

Deutsche Telekom wants to be like Comcast - steven
https://medium.com/backchannel/continental-grift-77db392b9e06

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jand
This is not directly related to the article but it helps to put the code of
conduct of the Deutsche Telekom into perspective:

The Deutsche Telekom inherited the copper infrastructure, when the state-owned
Deutsche Post AG was split into private corporations in 1989.

Due to this inheritance they are reluctant to build fiber-optical
infrastructure. Because they are obligated to allow access to this
infrastructure to competitors, they try different ways to put obstacles in
competitors path, e.g. by suddenly embracing vectoring which effectivly denies
access to competitors.

So the customer cannot benefit from fiber optical tech, has bought the whole
infrastructure for DT and now pays for it again.

The competitors - if not denied access to the DT infrastructure - pay fees to
use the infrastructure.

So basically the DT has a copper infrastructure which it never paid for, is
unwilling to improve and gets money for from many different parties.

Their much advertised IPO worked... for the DT, while most of the private
investors still feel the burn. They paid roughly 63 EUR per share which
immediately dropped to round about 15 EUR which equals the current share
price. There are still 17.000 investors sueing over the assumption that the DT
knowingly falsified the IPO information.

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AdmiralAsshat
All companies want to be like Comcast. Comcast's model is rather profitable.
Most companies, however, don't think they would ever be able to get away with
the kind of stuff Comcast does.

~~~
cJ0th
Actually, Merkel seems to endorse what Mr Dannenfeldt wants.

> Wir brauchen Veränderungen im Wettbewerbsrecht, weil wir heute einen
> fragmentierten Markt haben, weil wahrscheinlich auch der Blickwinkel – Was
> ist eine Monopolstellung in Europa? – ein falscher ist. Und wenn wir in
> China wenige Telekommunikationsanbieter haben, in den USA wenige, und in
> Europa mehr als die Zahl der Mitgliedsstaaten, dann können die nie eine
> globale Kraft entfalten und hier muss das erst ansetzen.[0]

What she basically says is this: laws of competition need to change. Since the
USA and China have much fewer telcos Europe needs to have fewer as well so
that the remaining companies can operate on a scale that is globally
competitive.

[0] [https://netzpolitik.org/2015/merkel-stellt-sich-gegen-
datens...](https://netzpolitik.org/2015/merkel-stellt-sich-gegen-datenschutz-
und-netzneutralitaet/)

~~~
PythonicAlpha
Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Just to copy anything, because it comes from the US. Monopolies help only one:
The monopolist. We already have a de-facto monopoly in Germany.

And, yes, I hate Mrs. Merkel, because she makes anything, the big bosses want!
She is our Walker Bush and is the leader of the Lemmings.

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maxharris
How does Deutsche Telekom stack up against Comcast on a _per-mile_ cost basis?
I.e., what does it cost, on average, to send a bit over the same distance,
with the same latency, on each network?

We have to go by a per-mile (or per-km) statistic here because Germany has a
vastly higher population density than the US, which means that it has to put
or buy far less cable in the ground to build an equivalent telecommunications
network in Germany.

Before anyone pours more hate on Comcast, does anyone actually know the answer
to this question?

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zoidb
After recently moving to Berlin from the states I miss Comcast. Not something
I ever thought I would say but it's true. Internet plans are expensive, most
if not all the reasonably priced ones have data caps and the support is
horrible. To get my internet connected not only do you have to wait months but
once an appointment is made it is actually impossible to reschedule or cancel
it. This is all anecdotal granted but from others I talked to experiences have
been similar with DT.

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soylentcola
Really? Comcast also has similar caps and customer support is horrible but I
pay around US$70/mo for 50Mbit/s downstream compared to something like Kabel
Deutschland which seems to offer 100Mbit/s downstream for US$22-44/mo (lower
price is promotional for first year).

Also, while I bought my own modem and router to avoid Comcast's additional
rental fee, the German company includes it in the cost.

I don't doubt that they also suck in terms of customer service and will take
your word for that since I don't have experience with them. Still, unless
there is something I'm missing, it would seem that you can get double what I
can get for 2/3 or less cost.

(*disclaimer: I only looked into some popular cable internet providers and
looked at their site to get a quick overview. If I'm missing some detail that
customers would know about, I would not be surprised.)

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raverbashing
Sensationalised title

Granted, Deutsche Telekom is already responsible for a lot of crap German
users have to endure (like long waits to have an internet connection)

But I guess since most of their customers would be satisfied of using a disk
dial phone and usage is kept low by fines to torrent users and half of Youtube
being censored by GEMA they have little incentive to change.

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PythonicAlpha
> But I guess since most of their customers would be satisfied of using a disk
> dial phone and usage is kept low by fines to torrent users and half of
> Youtube being censored by GEMA they have little incentive to change.

I see, that you don't know the German internet customers.

Internet usage is also rising in Germany and things like Netflix, cloud and
other (legal!) broadband services are also known in "good old Germany".

There are also Germans, that own no disk dial phone any more ...

The commentator "jand" already explained very good, how the Telekom is acting
in Germany ...

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venomsnake
I think that jand was sarcastic ...

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PythonicAlpha
I think, you mean the OP, not jand. Since jand did describe the situation
rather well.

