Mobile communications and Internet in Germany

Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network

With an average download speed of 83.94 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Germany ranks 51st in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 29.07 Mbit/second was significantly lower (70th place).
In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Germany comes 38th with a download speed of 58.13 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 12 Mbit was only enough for 60th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2023 from 180 countries.

Mobile phone rates in Germany

Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 11.60 was calculated Germany in 2021. Compared to the previous year, this amount decreased by 20 cents.

The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Germany spends 0.29% of his gross national income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 6.6 percent.

In the USA, the monthly cost was around $38.10.

In 2021, 4G network coverage in Germany was 99.83 percent of all residents. The 4G network standard includes both LTE and WiMAX.

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.

Access to the internet in Germany from 1990 - 2021

Broadband internet in Germany 2000 - 2021

Germany is doing very well in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 91 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 44 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications. With around 2.0 people per household, this means that around 88.7 percent of all households are equipped with a high-speed internet connection.

The increasing prevalence of cell phones and the simultaneous decline in the number of fixed-network phones also indicate a change here. While the number of fixed-network phones has declined over the past few years, the number of cell phones has increased noticeably at the same time. Most recently, there were 128 cell phone contracts per 100 people. This trend can be observed worldwide, but is not yet as pronounced in Wakanda as in some other countries.

The largest telecommunications provider in Germany is Deutsche Telekomfrom Bonn. In 2022, the stock market value reached 91.72 billion dollars. The number of employees was 216,528. With a profit of 4.93 billion U.S. dollars, it achieved a total turnover of 128.59 billion dollars.

► All international calling codes