The internet grows, the internet offers much more media than ever before.
Games are no longer delivered on physical media. Programs run off the
cloud service. Everything gets based on the internet more and more. What
sounds good for us, may be bad for users of T-Online. The reason: Cutbacks!

So what do we understand by “cutbacks”

Many providers offer fast internet lines with a so-called flatrate-plan, meaning that there’s no monthly transfer limit for your needs. Makes sense as high data rates mean high data flow, also! But exactly there, the Telekom is going to make massive cutbacks for customers who are surfing the web using VDSL for instance (and VDSL speeds up to 50 MBit/s at the very moment!). They also advertise FTTH with 200/100 data rates for some pioneer cities (Freising, Ascaffenburg, Braunschweig, Kiel, etc…) but be honest. What’s the use of a high-speed connection if it limits your speeds after 100 GByte for instance? Let’s see: The stream of a HD movie via the web consumes up to 10 GB depending on the quality. Other things like YouTube and other streaming services also take their toll. And if we add the E-Mail transfers which can contain large mails (say the HQ pics or videos of the last travel), then it’s not unlikely that you hit the sweet spot where the speed limitation kicks in! A flatrate, which is indeed no flatrate at all… the only thing, that’s flat, is the data, that can be transferred however your speed is then taken down to Pre-DSL times. The Telekom calls 384 kbit/s as a mark.

Let us compare this to other service operators, such as kabel Deutschland, KabelBW and Kabel Medien München.

For less the price they mostly offer higher speeds and NO traffic jam after a certain data transfer amount, albeit Kabel Deutschland is supposed to limit also if someone exceeds a fair use spot by far (actually no detailed figures are available on that but some users already have stated in forums that their internet got slower if they had lots of data travelling over their line.

Okay, so why am I accusing T-Online here now? Well. If you pay a good 100 bucks for the line, one can expect that a flatrate is (as advertised) a flatrate and NOT being limited due to whatever reason. One sould get what he’s paying for and that’s soon no longer given.

Again there’s Switzerland to mention as positive example. None of the carriers actually limit your internet speed no matter how much you transfer over your line. I have transferred over 3 TB of data one month and my line was as fast as ever (cablecom cable internet). These 3TB also contained HUGE transfers from streams recorded with my media box. Now you may ask how I do know about this. Well: My  router is the silent witness protocoling every Byte transferred over the line. It also allows you to see, which end device transfers most and how moch it transfers. That’s why I know that my media box alone has shoveled over 800GB in one month.

Digital TV asks for it’s tribute, that’s for sure. And T-Online should keep that in mind, too. Most likely, T-Online will not limit transfer speed for their digital TV services but a limitation of the rest is still not a flatrate. PERIOD!

If they plan to introduce such tariff plans, then it’s a fair-use tariff which says that the high speed internet is only granted within a reasonable transfer amount limit. The first provider using such policies I know of, was Chello.at (now upc) in Austria. They clearly stated that their Internet is NO flatrate but offering the specified speed within a certain transfer limit. Honestly played and the customer doesn’t stumble into bad surprises for the high price he paid for his SUPAH-DUPAH line! With UPC, the market got turned anyways. UPC has turned their internet into unlimited internet with high capacity speeds. so it’s not astounding, that Austria is surfing with 100/10, Switzerland with 150/15, Germany with 100/5.

As you can see, the smallest country amongst them is surfing with the highest speeds to date! and no limit at all.

So dear T-Online: Mind the markets and don’t consider a limitation of the net as you’re about to loose LOTS of customers! T-Online being the pioneer of internet via DSL should have learned in the past, how to make customers happy. And if DSL in the past would have had limitations, T-Online wouldn’t have become such a success!

I guess, the market is currently dominated by the cable internet providers who squeeze out their capacities at maximum off the DOCSIS 3.0 standard. And until FTTH Gigabit network is available, this might still be the fastest internet available to date.