Internet in Germany

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DE-CIX scheme
DE-CIX Network Schema.svg

In the Federal Republic of Germany , around 89% (the numbers vary between 78% and 89%) of the German population used the Internet in 2015 , which is well above the global average of 51.7%. The top-level domain in Germany is .de . The telecommunications infrastructure , which was originally in government hands, was privatized in the 1990s. Competition was to be intensified and the former state-owned company Deutsche Telekom was floated on the stock exchange in 1995. Today, in addition to a few large corporations, smaller providers also offer services.

The most important connection abroad is the DE-CIX , in Frankfurt, with a speed of 5.5  Tbps .

distribution

The number of Internet access in Germany is steadily increasing, even if the progress in broadband expansion , especially outside urban regions , is lagging behind the progress in other European countries. 89% of the population in Germany (the International Telecommunication Union assumes only 86%) use the Internet, which is 8% higher than the European average, but only 79% of the population has Internet access at home.

With 23.3 million connections in 2014, a DSL connection is still the most widely used type of data transmission , even if the Internet via cable (6.3 million (as of 2014)) continues to expand compared to the 5.5 million connections via cable in 2013. 34% of households have a transmission speed of less than 51 Mbps . Former Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt , who was also responsible for digital infrastructure , presented a joint timetable that should guarantee a connection speed of at least 50 Mbps for every household by 2018. In March 2015, he confirmed that the telecommunications providers together provide 10 billion euros.

Age group total 18–24 years 25-29 years 30–39 years 40-49 years 50–59 years over 60 years
Penetration rate in percent 78% 99% 98% 98% 96% 88% 48%
Under 35 years Over 35 years
University entrance qualification 99% University entrance qualification 82%
Middle school leaving certificate 98% Middle school leaving certificate 67%
Secondary school leaving certificate 97% Secondary school with teaching 66%
Hauptschule without teaching 53%

In Germany there are gender differences when it comes to using the Internet. While 81.8% of men used the Internet in 2014, it was only 71.9% of women at the same time. This gap widened by 0.3% between 2013 and 2014. The penetration rate for the age group between 14 and 39 years of age was over 96%, while the penetration rate for those over 70 years of age was low at around 30%. In the over 60 age group, the gender-specific difference is even more serious, while 59% of men use the Internet here, while only 40% of women use it. Despite the steady growth, this rate stagnated in this age group. Differences in internet use between groups at different educational levels have not changed noticeably over the past few years, but are worth mentioning. There are practically no differences between educational levels for those under 35. These become more serious from the age of 35, because the penetration rate for people with a university degree is 82%, while people with a secondary school diploma and a qualification as trainees have a penetration rate of only 66%. Households with a monthly net income of less than € 1,000  have a penetration rate of 54.1%. Households with a monthly net income of over € 3,000 have a penetration rate of over 93.5%. In addition, there are still differences between the penetration rate in the new and old federal states. While the old federal states have a penetration rate of 79%, the new federal states only have a penetration rate of 71%.

Age group total 18–24 years 25-29 years 30–39 years 40-49 years 50–59 years Over 60 years
no use 23% 1 % 2% 2% 4% 12% 52%
1-2 hours 15% 3% 7% 11% 18% 21% 14%
3–10 hours 35% 28% 37% 45% 45% 40% 10%
over 10 hours 27% 67% 53% 40% 32% 26% 10%

The number of Germans who only use the Internet for a maximum of two hours a week fell from 21% to 15% between 2007 and 2014. The number of people using the Internet between three and ten hours increased from 26% to 35% between 2007 and 2014. The proportion of those who use the Internet for more than ten hours rose from 13% to 27% between 2007 and 2014. During this time the penetration rate increased from 61% to 78% today.

costs

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
Price per MB for mobile use, especially in an international comparison, which "last years" are meant, where do the euro figures come from?
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Internet connection prices have remained stable over the past few years, while communications services have fallen by around 1.6 percent. A flat rate for a broadband connection costs between 17 and 30 euros a month, which is affordable with an average monthly income of 3,989 euros. Nevertheless, this price level represents a hurdle for low-wage earners .

Blocking

German version of the error message when viewing a GEMA- protected video on YouTube until November 2016

Access to online content is relatively free in Germany; most Internet content blocks in Germany are based on copyright infringements . Other cases of limitation are based on the decision of the European Court of Justice on the right to be forgotten, in which Internet users can force content to be undetectable.

In 2014 and 2015 there were no known cases of ordered blocking of entire websites. Pages that are often blocked nationally, such as YouTube , Twitter and Facebook , but also blogging services, remained freely accessible in Germany.

Content bans from non-governmental organizations occasionally occur in Germany. For example, Google regularly blocked music on YouTube that was protected by GEMA because the license rights were not previously purchased by Google. Since Google and GEMA could not come to an agreement for a long time, 61.5% of the 1000 most popular YouTube videos worldwide were not available in Germany until November 1, 2016.

In the Transparency Report, Google states that between July and December 2015, it received 199 requests to delete a total of 1290 pieces of content. This is the highest level since December 2012. Facebook blocked access to 60 postings relating to right-wing extremism and Holocaust denial.

While the influence of politics on internet media culture in Germany is low, there have been attempts to remove critical information. In January 2014 the Ministry of the Interior warned the website fragdenstaat.de for copyright infringement after the website had published an internal statement. This attempt has been criticized as restricting the freedom of the press .

Self-censorship is not a major or poorly documented phenomenon in Germany. However, there are some unspoken rules in the German press.

Legal regulation

According to Article 5 of the German Basic Law, there is freedom of expression and freedom of the media . According to Article 10, the confidentiality of mail and letters applies, including secret telecommunications. These articles applied to analog communication media such as letters when they were introduced, but are applicable to online communication media such as instant messaging services.

competition

The telecommunications market was privatized around the 1990s in order to initiate more competition. In 2015, Deutsche Telekom , which was privatized in 1995, had a market share of 32.7%, making it the market leader that year. Then came Vodafone with 27.8%, then Telefonica / O2 with 22.6%, Freenet with 12.1%, 1 & 1 Internet with 3.6% and Drillisch with 1.2%.

Internet activism

The internet provides an infrastructure to criticize political problems in Germany. When the government's intention to soften net neutrality became known, Internet users were invited to take part in the US campaign “battle for the net” on September 10, 2014 . Bloggers and website operators should add a loading bar symbolizing the lack of neutrality to their websites and blogs . If you don't have a website, you should change your profile picture in social networks to a loading symbol.

An even greater online call developed when the EU the retention planning of passenger data. The day of action planned by surveillance critics fell on April 11, 2015, when information stands and campaigns against data retention were organized at the airports in Berlin , Frankfurt am Main , Cologne / Bonn , Leipzig Halle , Nuremberg , Stuttgart and Hamburg . The actions took place under the tracking profiles campaign and the hashtag #NOPNR.

Cyber ​​attacks

Cyber ​​attacks on environmental protection and human rights organizations that technically disable them are rare. However, cyber attacks, such as the cyber attacks on the German Bundestag , are increasing . But cyber attacks on German companies are also increasing. In 2015, one of three companies was the victim of a hacker attack. The annual damage from these attacks is estimated at 50 billion euros.

digitalization

The digitization is a prominent topic in the media in Germany. Digitization is developing in part, but remains mediocre in a European comparison. The so-called index for the digital economy and society ranks Germany ninth out of the current 28 member states of the European Union.

E-learning

The digitization of German schools and teaching is one of the most important issues in digitization. Although digitization continues, Germany is lagging behind countries like Norway and Estonia . So-called laptop or tablet classes are used as pilot projects, but are still far from widespread. The challenges are the supply of rural areas with (fast) Internet and the continuous procurement of server structures and end devices. Both challenges are supported by various funding programs of the Federal Republic and the federal states. Initial approaches include concepts such as " bring your own device " (the students use their personal devices) or cloud-based administration and learning platforms.

E-government

Dimensions of e-government
E-Government Dimensions.svg
Sources (among others): Dowe / Märker, Hart / Pflügler

So-called e-government is also not yet widespread in Germany, unlike in the two neighboring countries Austria and Switzerland , which are making progress towards digital government. In a European comparison, Germany scores significantly worse in e-government. The index for the digital economy and society only lists Germany in 18th place out of 28. The European Commission, which publishes this index, recommends that the federal government and the federal states of Germany announce the already existing offers. However, there are plans by government members to expand e-government. Estonia, which now offers more than 600 e-government services, could be used as a model.

Internet and media

Men Women
under 34 years 76% 62%
35 to 59 years 66% 46%
over 60 years 57% 43%

Around 45% of Germans or 58% of Internet users use the Internet as a source of information for news. In all age groups, more men use online news than women, and there are also age differences (see table).

Many media are represented online on the Internet. Some newspapers make their content available on the Internet for free, others require subscription. You can listen to numerous radio stations online on websites such as radio.de, but this is often also possible on the radio stations' websites. Because of GEMA, radio stations often put programs that do not contain music on the Internet as podcasts . In so-called online media libraries , such podcasts, as well as television programs and documentaries, are available throughout Germany for a certain period of time.

On some German (radio) stations there are programs that deal exclusively with the Internet, such as the Netzfilter on Puls , a radio station of the Bavarian radio , but also separate categories in programs, such as news from Digitalistam in the program Leonardo on WDR 5 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS The Internet Big Picture Internet World Stats. Last accessed on December 31, 2017
  2. ↑ about de-cix Official DE-CIX website. Retrieved October 14, 2016
  3. ↑ Internet structural data 2014 ( Memento from February 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Forschungsgruppe Wahlen e. V. with statistics on the use of the Internet in Germany. Retrieved October 13, 2016
  4. ↑ Prices Federal Statistical Office with the 2014 yearbook. Accessed on October 14, 2016
  5. ↑ Unfortunately, this culture is not available in Germany. Süddeutsche Zeitung (Pascal Paukner). Published January 28, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ Requests by the numbers Google Transparency report. Retrieved October 21, 2016
  7. ↑ Johannes Boie: Transparent State: Unlocked Blocking Clause . In: sueddeutsche.de . ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on February 18, 2017]).
  8. ↑ Censorship right: FragDenStaat sues the Federal Republic and wins without knowing it | netzpolitik.org. Retrieved February 18, 2017 .
  9. ↑ The press code Presserat.de with the press code. Retrieved October 21, 2016
  10. ↑ Estimation of the revenue shares of network operators and service providers in the German mobile communications market in 2015 Statista with estimates of the German telecommunications market. Last accessed October 14, 2016
  11. ^ Battle for the Net Netzpolitik.org with information about the campaign. Retrieved October 28, 2016
  12. ↑ #NoPNR Radio Utopie with information on the day of action. Retrieved October 28, 2016
  13. ↑ Digital School - Welcome. Retrieved September 5, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Christoph Dowe, Oliver Märker: Electronic Citizen Participation in Large German Cities 2004 - Website Ranking , Initiative eParticipation
    Thomas Hart, Frank Pflüger (ed.): New Media and Citizen Orientation     - Strategies for the Local Future, Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh 2004.
  15. ↑ Where Germany is paralyzing when it comes to digitization, Zeit Online (Patrick Beuth). Published May 25, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2016
  16. ↑ Digital mastermind T3n.de (Andreas Weck). Published August 8, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2016
  17. ↑ Germany Freedom House with the Freedom of the Net Report 2015. Retrieved on November 5, 2016