The Federal Network Agency has published key points for reducing mobile Internet access if the promised bandwidth is not delivered.
According to the most recent amendment to the Telecommunications Act (TKG), consumers have the right to reduce the monthly payment if the internet performance is lower than contractually guaranteed. For the fixed network, the Federal Network Agency laid down rules for this at the end of 2021. On Thursday, she published comparable specifications for mobile Internet access and put them up for discussion, which give the network operators a lot of freedom.
90 percent deviation tolerable
According to the Federal Network Agency, the proof of reduced performance in mobile communications is significantly more complex than in the fixed network. This is because a contract here is not fulfilled at a fixed location. The decisive factor is how efficient the networks of the providers are in the individual regions.
The regulatory authority therefore wants to base its model on “differentiated deductions” for determining a relevant deviation from the contractually agreed service. In urban areas, a deviation of 75 percent of the promised maximum download and upload speed could be tolerable before compensation would be due. In semi-urban areas, the deviation is likely to be 85 percent, in rural areas even 90 percent.
“These discounts may seem high,” the network agency admits. In view of the often agreed maximum speeds of several hundred MBit/s, this still results in “high data transmission rates” for most end customers.
Key points identical to the fixed network
According to the key points, the number of measurements required to prove a reduction should be 30 – as in the fixed network. However, the authority has a different distribution in mind: the surveys should extend to five calendar days in mobile communications, with six measurements per calendar day. Parallel to the participation process for interested parties, which runs until September 30, the Federal Network Agency wants to work on a special measuring instrument for the verification. Authorities head Klaus Müller emphasized: “The goal at the end of this process is to help consumers to be able to assert their rights in mobile communications in the future.”
(bme)
