Telecommunication in Germany

Development of telephone and internet connections

With an average download speed of 71.58 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Germany ranked 43rd in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 23.83 Mbit/second was significantly lower (61st place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 44th place.
In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Germany comes 29th with a download speed of 52.18 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 10 Mbit was only enough for 58th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in February 2022 from 180 countries.

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

Access to the Internet in Germany from 1990 - 2020

Broadband internet in Germany 2000 - 2020

Germany is doing very well in the expansion of broadband Internet connections. Around 90% of all residents have access to the Internet. Around 44% 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 87.0 percent of all households are equipped with a fast Internet connection.