All hands full: With triple play tariffs, a single provider brings Internet, telephone and television into the house. Photo: Christin Klose / dpa-tmn
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(Photo: dpa)
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You shouldn’t be blinded by supposedly super cheap entry-level offers, warns the foundation, which compared so-called triple-play tariffs for DSL and cable, in its magazine “Finanztest” (issue 2/2021).
The widespread marketing trick: The low tariff that is capitalized in the offer – sometimes you don’t pay anything at all – is only valid for a few months. After that the prices increase enormously. If you want to estimate the costs correctly, you have to consider the total costs for the minimum contract period of usually 24 months, the experts advise.
Huge cost range
The following picture emerges: over a period of two years, consumers can spend around 770 euros on a triple package of Internet, telephone and television, but they can also be asked to pay for around 3300 euros.
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Of course, you shouldn’t compare apples with oranges. More internet speed almost always means higher costs. And the cheapest tariff in the test is comparatively slow at 50 megabits per second (MBit / s) to download.
But how fast does it have to be anyway? Download and upload speeds of 50 and 10 Mbit / s were sufficient for many users, judge the product test experts. For example, two people in the household could surf the web or watch TV in HD quality at the same time. If there are regularly more parallel users, faster connections might be worthwhile. The same applies to online gamers.
Choose wisely
Nevertheless, it is possible to save money with combination tariffs if you choose the contract cleverly. The testers found the best price-performance ratio with a 100 Mbit / s tariff, which costs around 1000 euros in 24 months, writes “Finanztest”.
It is important that not all providers are active everywhere in Germany. And even in places where a particular company offers its services, not all connection types and internet speeds are available on every street. So if you have shortlisted certain tariffs, you can and should check the availability for your address on the provider pages.
Cheap only for new customers
As with double flat-rate fixed network tariffs for Internet and telephony, the same applies to triple play with TV: The cheapest entry-level offers are usually only available to new customers. If you want to save permanently, you have to cancel your contract in good time at the end of the term and look for an equally cheap or cheaper tariff elsewhere – or try to negotiate new conditions with your provider.
Stiftung Warentest on Triple Play
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