to 200Mbit/s in downstream.

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