Telecommunications companies have invested billions in expanding mobile networks in recent years. Nevertheless, many customers report dropped calls and jerky internet.
Three out of four mobile phone users in Germany experience dead spots when they surf or make calls on their smartphone while on the go. 18 percent of cell phone users even regularly end up in a dead zone. This emerges from a survey by the opinion research company Innofact AG on behalf of the comparison portal Verivox in Heidelberg.
For the study, no analysis was carried out using measuring vehicles or other technical equipment, but rather the population was asked about their own experiences. A total of 1,010 people took part in the online survey in March 2024. The survey is representative of the population in terms of age, gender and federal state affiliation.
The answers to the question of whether network problems are a regular nuisance depends heavily on the age of the respondents. Young people feel most affected. 94 percent of those surveyed under the age of 30 report network problems while on the move, 25 percent of whom complain about regular outages. 41 percent of the youngest respondents and 23 percent of those over 70 say they are occasionally stuck in a dead zone. Overall, 74 percent of Germans say that they experience outages or interruptions when using the mobile network. Only 22 percent of those surveyed said they had never been stuck in a dead zone.
Families with children are often affected by network problems
In the survey, not only young adults but also families with children reported network problems at an above-average rate (84 percent). In childless households this figure drops to 71 percent. More than a quarter of families with children (26 percent) regularly have to deal with network failures or interruptions – this is much less common among respondents without children in the household (15 percent).
“Those who have children often travel just as often as working people,” said Verivox telecommunications expert Jörg Schamberg. “Almost every child has a smartphone by the time they reach puberty at the latest. Young people naturally assume that they can be “always on” – but the network coverage will not allow for this even in 2024.”
Source: Stern
