Getting a fast DSL connection in the countryside

I'm not a techie so forgive me if this is too basic of a question.

We're moving to Germany in a month and I just found out that D-Telekom can only provide up to 1000 bits/ second service because we're "out in the country".
Is there any way that we could get a faster DSL connection with someone/ something else??? I was hoping for around 16 000 b/s but that's apparently only available in the "big cities" (of course!). The tech people at my work here in the US said I should have around that speed.

Basically I will need to upload short video clips to a website, download videoclips, etc. My husband will need to download and upload large files (Auto Cad computer drawings, etc.)

Thank you.

As the physical lines are provided by Telekom (regardless of the service provider) if they say you can only get up to 1000 bits / second, that's the maximum you can get with DSL with any service provider. Maybe you could see if cable is an option for you.

What Mariposa said. The speed is in a direct relation to the distance from your phone jack to the nearest CO or CLEC. Over 1km and you can forget anything above 8Mbit/s. Over 2km and even 4Mbit is out. Be glad that they can provide you with 1Mbit and that you're not stuck with a max 128Kbit using dual ISDN. City life has its advantages.

woof.

I would also say that cable internet via Kabel Deutschland or cablesurf would be an option.

no outside of towns and cities it wouldn't.

Unlikely to be available out in the country where DSL16000 isn't available.
If you're really needing fast upload then that also rules out most of the alternatives (satellite-based and so on) as they have a low upstream rate. Even the upstream speed on DSL16000 is relatively low.
If it's really business-critical to have fast upstream and downstream rates then you might need to start looking at commercial provision, or somewhere else to live/work.

Where will you be? Someone may be kind enough to check the available speed for you. I have colleagues who still live using ISDN for internet, and they commute to Munich every day. Seriously.

Maybe I could try to find a place (like a Starbucks, public library etc.) where I could get a faster connection for just a couple of hours so that I could upload my files?

Maybe I could try to find a place (like a Starbucks, public library etc.) where I could get a faster connection for just a couple of hours so that I could upload my files?

If you go to the city, sure. However Starbucks does not offer free wifi in Germany. You have to sign up with T-Mobile HotSpots.

Out in the country you are not likely to find a Starbucks and the libraries (if they do offer internet) will not have a faster connection than you do at home.

That sounds kind of desperate! If you can suffer the time it would take to drive to a coffee shop and do your uploading from there then maybe 1Mb/s running overnight will also be fast enough? It does, of course, restrict you to one cycle per day. Where will you be?

You should check with KabelDeutschland or any other cableDSL option. I know some areas where KD provides DSL with speed of 8Mbps, but DT is able to provide only 1Mbps max.

I remember you from the other thread. Most areas around here have 1000, 2000, or 3000 DSL connections. My old apartment near Schwäbisch Hall (12km from city centre) had just gone from 1000 to 2000 when we moved last summer. Now we're back down to 1000 and are remote enough that I doubt that we'll be upgraded any time soon. But other areas closer to the city are getting better speed over the last two years so things are slowly getting faster. If DT says that the speed available is only 1000, then that's what you'll have to live with for the time being.

Cable might not be an option, since neither my old apartment nor my house have access to cable TV and use satellite.

The library in Schwäbisch Hall does provide 5 computers with internet access. Fees are 50 cents per half hour for members, and should be at least a little faster than the 1000 that you'll be getting at home.

There are also companies offering upload and download via satellite.
(or upload via telephone line and download via satellite)
If you really need this I can give you the company names.
(the magazine with the names is at home)

1mbit/s download will likely only provide 128kbps upload.. but still, just leave it going overnight.. it's not that bad..

That's a red herring as ironically they like to fit Kabel where people don't have a good Telekom service. So my street at home has KabelDeustchland but not Telekom.

Obviously you can pay for a dedicated fixed line from Telekom. "Standleitung" I think (sorry if spelt wrong). Would be good for you on the UP and DOWN speed 'cos you are not sharing
like on broadband, but its a bit pricey.

Use this website to find what options you have:

http://www.zukunft-breitband.de/BBA/Naviga...command=showLoc

As the peeps said - its your upload that will be the issue.

Also check for this service which is pretty damn good if in range:

http://www.smart-dsl.net/

Satellite - the older system (that I had) used ISDN for uploads and the satellite for fast downloads. But you can now get 2 way satellite that will actually also upload so might be another option. Although
on the link below seems all the uploads still only 128.

http://www.telespiegel.de/dsl/dsl-ueber-satellit.html

Company Connect from Telekom are the fixed lines:

http://www.t-home.de/SCMS_PK_agb_agb%2bove...=388&char=C

Probably like €600 a month or something by the sounds of things, but you can cut a deal.

Sorry, smart-dsl isn't available around here. And that website you gave to show what options you have can be a little misleading. It shows both my former apartment and my house in the 50%-75% cable area, but neither have cable. Meanwhile my house seems to be showing as right on the border of where 95% DSL coverage meets under 2% coverage. So looking at the web site it isn't really all that clear which areas actually have access to what.

edit: to put in plain English, the web site only tells you the probability that you might have access, not whether you actually do, and thus isn't all that clear in telling a person what they get in reality. If I'm shopping for something, then telling me I have a plus/minus 25% chance of getting it doesn't help all that much. Better to find out for sure what you can get at your address, and then pick from the actual available options, eh?

btw... what's a rocket salad?

If it says 50-75% cable availability in that area and you didnt have it, that means you were in the 50-25% that...errrrr...don't have it. It's not rocket salad. It's a guide.

If Arcor is available in your area you might get slightly faster service (1.5Mbit instead of 1Mbit), as they use slightly different equipment (albeit in the same exchange and using the same cables as Telekom), which can achieve slightly faster speeds over longer distances. Otherwise you could check out a GPRS (UMTS) based solution which can go to over 7Mbits, depending on provider and network availability. Best way to check this is have your mobile scan for all networks and report back on network technology available at your location. Unfortunately, as with DSL, the faster (3G or 3.5G) speeds tend to be in centres of population.

Johnny and everyone,
your links are great but it looks like we'll be stuck w/ getting only 1000 b/s for now and then hoping for some faster connections in the future.
We'll be living in one of the "white" areas here: http://www.zukunft-breitband.de/BBA/Naviga...command=showLoc

Use the provider's tool, should be more accurate than some random website.
http://www.kabelbw.de/kabelbw/services/pro...egbarkeitPre.do

You can get cablesurf 16000 in some remote places eg 'Dippoldiswalde'
http://www.cablesurf.de/tarife.php?id=55

And cablesurf (KMS) is a small player compared to Kabel Deutschland, UnityMedia, KabelBW.
As Germany slowly moves to digital TV then it is likely that they would offer additional services like fast internet connections (as they would be using the same fibre optic network).

EDIT: The example was to show that cable internet providers do operate outside of towns and cities. I believe Kato has answered the OP's question.

C'mon guys... we know we're talking about Neuenstein so don't give options that aren't available, ok? Cablesurf doesn't operate anywhere near Schwäbisch Hall or Hohenlohekreis.

(Neuenstein is actually part of the Hohenlohekreis)

Would this option work for us? Do any of you have experience with this? http://www.dsldsl.de/internet-flatrate-mobilfunk

Those services require a 3G/HSDPA Link, which as previously stated are mainly in the big cities, not out in the sticks.
The only option that will work for you and is guaranteed to be in to area is Internet via satellite. Thats it. Not much if anything else.

Filiago - Internet via Satellit

I entered some addresses near our place here http://www.moobicent.de/mobiledsl-flat/verfuegbarkeit/
and it showed that their fastest speed it is available at several of the locations.
However, I don't know if I understand it correctly from a technical point of view.
Does it mean that once I've signed up for the service I can go with my laptop (and my car) to one of the places where the faster connections are possible and up/ download my files there? Is it sort of like a cell phone connection and there's a flatrate for using the service (up to 10 gb/ month), no other charges?

Hmm...for my address and surrounding area it is showing only the slowest GPRS connection up to 53.6Kbits/s. When I put in the address for Schloss Neuenstein (thinking it might be neat to go sit in the castle cafe) it couldn't provide me with any details of actual connection speed available. It just said that a connection was available but not which one. I got the same general message when I put in the Neuenstein town hall address.

So I tried a few restaurants in the area. The Pizzeria Sicilia is shown as having only UMTS 384 Kbits/s. The Restaurant Goldene Sonne is only telling me that some sort of connection is available without any indication of speed.

The Schwäbisch Hall library also has some sort of connection but it won't tell me how fast it is. Same for several restaurants and hotels that I tried.

I'd be leery in thinking that you'll get anything faster than 384 Kbits/s in the area using this service. But don't let that stop you from contacting them and asking about your specific address and the area around you. Theoretically it seems like this plan will let you drive or go anywhere they have coverage and get a connection. But I don't think they have the fastest speeds around here.

Thank you for that feedback. That's strange because when I entered the Sparmarkt address: Neuenstein, Schwabstr. 1
it said that it is available. I'll have my brother call them because from here in the US I can't seem to access some of the phone numbers (not sure about this company's phone #).

Compare the result I get for the pizzeria with the result you got for the store. The pizzeria result tells you exactly what min. speed you will get. The Sparmarkt only says that a connection of UP TO the fastest speed is available, but not the actual connection speed. At least that's how I'm reading it.

But I would still call to verify.

I also live in the sticks (Lommersdorf-Blankenheim, NRW) and when I first moved here they had just upraded this area to DSL2000 (2Mbit DSL). But in the month it took them to get it connected I had to use an alternate means of getting to the Internet. Connecting to the US via the Internet is crucial for me. I ended up using an UMTS card for my laptop which worked well enough. UMTS gets you speeds in the 1-4Mbit range (and sometimes more) but the latency is much more noticeable than on a standard DSL line.

The card and the service are in the neighborhood of €70 a month, which is worth it for my work. I still have the UMTS card even though I have DSL now as I can use it on the road in the event of an emergency in my office in San Francisco. I got the card from Vodafone. It might be worth a look for you.

-geoff

Satellite will have even worse latency than umts. I had I'd once in Australia and even though it increased my download speeds 10 fold it was only really noticeable when I as downloading really big files. For normal websitfing it a hardly faster than dial up due to the time it would take to establish each connection.