More and more Germans only use their cell phones to make calls, but there are still many people who trust the good voice quality in the fixed network. And German landlines are indispensable for broadband connections anyway. Time to put the vendors to the test in 2021.
Year after year, the trade magazine “connect” tests the German landline networks for their reliability and performance. After the provider 1 & 1 won the test in a national comparison and EWE in a regional comparison in 2020, the tide turned again in 2021. Not just at the top, but also at the bottom of the table. Because Vodafone has decided to boycott the fixed network test of “connect”. More on that later.
TELEKOM AGAIN BETTER THAN 1 & 1
Among the nationally active fixed network operators, Deutsche Telekom fought its way back to the top of the table after a defeat last year. The German market leader scored particularly well in the test with its flawless voice connections. But data connections also impress with the short loading times of the websites tested. Telekom is also doing very well in the area of web TV , but “connect” still sees potential for improvement. The bottom line was that Telekom was able to secure 914 out of a maximum of 1,000 possible points (“very good”).
Only two points worse and therefore also “very good”: 1 & 1. With the takeover of Versatel in 2014, the company has been able to implement its own fixed-line network for several years. According to the “connect” test in 2021, voice connections work a little better than at Telekom, but data connections are slightly slower. The fact that 1 & 1 could not maintain its top position from the previous year was mainly due to the somewhat weak performance of connections to web services . In particular, the uploads to web hosting providers dropped. Here 1 & 1 recorded the weakest result among all tested providers at a high level.
FIXED LINE OFFER FROM O2 “VERY GOOD”, VODAFONE RESULT BURDENED BY HARASSMENT
Telefónica Deutschland, the parent company of the O2 brand, was largely able to confirm its result from the previous year. With a total of 859 points, this fixed network is also rated “very good”, but still falls behind Telekom and 1 & 1. With both voice and data connections, the measurement results delivered good, but weaker results than those of the competition. In terms of data connections, the Telefónica network was even the weakest among all tested providers.
And what about Vodafone? In the final bill, the network operator was only able to secure a “good” with 785 points, but had to run “out of competition” in this year’s landline test. Background: Vodafone informed the “connect” and test partner zafaco at the beginning of the year that it would no longer take part in the fixed-line and broadband test until further notice. According to the testers, Vodafone denounced that the measurements in the test did not adequately reflect the success of the gigabit expansion. Vodafone is said to have even threatened with special cancellations of the connections intended for the fixed network test.
The result: Vodafone could not be put to the test this year in the period communicated to all participants in advance. Instead, the test on the Vodafone lines took place in an early evaluation period. As a result, only tendency classifications are possible, but according to the testers’ findings, these should differ only slightly from the values that would have been measured in the actually intended test period.
The result: According to the testers, Vodafone has to improve its landline network, especially for voice connections. Above all, increased set-up times for all connections to and from the former Unitymedia network spoiled the result. In addition, crowdsourcing analyzes, measurements from user tests using the Federal Network Agency’s broadband measurement apps , only came to a “sufficient” rating . And: Connections to various web services were “good”, but still below average compared to the competition.
REGIONAL PROVIDERS: NETCOLOGNE TRUMPS
The regional providers NetCologne, M-net and EWE were also able to secure “very good” overall results. In the final bill, there were just seven points between the three networks. NetCologne and M-Net even performed better than Deutsche Telekom in the final accounts with 922 and 921 total points, respectively. This was mainly due to the outstanding values in voice connections.
Pÿur (Tele Columbus) achieved only a “good” with 840 points in the final bill, but according to the testers it is no longer far from “very good”. That is a significantly better result than in 2020. In the telephony discipline, the Tele Columbus network had to give up, but was able to achieve the best values in the entire test in data measurements on a test server in its own network.
On the other hand, there are moderate crowdsourcing measurements, which, compared to the tested competitors, turned out to be the worst by far. There is also room for improvement with connections to many web services.
