American Reacts to How the Internet in Germany is Different

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[Siplexus]

the lack of digitalization kinda started with our Government pushing Cable back in the 80s-90s rather than investing into Fiber which was a "risky" move back then Helmut Kohl invested all money into Cable "so that every home can watch TV" which A: didnt even work out despite the push, B: made us fall behind even to this day when it comes to digitalization and C: He didnt even consider Fiber because he had connections to the Copper Companies and was paid really well for that decision

[jbbutcha]

I live in a small German town (less than 40, 000 in total) and in this town, in a small cow village, there are many farms and fields, so many fields!
The village basically only consists of one street.
There are fields our garden fence behind the house.
Behind the house across the street too.
But I've had a 1Gbit/s internet connection via TV cable here for years.

[LutzAlbrecht-Mylenium]

A lot of the info is outdated. Things have massively improved in the last few years. Where I live I can now choose from three providers with Fiber to the Building (FTTB) at rates of up to 1 GBit. I just stick with 80 MBit for cost reasons and because I live alone and don't need more. That's perhaps one thing one could criticize - Internet access can still be extremely expensive. That and the availability and quality depend too much on where you live. Other things are of course underdeveloped and over-regulated. Many government services cannot be used digitally and when they are, they require complicated authentication procedures. The GDRP is also a pain as are some other EU regulations, but overall it's not nearly as bad as the guy makes it sound. It really comes across as this stereotypical uninformed American view of the world colliding with reality in another country.

[pixelbartus]

The reason behind our slow internet (which gets slowly better) is our former chancellor Helmut Kohl. Under helmut schmitt germany made plans for fiber optic cables in the year 1981. But Helmut Kohl got chancellor one year after and ended this plans. Instead of fiber glass, he gave the cable tv companies what they want: Copper cables. A very good friend of helmut Kohl was Leo Kirch, the owner of the biggest pay tv channel at that time. Kirch was Kohls best man at his wedding and after kohl left politics, Kirch gave him a consulting contract for 600.000 DM per year. Kirch wanted copper, Kohl gave him copper and nearly 30 years after he left office, we still have slow internet.

[AlexanderGut]

If he has a slow connection between his iphone and his wifi router, it doesn't necessarily means that his connection is slow - it is an issue with the wifi / router, maybe because of thick walls etc.

[andyhorvath]

I don't know about the situation in Germany but I've had a GB internet connection in The Netherlands for the last 10 years now, with fiber optic networks covering almost the whole country. We do almost everything online, from simple payments in the grocery store to doing your taxes. The national post services complain because there's less and less post ...

[miztazed]

The UK is in Europe but just no EU member anymore. A fact that even people in England do not understand yet.

[PokhrajRoy.]

The part of Joel’s brain that tiptoes around UK’s relationship with Europe should be studied 😂

[Duconi]

09:00 I think it's a good thing that companies can not just collect all the data from their users. If they are not willing to respect my privacy, I'm not interested in their service. So if they decide they don't want customers from Europe, that's their problem. (And the law has already been copied by other countries, so it's not just Europe, now.)

[BlackRose]

The UK is in Europe. It is not complicated.

[Perseus]

Take note that all our wires and other utilities are underground. It is natural cheaper and quicker to sling a new cable aroung one of the trillion utility poles you have in the US than take an excvator and open up the street.

[Nikioko]

The reason everybody uses WhatsApp or another instant messenger in Europe is simple. In Europe, you have none or a limited number of free SMSes included in your contract. So, for every SMS you sent, you have to pay money, while messages via instant messenger are free. In the US, however, unlimited SMSes are included in your contract, and so there was never a necessity to switch to instant messengers.

[acrazybun]

If you don't want get scam calls or be in scam groupchats you can simply change privacy settings in WhatsApp 🤷‍♀️

[embreis]

8:52 'I mean I don't know what they expected passing that, bro.' well, the expectation is for US companies to adapt their business model according to the new law and ideally, to find it too bothersome maintaining two different approaches over the long run thus abandoning the non-EU compliant variant at some point. maybe US consumers/customers like the EU law and demand a change in attitude too from US companies.

[knudplesner]

9:05 In the EU and Denmark you own your mega data,
in the USA you do not own the right to your mega data

[robaroundtheworld]

Living in Australia right now and working at a school where (almost) all assignments are done on a computer, I have to say that there can also be too much digitalisation. Work isn’t done properly, students are constantly distracted and much more. We’re getting more and more dependent on the internet and technology… a big web we stick to… me included, getting annoyed when I lose internet connection on German trains. But we should see that there are worse things and that the internet in not just “good”.

Fun fact: Since I arrived here, I didn’t exchange or withdraw any money. There are card readers everywhere and at many places, they don’t even accept cash 💸

[thescrewfly]

Having cookies foisted on you without permission and/or being tracked everywhere you go is anything but internet bliss.

[surenot]

I have the Biber cable inside the house but still use the copper wire with 100 MBits till the price use ration fits me. Right now still 3 ppl can watch Netflix same time plus one playing online game…
Having a good router managing the traffic and no one feels like internet is bad.

[biankakoettlitz]

The lack of digitization is not just money, but almost everything: In Norway you can pay with your phone, cards, vipps (like cash but with bank) We have a digital system to lock in to bank, insurance, pay taxes, to get an doctor's appointment, you name it. Ive heard that in Denmark their system is even easier.

[robertheinrich]

one of the problems with the german network is, that when they reunited, they started a massive project to bring that eastern german network to the future, and install fiber, that was in the 90ties.
but the fiber network was a different technology than what was then used for internet.
so they now sat in the weird situation, fiber phone, but limited to 64kbit/s.
in recent years, a new technology came up, that can use the old fibers, essentially giving 1gbit/s symmetrical.