The race for the best network is getting really close

Every year, the three German network operators compete to find the best network for their customers. The practically eternal winner is Telekom. But finally it’s getting really tight. The people of Bonn will soon no longer be able to rest on their laurels.

Best German mobile network: Telekom wins again – but just barely

Telekom continues to have the best mobile network in Germany. The top dog can again secure the victory against the competitors Vodafone and Telefónica/o2 for 2022. The question of the best network was crystal clear for a long time, but the race is now getting much closer. the Telekom achieved an overall grade of 1.3 and is only one decimal place ahead of second-placed Vodafone (1.4).

o2, on the other hand, still has to learn a bit and is in last place with a clear gap of 1.7 in the overall ranking. This was the result of the chip network test in cooperation with the analysis experts from Net Check, which is available to GIGA. Three main categories were examined for the test: Internet (50 percent in the overall rating), telephony (25 percent) and availability (25 percent). In addition, the 4G and 5G networks of providers compared.

Especially Telekom performed strongly in the 5G network of the future. With a rating of 1.1, the former state-owned company delivers an almost perfect result. The lead can be seen, for example, in the speed advantage: the best 10 percent of downloads with a 5G-capable smartphone were achieved in the Telekom network more than 661.2 Mbps. Vodafone in second place only manages 386.7 Mbit/s and o2 287.4 Mbit/s. The top 10 percent of the rating should reflect the networks in the best condition.

At the lower end, Telekom also achieved respectable success: the slowest 10 percent fall below 42.4 Mbit/s. With Vodafone they have to make do with under 23.9 MBit/s, with o2 even with less than 12.5 MBit/s. In addition, a 5G tariff is most worthwhile with Telekom because the data rates here are significantly better than in the LTE network. Switching to 5G is the least worthwhile for Vodafone customers.

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Smartphone on the train: Vodafone, o2 and Telekom disappoint across the board

In one category, however, all providers have once again shown that they have some catching up to do: Telekom (2.3), Vodafone (2.8) and o2 (3.4) received it significantly worse grades for the network quality in long-distance trains than the overall rating. According to Chip, some of the values ​​determined are even worse than in the previous comparison. Because tests were carried out on other routes, there is no direct comparison here.

For the network comparison, Chip and Net Check carried out their own tests with several smartphones and also used data provided by several million cell phone users. According to their own statements, it is the most detailed test of the German mobile networks.