But they only rent the last mile from the Telekom. Starting at the DSLAM they usually bring their own infrastructure. (Except reseller contracts).
In the last years there also have been many small, local ISPs popping up, often partly owned by the city (Stadtwerke). Some start rolling FTTH connections and finally bring germany to the internet-first-world.
Cable providers, at least Kabel Deutschland (which is the only option here where I live), are sadly no alternative, while they offer high bandwidths without volume based throttling, the traffic shaping they do at peak times and for torrent traffic is ridiculous and makes their service almost unusable.
I am lucky enough to live in Cologne we have fibre in almost every household (NetCologne) so I don't really worry .. But still most people have to rely on Telekom offerings cause there are no other options.
In Berlin the situation is quite bad. There are these moronic DSL providers, which deliver the connection when they feel like it. It's quite expensive, slow and there are interruptions quite often.
The alternative is Kabel Deutchland. Their connection quality is pretty ok, but the throttling every evening when I get home from work is annoying as hell.
What I really miss from Helsinki is that when you order e.g. a cable connection, they'll deliver it the same day when you made the contract. It's fast and reliable. No throttling, no limits.
Although I understand why the situation is what it is. And still I'm not complaining, this connection is good enough for the most of the time.
Well, we're not so lucky in Backnang. It's the year 2013 and still, my connection keeps randomly dropping as if it's making a tribute to the dial-up days (tried many adsl providers; no luck. I haven't tried Kabel BW though.) I guess the situation is similar in many other small German cities?
In the last years there also have been many small, local ISPs popping up, often partly owned by the city (Stadtwerke). Some start rolling FTTH connections and finally bring germany to the internet-first-world.
Cable providers, at least Kabel Deutschland (which is the only option here where I live), are sadly no alternative, while they offer high bandwidths without volume based throttling, the traffic shaping they do at peak times and for torrent traffic is ridiculous and makes their service almost unusable.