Right to "fast" internet: Federal Council votes for higher minimum bandwidths

On Friday, the Federal Council voted in favor of the first draft amendment to the Ordinance on the Minimum Requirements for the Right to Supply with Telecommunications Services (TKMV). Accordingly, the minimum bandwidths of an internet access service will be increased from 10 to 15 MBit/s for downloads and from 1.7 to 5 MBit/s for uploads. The Bundestag's Digital Committee cleared the way for this in October. The value for latency (delay) is still 150 milliseconds. The change is to be implemented at the end of this year or the beginning of 2025.

The Federal Government had actually promised the Federal Council in 2022 that it would increase the speeds associated with the legal entitlement by mid-2023. However, the process was delayed due to an evaluation and the obtaining of expert opinions, which the Digital Ministry insisted on.

In addition to singles, multi-person households in particular are likely to benefit from the adjustments, according to the Federal Network Agency. The new minimum coverage offers "higher performance and flexibility", which is noticeable for video conferencing, online learning or the simultaneous use of several end devices, for example. The increased requirements will also increase the monthly price for the basic service. In the future, it will be around 35 euros per month. In general, the fee is "based on the development of prices for telecommunications services".

Claims from four households confirmed so far

"We regularly adjust the minimum service level," assured the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. "It's like the minimum wage: most people have more, but nobody should fall below it." Even if it is a lower limit, this could improve the private and professional use of internet and online services. In November, at the urging of the Bundestag's Digital Committee, the regulatory authority put an easy-to-use contact form for the entitlement to a minimum level of telecommunications services online.

Not many citizens have yet benefited from the entitlement created in 2021. The Federal Network Agency only intervened for the first time in March and in May obliged a provider to supply a household in Germany with internet because of the regulation. Meanwhile, it has issued three further obligations for three households in Bavaria (as of November). In the period from June 1, 2022 to September 30, 2024, the authority received 6,187 submissions about possible undersupply. At the beginning of November, 107 applications were being processed. Based on an expert opinion and a data query, the Network Agency considers around 1.8 million addresses to be "potentially underserved by lines", initially assuming only around 330,000 households.

(vbr)