International Connectivity

Steve Suppe writes "As an American who is going to be living overseas for a few years (Germany, to be more exact), I'm curious as to what advice/information Slashdot could provide people like me. How much can I expect to pay for dial-up/broadband, and from who? I'd be interested to hear how it differs around the world. Any good reference sites? Thanks!"

German DSL

[peteypooh]

The Deutsche Telekom [t-online.de] sells flat-rate "T-DSL" for about 55 euros a month. The service is extremely reliable as compared to what I was used to in the states. However, it is a bit of pain to get the parts (three separate boxes) and get it turned on. Get some help from a German-speaking friend or soldier. (as a side bonus, with the flat DSL, you can call the US for 4 cents a minute)

They also sell time-based access cards on post, and on the economy, if you don't want always-on access.

Good luck!

connectivity seems good

[g4dget]

From traveling in Germany, my impression is that you are likely to be able to get DSL perhaps more easily than in the US. The computer stores also seemed to have comparable kinds of gadgets, at comparable prices, although technology still tends to be released in the US before Europe (but sometimes it's the other way around). In some technology areas, such as cell phones, Bluetooth, and wireless Internet access, it actually seems a bit better. Dial-up is also very easy, with a choice of no-subscription pay-as-you-go dial-ins and subscriber based services. Again, it seems like more choice than we get in the US.

UK

[cs02rm0]

ADSL Guide UK [adslguide.org]

Deutsche Telekom

[igotmybfg]

The best deal for DSL seems to be from Deutsche Telekom. They have several different rate plans, so make sure you pick the flate rate one. It's like 25E/month. You'll probably get screwed anyway, b/c Telekom is basically the worst company on Earth. Instead of help and courtesy, you get insults and insolence. So be prepared. Also, if you want to get a mobile phone, make sure you get service from Vodafone, (aka D2/Arcor/Mannesman) not Telekom. Vodafone's cheaper, has better coverage, and is a multinational carrier, although you usually don't have any problems with that in Europe. Cheers!

I do live here

[quizwedge]

Actually, timothy, I'm an American living in Germany myself. Of course, it depends on where you are planning on living in Germany. I am signed up with freenet.de which has a couple of options. I am on the plan where it costs 89/100 of a euro cent (about 96 / 100 of a U.S. cent) per minute. There is no monthly fee, however, which means to hit the 20 US dollars per month you'd pay, I'd have to be on for about 37.5 hours. That seems to be the cheapest option for dial-up around here. http://www.einsundeins.com seems to have the best DSL rates. The DSL line will cost you about 20 euros per month (about 21.55 USD) and the service depends on what level you choose. Unlimitted is about 25- 30 euros, I've heard (26.94 USD - 32.32 USD), but I'd recommend looking into one of the time based of volume based plans. For me, it'd make more sense to get the 2GB per month plans for 9.90 euros (10.67 USD) as I can download files over the school's flat rate DSL for free, but I'll be leaving Germany in a few months (anyone know of any openings for an intro level tech job in the Moscow, Idaho area? :) ) and so I didn't want to pay an installation fee or anything like that.

Good luck.

good internet in germany

[Dylan2000]

I pay (I think) around 30 euros per month for 768/128 ADSL flatrate. I'm only not sure how much cause my girlfriend takes care of all of that stuff since I'm far too important (and it's all too complicated for me cause I'm also too dumb).

check out T-DSL [t-dsl.de], the service offered by the German Telekom, which is the phone company and also the biggest ISP. We got our cable modem thrown in for free when we signed up, don't know if they'll still give you that and they gave us a good price on a router/ISDN system/hub/ISDN modem/USB NIC wonderbox bursting with flashing lights too.

The german might be a problem when filling out the forms but most of the support people on the phone will be able to speak english

You'll want to be running SuSE

[earthforce_1]

This much I know. They have some built in ready to run config scripts for most German ISPs, including dial-up, cable and DSL. (From a somebody which runs SuSE on their server) Too bad they were useless to me, as I live in Canada.

Broadband in UK

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

ADSL where available [bt.com] either direct from BT [bt.com] or [clara.net] several [freeserve.com] resellers [demon.net] (there are loads more). 512 down / 128 up costs about GBP 30.00 / month give or take.

There are two major cable operators in the uk, ntl: [askntl.com] and Telewest [telewest.co.uk]. Both offer cable modem in almost all areas of their networks for about GBP 25.00 / month for 512 and 40.00 / month for 1M.

ntl couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery [nthellworld.com].

Italy: 10Mbit optical fiber for $70/mo

[Anonymous Coward]

If you live Italy, in one of the following cities:
Milan and province, Rome, Turin, Bologna, Naples and Genoa, thanks to FastWeb [fastweb.it] you can get 10Mbit optical fiber Internet access for about $70/mo (67 euros/mo).

Quite cheap and works like a charm :-)

Germany:

[Anonymous Coward]

Over here in Germany, connectivity is actually no real problem:

Wired:
- Analoge and Digital (ISDN) lines, while ISDN is much more popular nowadays. Deutsche Telekom provides most of the normal telephone connections. Visit http://www.telekom.de . Prices for a regular ISDN line are about 25/$ a month for 2 phone lines with a total of 3 phone numbers. Setup is around 50/$.
- ADSL is a widely available option for either analoge or digital phonelines. Deutsche Telekom provides an ADSL-line for about 10 a month on top of your phonebill.
- Flatrates for ADSL are around 20-30 on top of the phonebill which already includes the charge for your ADSL-line.

Wireless:
-WLAN hotspots are coming up everywhere in big and small cities since some months. It's quite amazing how many nodes you can find within a day of WarDriving around Frankfurt, i.e.
-CellServices provide almost a complete coverage of the whole country. GPRS is widely available but still a little on the pricy side: 5cent for 10kb with my cell-provider "O2". Cell rates are usually 10-20 a month, calling-costs not included (average bill around 50 , if you don't hug the phone 24/7)

Hope this helps.

To get into much more detail visit:

http://www.billiger-surfen.de (cheaper-surfing)
http://www.onlinekosten.de (onlinecost)
http://www.mobileaccess.de
http://w ww.telekom.de
http://www.heise.de

or go

http://www.google.de

and help yourself. ;-)

enjoy germany!

-benny

Re:German DSL

[peteypooh]

One more comment, for linux users: You will need to know how to get linux working with the PPP protocol to get "T-DSL" up and running. One good website I've seen is this one [physics.ubc.ca]. Not sure which distributions work with it off the bat, but I know it wasn't too easy for me. The telekom provided directions for getting it to work, but in German unfortunately, and I cannot translate German and linux at the same time yet!

Some Info

[germanbirdman]

OK,

When you get a phone, get at from the Deutsche Telekom and not from any other local carrier.
Why? Their rates might suck, but only if you use Deutsche Telekom can you use ALL call by call carriers which are billed by the normal telephone bill. The majority you can use without registering at the other phone company, so basically you check out which operator is the cheapest for a call, pick up the phone, and dial.

Calls to the US start at 4 cents per minute using Call by Call.

To check the cheapest rate and which call by caller operator to use, checkout www.teltarif.de

ISDN phone lines are very popular over here, you can get a special rate that calls on Sunday are free within Germany. These can also be used to call up an internet provider with "normal" telephone number. www.teltarif.de also has a list of these which you can use together with usernames/password.

Local phone calls are NOT free.

Internet dialup you also usually use call by call ones. Check out www.billiger-surfen.de to find out which operator is cheapest. Cheap ones start like 1 cent per minute. That's about the best rate you can get.

Flatrates for internet dialups do not exist.

Broadband:

DSL is the way to go, you need to get the DSL line from the Deutsche Telekom. And in addition to that, you must subscribe to an Online service, either the Deutsche Telekom's own (T-Online) where a 768kbit down/128kbit up costs 29.99 Euros per month with no limit regarding time or bandwidth. Note that this flatrate is not available if you use the 1500up/192kdown service. 1und1 (www.1und1.de) has better deals if you have less traffic.

Basically, for an ISDN telephone with the calls free on Sunday plus DSL 768Kbit, you would pay 41.27 Euros a month. Add to that the online rate (29,99 for t-online dsl flat)

If you sign up at 1und1.de you get a free USB DSL Modem, for 9.95 you get an ISDN telephone switch to which you can connect analogue phones to, and they pass on your request to the Deutsche Telekom. You also have to pay a setup fee, which is charged by the Deutsche Telekom, but doing it with 1und1 currently offers the best deal.

Hope this helps.

Re:German DSL

[genus babbage]

>> However, it is a bit of pain to get the parts (three separate boxes)

sounds like you got ISDN too (?). It took me a long time to convince them that I didn't really need T-ISDN in order to get T-DSL; It seems as though a lot of their sales staff don't understand this either, and may not believe you for a while - keep at it - you really don't want ISDN :)

That 55euro tarrif rings a bell r.e. ISDN too; I'm reasonably sure I pay around 49euro, and I don't have ISDN (or the 3 extra boxes you see in most houses - my DSL plugs in the phone socket, as you'd expect).

Note that you buy DSL from your telco, and then an account (which needs to be a DSL account if you want DSL) from your ISP; this is different to the UK, no idea how it compares to USA.

They have a confusing list of available taffifs - you can easily end up paying per minute if you're not careful; flat rate is almost certainly the best option, IMO, unless you have very low useage.

I also think the service is very reliable, and have been happy with them so far (I'm a brit, been here about 7 months now).

Either T-Online or T-DSL drop the line every 24 hours as well, if this is a problem you'll need to check other suppliers.

T-Online is anoying in that it won't let you use a "From" address other than your t-online one (it will replace whatever you put with a long string of numbers at t-online.de; I presume these numbers are my account number or something) - it doesn't strip "reply to", but it's damn anoying. Might be worth checking out other ISPs if this would anoy you too, unless someone here knows a way around this.

Broadband Reports

[Anonymous Coward]

Broadband Reports [broadbandreports.com] Specifically their forums [broadbandreports.com] and more specifically the international section [broadbandreports.com] of their forums

As someone who's done this recently ...

[torpor]

I'm an Australian who lived in America for most of my life and there became a bandwidth junkie, but now I live in Germany.

The transition has been totally smooth. German Deutsche-Telekom sell flat-rate DSL, and it's pretty good in my region - at least as good as what I was used to in LA.

There is less after-market competition - i.e. small regional ISP's, but some parts of Germany have good regional nets. Not really here in the Ruhr, my understanding is that its mostly DT.

Re:Deutsche Telekom

[FeloniousPunk]

This needs to be emphasized more. I have never in my entire life had dealings with a worse pack of surly incompetents than Deutsche Telekom. They are utterly unreliable and chances are you are going to get plenty of overcharged bills and dealing with their customer service is harrowing, even if you speak fluent German. The only positive thing I have to say about them is that I got a free DSL modem from them as part of a promotion.
I left Germany from the States in November and cancelled my phone and DSL service before I left. Yesterday in the mail I get a bill from them for February. Ah, Telekom.
You have to deal with them to get the DSL line, but you should look into getting a different ISP. Depending on where you live, there are other broadband ISPs. Since your e-mail address is af.mil, I'm betting that you're off to Ramstein. That's not so good, as the only other choice is AOL.de. You have to live in the bigger cities to have a choice.
I second igotmybfg's recommendation on cell phones - I had Vodafone D2 and was pleased with them. In fact, I like them better than my current US carrier, Verizon.
Sorry to say, but you'll be pining for your Cox.net cable broadband in no time.

Serious Answer

[tigersha]

Geez Louise,

This thread is really getting on me ninnies...

Anyways, I live as an expat in Germany. DSL is trivial to get, try Deutsche Telekom although I do not not know if they are exactly the cheapest.

There is a website that contains a list of all the
German DSL providers (there are loads) but it is in German. Google for it (try DSL Deutschland). 768/128 DSL is available almost anywhere, and some providers (yahoo) does 1500 as well.

As far a cellphones are concerned the service is very good, but do yourself a favour and get a contract from Viag Interkom (now O2). They are the best, especially with their Genion at Home thingie. That is quite cheap.

It is possible to dial fairly cheap. www.billigtelefonieren.de should give you all the details you want on that, again, in German. You usually dial with a prefix code to get the different providers.

If you do not want to go DSL, ISDN is very much more wide-spread and cheap than in the US and pay-per call may be mucho cheaper than a DSL, depending on how much you are online. Now that DSL is getting very popular you can get cheapo ISDN cards second hand. ISDN is pretty OK for most things anywa, and with it you can call for free on Sundays for a few Euros per month extra.

Telekom does take a few weeks to install DSL due to a serious demand-driven backlog (and the !"!"ers do NOT tell you that they have done it, you have to try to see if it works!) but ISDN install is fairly quick (2 days in my case)

Telekom has been banned as of last year to give away DSL modems for free (it was stifling competition) so now you have to pay, a small DSL box with a router with 4 ports that can do masquerading and set with a web box is available for about 70 Euros, and one with a wireless port as well for about 200 (At media markt). I picked up an old Pentium 100 for 25 euros and Linux it and put up a ethernet card and a hub to use as a DSL router behind Deutsche Telekom DSL, works fine but at that time the routers were still expensive so a crouter is probably the cheapets way to go.

You can also get a hosted server (a complete Linux box with full root control) for 39 Euros per month.

Computers are generally more expensive than in the states but not too much. You can pretty much find everything you need, try www.arlt.com to get a feel for prices. (I buy there, do not work for them).

If you wish to know more, drop my a line on my home page.

Try looking here

[Hecatonchires]

http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/

It is a subsite of http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
Whirlpool was originally a user bitch forum for Telstra Bigpond, but expanded to cover most of Australia's broadbnad ISP's. The forums at whirlpool are a good measure of customer satisfaction.

Stay away from Telstra - they prefer to use a sandpaper condom on their phallus.

Re:Prices

[germanbirdman]

Many are complaining that ping times are bad in the telekom DSL network, that is because they do not use fastpath.

But downloads are pretty speedy. Mostly you do get to download at 80K/second which I think is quite nice.

Ping time to a cable modem in PA in the US from my German DSL connection is about 140ms.

Re:UK

[Doomrat]

More importantly, in terms of realism regarding UK broadband connectivity:

ADSL-For-Ipswich [adsl-for-ipswich.co.uk] | Barnt Green, Birmingham [broadbandb...reen.co.uk] | Edenbridge, Kent [getedenbridgeadsl.co.uk] | Brinscall, Lancashire [broadband4...call.co.uk] | Chafford Hundred, Grays [ch100broadband.info] | Broxburn/Uphall, Scotland [broadbandbroxburn.co.uk] | New Mills, Stockport [broadband4newmills.co.uk] | Bradford-on-Avon [bradford-on-avon.info] | Antrim, Northern Ireland [adsl4antrim.co.uk] | Paddock Wood, Kent [broadband4paddockwood.tk] | Mossley, Greater Manchester [broadband4mossley.co.uk] | Maltby, Rotherham [broadband4maltby.co.uk] | Cudworth, South Yorkshire [geocities.com] | Pembury, Kent [demon.co.uk] | Telford, Shropshire [broadbandupdate.co.uk] | Totnes, Devon [totnesbroadband.com] | Caister on Sea, Great Yarmouth [cjb.net] | Broadband in the East of England [broadbandbrokerage.com] | Wargrave, Berkshire [wargrave.net] | Alton, Hampshire #1 [alton.org.uk] | Alton, Hampshire #2 [broadbandalton.co.uk] | Frodsham, Cheshire [connect.to] | Atherstone, Warwickshire [broadband4...one.org.uk] | Sleaford, Lincolnshire [adsl4sleaford.co.uk] | Neston, South Wirral [broadband4neston.co.uk] | Blackpool/Fleetwood, Lancashire [broadband4...ool.org.uk] | Colwyn Bay, Wales [broadband4...nbay.co.uk] | Whitby, Yorkshire [btopenworld.com] | Saltcoats/Ardossan/Stevenston, Strathclyde [visitsaltcoats.com] | Thornbury, South Gloucestershire [uk.com] | Dinnington, Sheffield [broadband4...gton.co.uk] | Irby, Wirral [broadband4irby.co.uk] | Colwyn Bay/Old Colwyn/Rhos-On-Sea, North Wales [broadband4...nbay.co.uk] | Hednesford, Staffs [tga4.co.uk] | Connahs Quay/Flint/Mold/Sealand/Queensferry, North Wales [broadband4flintshire.com] | Eastham/Wirrall, Cheshire [broadband4eastham.co.uk] | Worle, North Somerset [broadbandworle.co.uk] | Dereham, Norfolk [broadbanddereham.info] | Leicester Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire [fsworld.co.uk] | Bolton Westhoughton, Lancashire [westhoughton-adsl.tk] | Leek, Staffordshire [broadband4leek.co.uk] | Ivybridge, Devon [dmsserve.com] | Attleborough, Norfolk [adsl4attleborough.co.uk] | Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire [broadband4...idge.co.uk] | Montrose, Angus, Scotland [ruralstar.com] | Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex [adsl4hurstpierpoint.com] | Worcester/St Johns/Fernhill Heath, Worcester [worcesterb...and.org.uk] | Allerton, Liverpool (and surrounding exchanges) [liverpoolbroadband.com] | Buntingford, North Hertfordshire [www.surf.to] | Glastonbury, Somerset [broadband4...bury.co.uk] | St Budeaux, Devon [dpm.me.uk] | Fenland towns of Ramsey, Yaxley, Whittlesey, Chatteris, Ely and Soham [fenlandbroadband.co.uk] | Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire [broadband4grimsby.co.uk] | Pershore, Worcs [pershore.info] | Yarmouth, Norfolk [broadbandf...outh.co.uk] | Great Oakley, Corby, Northants [adsl4greatoakley.com] | South Woodham Ferrers, Essex [yi.org] | Goring & South Stoke, South Oxfordshire and Streatley & Lower Basildon, West Berkshire [broadband4goring.co.uk] | Kinross & Milnathort, Perthshire [get-adsl-f...oss.org.uk] | Bolsover, Derbyshire [adsl4bolsover.co.uk] | Elton, Ince and Helsby in Cheshire [broadband4helsby.co.uk] | Hanwell/Horley/Wroxton/Balscote/North Newington/Drayton, Oxfordshire [broadband4wroxton.org.uk] | Tonyrefail/Gilfach Goch and surrounding area, Mid Glamorgan [tonyrefail.net] | Rotherfield Greys/Rotherfield Peppard/Shepherds Green, Oxfordshire [broadband4...eld.org.uk] | Heath Hayes, Staffordshire [heathhayes.net] | Hednesford, Staffordshire [adsl4hednesford.co.uk] | Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire [broadbandchippy.net] | Adderbury (Nr. Banbury), Oxfordshire [adderbury.net] | Lydney, Gloucestershire [broadband4lydney.co.uk] | Knaresborough, North Yorkshire [broadband4...ough.co.uk] | Saltburn-By-The-Sea, Cleveland [btinternet.com] | Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire [hebdenbridge.co.uk] | Churchdown, Gloucestershire [broadband4...down.co.uk]

Geramn Telecom

[Anonymous Coward]

DO NOT BUY FROM GERMAN TELECOM. Their DSL service is pretty reliable, but they'll send you bills for a year after you cancelled it (happened to me). If you are going to live in Hamburg, buy from HanseNet; they have 2MBit/Flat-fee for reasonable rates. In other parts of Germany, check out QSC - I am in Frankfurt and customer of QSC. No problems, 60Euro/flat-fee for 1Mbit downstream, but it doesn't come with voice connectivity.

Re:German DSL

[germanbirdman]

Basically, pricewise it does not make much of a difference if you have T-Net+DSL (T-Net = analog) or T-ISDN+DSL.

Check out this web page for prices:

http://www1.t-versand.de/intershoproot/eCS/TVers an d/en/images/rd/special/T-DSL_Preisuebersicht/start .html','width=750,height=645,toolbar=no,menubar=no ,scrollbars=no,resizeable=no,status=no,location=no '

Hope this link works, otherwise try www.t-dsl.de, click on "DSL Preisübersicht".

Cheapest T-Net+DSL rate = 33.71
Cheapest T-ISDN+DSL rate = 36.98

For 3 Euros more that means that you get all the coolness of having 2 phone lines instead of one.

Re:German DSL

[germanbirdman]

It's pretty straight forward.

Get The roaring penguin ppoe, that is what I use.

Username is a bit complex.

Basically, on your t-online password info sheet, you need to look for two things:

- Anschlußkennung
- T-Online Nummer

Both are nowerdays 12 digit numbers.

The username is these numbers written together plus the following string (Mitbenutzer Nummer)

#[e-mail]

so the whole string example is

123456789012123456789012#[e-mail]

That would be the username

The password is just the password.

Not many hassles really to get it to work.

A few sites

[allolex]

When I first moved to Germany in 1994, there was little information available for expatriots. It was all pretty much learning by doing. I recently spent about a year and a half in LA and returned to Germany at the end of last year with my girlfriend, who does not speak German. While looking for orientation materials for her (actually an experienced expat), I discovered that the amount of information has expanded greatly.

One really useful site is How To Germany [howtogermany.com], which includes a brief overview and a nice link to an online comparison chart [focus.msn.de]. The best computer magazin in the world [heise.de] had an entire section devoted to the best and cheapest DSL/cable internet service at the end of last year. Unfortunately, you will have to learn German to read the article (The issue's TOC is here [heise.de], if you want it---and this is reason enough to want to learn German.)

Re:(Another) Same Question... Different Country...

[mabinogi]

You have 3 broadband choices in Canberra, depending on your suburb:

1. TransACT - A local high speed broadband fibre network. You have to pay TransACT for the connection, then an ISP for internet (the cable from TransACT also provides TV and Phone).
Unfortunately they bandwidth is currently capped at 512kb, and all the ISPs are braindead when it comes to Broadband, and think that a 500meg limit will work.

2. Satelite via telstra. Not sure how much it costs....but it's Satelite, and so you probably don't want it anyway.

3. ADSL
There's two main providers - Telstra and Netspace.
Telstra offer 512kb for about $100 a month with a 3GB limit before they start charging extra (I'm currently on this plan, since they were the only option at the time).
Netspace will give you 512kb for around $100 a month with 4Gig peak, and 7 gig offpeak, and they throw in a dialup account too. They also offer 1.5Mb for $150.
If you're looking for broadband in Canberra, and cant get or don't want TransACT, then Netspace ADSL is definitely the way to go.

Re:German DSL

[germanbirdman]

Still an Australian service, that is wher ethe main programmers sit.

Servers in NY, Norway and Texas.

"Damn Americans, I hate those bastards."

[SuperMario666]

Canada: land of great beer, free health care, separatist movements, and trolls (both garden variety internet and elected official)

From Slate:

On Wednesday, at the end of a "media scrum" about Iraq, Canadian Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish was captured by TV cameras saying, "Damn Americans. I hate those bastards." When Daniel Leblanc, a reporter from Toronto's Globe and Mail asked her to explain the remark, she threatened to restrict journalists' parliamentary access if it was reported, telling him, "If you guys want to keep the privilege of working in that area without being held back, I would be very careful with this one." The press ignored her attempted intimidation and publicized the remarks.

Re:VOIP--Get DSL, US Phone number, but no voice li

[Anonymous Coward]

Addition:

- You can not have DSL in Germany without a phone line.
- If you think of broadband in germany, you say DSL.

Re:How about..

[Technician]

Check with Cable and Wireless. They have a monopoly in most of the carribean. Unless something is diffrent there, they will be your only choice. The Jamaca Cable and Wireless page is http://home.cwjamaica.com/. You should be able to find rates and requirements there.

I don't see rates published online, but contact information for internet is here.

Customers can access information about local dial up numbers by

Dialling 1-888-225-5295 (CALL-CWJ)
Visiting the Cable & Wireless website (www.cwjamaica.com)
Visiting any of their 24 Commercial offices

Internet in Sweden

[Daniel_E]

We have lots of different providers offering different access technologies. Some are good, some are very good and a few are exceptional. :-)

* Dial-up
Dial-up is mostly dead. You never see any ads for it anymore. Usually charged at the same per-minute rate as phone-calls (2c/min). No distinction is made between local calls and long-distance anymore, they cost the same (most of the cost is in the local loop anyway).

* Cable
There are a number of different cable operators. They all have different prices and plans, but it's very common to pay between $20 and $30 for the basic connection (which usually is between 512/128 and 1024/512, all depending on local operator). Available in most cities.

* DSL
One major operator (Telia) has had what can only be described as a monopoly on DSL service. It is getting better, and local DSLAMs from other operators are being set up in the markets with the biggest customer base (large cities). Telia offers a 512/512 plan for about $35 with no UL/DL restrictions. Other operators are now offering DSL up to 2.5M/512, but at a premium and usually only in large cities. Availability is pretty good, and service has been very reliable for all of my friends.

* Ethernet
Several municipalities have set up local fiber or Ethernet networks in the cities. I happen to live in Gavle, the city with perhaps the best local network of them all. Unfortunately I don't live in a house connected to the network. We also have a few other operators that install Ethernet, the biggest being BBB (Bredbandsbolaget). Prices range from $20 to $50. Personally I have a 2M/2M connection that costs $22 (100Mbit Ethernet in my apartment, router in basement that does bandwidth limiting, 155Mbit fiber to local POP for the backbone, VERY nice RTT to most places around the globe).

* Wireless
Don't really know how the market looks like for wireless access points. Haven't seen much about it.

Re:Deutsche Telekom Stopping Billing

[aqui]

After living in Germany for I while I know what you mean about billing not stopping when you want it to. It's not restricted to Deutsche Telekom.

My experience is that German companies don't understand customer service in the same sense we expect it here in North America.

If you need to terminate an account, or contract or insurance or anything else doing it by phone despite them having customer phone service, generally doesn't work.

The billing departments generally aren't up to speed and it can take a few months (if ever) for things to trickle from phone services to them.

>>>> Cancel all contracts etc... in writing with a letter by mail (keep a copy).

All that being said, I've had some nightmare companies here in Canada too... in particular
ISPs. A friend of mine fought for months to cancel a particular ISP account...

Malaysia

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an American living in Malaysia and have had DSL here (TMnet Streamyx from state run telecom)for about 4 months. I pay 20 USD a month for a 384/128 connection. It's great, now I can watch Sopranos & DL just about any movie. The stuff I download looks better than the pirated VCDs you can get here. Cost of living is cheap, I pay 125 a month USD for a 5 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. Food is great and cheap, about 10 USD for good seafood dinner for 2.
The downside, racism like I have never experienced before in my life - The Muslim Malays get a free ride on the backs of the people that do the real work, Indians and Chinese. The press is censored heavily. People tend to tolerate it because food is good and cheap... And if you make a fuss they will throw you in prison and let you rot without ever charging you with anything.. go figure! Oh, I forgot.. MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY for drugs.. example,, 7 ounces of pot = hung till dead. Other than that... Life is food...I mean good.. ;)

Re:My advice

[spongman]

you can't compare cost of living in relation to exchange rates. you have to consider it in relation to the income you can earn in that country. there's many more things than income that affect a currency's exchange rate.

for example, the cost of living in, say, afghanistan may be lower than that in the US when you compare the exchangable currency, but the income you would earn there for doing the same job would probably also be lower.

[slightly OT] Take care....

[Uzull]

of the voltage and standard changes...
makr sure your appliances, especially you computer is dual voltage, and check the settings before you plug in your equipment. Otherwise, boom ! Fried power supplies.
If you take your DSL router from the US, as in my case, I had to buy a special transformer for the linksys box i had (220v ac to 24v ac).
As we are speaking dsl routers, make sure that your dsl router supports the terribly long usernames of t-online/deutsche telekom...
Good luck and have fun with relocationg...

Re:Try looking here

[Antos700]

Whirlpool a good indication of customer satisfaction? Don't think so. It is more an indicator of customer *disatifaction*. If you want to see a broadband companies dirty linen, then this is the place. None of the people on there will be happy until they can get broadband for free.

Re:Welcome, from another

[Anonymous Coward]

Just want to add:

You do not need to pay when somebody calls you on the mobilephone... so it is really cheapo compared to the usa.

DSL in Germany, HOWTOs for Linux

[dvdweyer]

For DSL in Germany, you can almost always use Deutsche Telekom. But do check [dslweb.de] before you move in, some rural areas (about 10% of population) and some areas in former eastern Germany (due to fibre instead of copper lines) have no DSL at all. The hardware side and the flatrate can be bought seperately (from different providers). Depending on your special needs some of those offers might be interesting. Check out websites dedicated to internet access from Heise [heise.de] (they also have one of the best computer magazines, c't [heise.de]), billiger surfen [billiger-surfen.de] or just try your luck at Google.

For very verbose Linux configuration guidelines check out ADSL4Linux.de [adsl4linux.de].

Oh, and don't forget to learn german, it will help a lot in everyday life (though you'll manage to survive without).

DSL is not always T-DSL

[ndecker]

There are a lot of posts about T-DSL from the Telekom. While T-DSL is available almost everywhere in germany, there are quite a few local carriers in bigger citys. For example i am a customer of Hansenet [hansenet.de], a local carrier in Hamburg.
Hansenet gives you a 2048/192 DSL flatrate for about 55EUR/month including ISDN and free local calls to all Hansenet customers. ( Most of my friends are )

Dynamic IP addressing

[Florian Weimer]

In Germany, dynamic vs. static IP addresses are used to separate business and private Internet connectivity (and dynamic addresses are reassigned every 24 hours). For some applications, this doesn't matter, of course. Actually, business Internet access isn't too expensive either, but you usually pay per volume, so you can't afford all this P2P stuff...

Access in Berlin

[Anonymous Coward]

I am an American living in Berlin.

I get DSL (~768/256) through snafu.de. Totals about ?35/month for up to 1 gig of download. I rarely go over that.

T-DSL (Deutsche Telekom) is near that price but is completely flat-fee.

I chose to go with snafu because of so many horror stories about the Telekom. So I decided to pay a little more for a smaller company with better customer service.

The connection is pretty stable for me.

Note: no one gives a static IP address around here :( Everyone uses PPPoE.

Re:Other advice about Germany

[setmajer]

I've been living in Bonn for a year and a half and thought I'd amplify:

Bureaucracy: Kafka was a master of understatement. If you ever have the misfortune to deal with the Arbeitsamt, you'll understand. I'm lucky in that I get to deal with the main AA in Bonn (employer went bust a while back; anybody got any great job-hunting tips for Deutschland? ;-), which is seriously undercrowded and helpful compared to, say, Berlin.

Also, degrees and honorifics carry more weight than in the States. I got shunted into the 'non-degree' line at the AA and it was *hell* compared to the Hochschuleteam.

Language: What he said.

First lesson: Sprechen Sie Englisch?

I find the typical answer is 'Yes, a little bit,' in a perfect British accent. 'A little bit' typically means they converse well but might have trouble with, say, /Macbeth/. 'Very little' or 'not much' is analagous to an American with high-school or college German.

Having the courtesy to ask in German appears to be appreciated. Also, if you start foundering with your German (or your Aussprache is as furchtbar as mine) they'll often jump into English out of courtesy, or just to get the practice.

You will, however, be loaded down with reams of forms, contracts, pamphlets and the like, all of which are available only in German and all of which you will be expected to read. Read them, or get a German speaker to do so: I've already had one PostBank employee try selling me life insurance by assuring me it was a savings account (though such things are mercifully rare).

German Beer: Just enjoy. Lovely stuff, really.

Oktoberfest: Try Karnival in Köln (this weekend, as a matter of fact). Mardi Gras without the drunken jerks (though naturally there are plenty of drunks--no open container laws for pedestrians) and *everyone* wears a costume. I don't recall any nudity, tho (you want T&A, wait until 11 PM and switch on the TV; plenty of softcore porn). Much fun, particularly the Thur. before, which is dedicated to single women on the prowl. I was told only true losers go home alone that day (count me among them, I guess, though I was actually working all day last year and job-hunting this).

There's also the Love Parade in Berlin, but I haven't heard many good things about that one.

Also, forget decent ice cream. If you're really lucky, there'll be someplace that sells Haagen Dasz or you'll be close to the border with the Netherlands, where you can get Ben & Jerry's. Otherwise, forget it. German ice cream truly blows.

Probably my biggest gripe is that most stores close down by 6 pm weekdays, 4 pm Saturday and all day Sunday. You can find the odd gas station or some shops in a Hauptbahnhof open longer or on Sunday, but that's really it.

American-style supermarkets are springing up, but you're still best off with the smaller stores in urban areas. If you happen into an Aldi, try the pre-baked-just-reheat Olive Ciabatta bread. Marvelous.

The restaurants are typically very good (though Chinese is usually dodgy and I haven't had Indian that compares to NYC; Thai is seems a safer bet and the Italian places rock), but you do have to ask for the check when you're done. Tipping is on the order of 5-10%, rather than the American 15%; it seems you're as likely to appear a show-off if you tip big as anything, so no sense overdoing. Also, their idea of 'spicy' seems to be a bit different than mine, so I usually order extra hot.