There was one bit in that article I did not like one bit:
Allein aus der Mobilfunkfrequenz-Auktion stehen dafür Einnahmen von 1,33 Milliarden Euro zur Verfügung, die sich Bund und Länder allerdings aufteilen.
There are 1.33 billion euros available from [800 MHz "LTE band"] spectrum auction alone, however they are to be shared by the federal government and individual states.
All fine and good, except that is... remember the guy (one of the Wise Men of Gotham mayhaps) whose blanket was too short on one end, so he cut some off the other end to sew to the short end?
Don't get me wrong: fibre is marvellous. But if the aim is to provide 50 Mb/s connectivity in rural areas in a cost-effective way, LTE (or 4G or whatever you call it) is a major piece of the puzzle.
Operators have paid that 1.33 billion, and they are going to get it back with interest from consumers. Not only that, they have less "loose change" in their pockets for infrastructure investments [base station network]. Which translate as poorer network coverage and expensive subscription prices. Which, in turn, tend to translate as capped data. Major wet blankets, data caps are.
Utterly and thoroughly stupid. I know from a long personal experience that 4G mobile broadband is fast (150 Mb/s fast — and in downtown Helsinki 300 Mb/s fast) and reliable. But that is true if — and only if — there is enough bandwidth to be shared among users.
And no data caps.
