wnp@relay.eu.net (wolf paul) (11/19/89)
The following article was taken (without permission) from the
Friday, Nov. 17, issue of the Vienna newspaper "Der Standard".
Translation from the German by Wolf Paul.
NO FREE PHONE LINES FOR INTER-GERMAN COMMUNICATION
by Standard correspondent Werner Stanzl in Munich
Bonn's Secretary of the Chancellery, Rudolf Seiters, who will initiate
a round of German-German talks in East Berlin next week, was briefed
by telecom experts from Siemens Munich about the state of the East
German telephone network.
The expansion of inter-German telecommunications is one of the first
items on Bonn's and East Berlin's joint agenda. All expectations that
this can be accomplished soon by investing large amounts of money are
utterly unrealistic, according to the experts.
In the opinion of the engineers at Siemens, the telecommunications
infrastructure in the GDR is so hopelessly out-of-date that it cannot
possibly be used as the backbone of a modern communications system.
It will rather be necessary to construct an entirely new network from
scratch.
Originally, the German Federal PTT had hoped, that with the
disappearance of political hindrances, telephone traffic between the
two German countries could be increased at the push of a button. For
this purpose, the West German PTT has built into its telephone system
a capacity reserve of 300 percent for connections to the other
Germany, which can be increased even more in a short time.
In East Germany, however, even an increase of peak traffic by a few
percent would lead to a collapse of the network, which largely dates
back to the time before WWII and is in worse condition than the phone
networks of most Third World countries.
This applies not only to technical standards, but also to the ratio of
population to the number of telephones. While West Germany has 40
million telephones for a population of 60 million, East Germany
only has four million phones for a population of 17 million citizens.
If a connection can be established at all, the quality is abominable.
Rain water penetrates the rotted cables and causes shorts. If one
capitulates in the face of a poor connection and hangs up in the hope
of getting a better one, one might as well give up altogether: a
second attempt usually does not succeed.
Important messages for business partners in West Germany are passed
via third parties in Stockholm or Paris, since there are only 48
direct-dial lines to West Germany.
Western businesses which are planning joint ventures with East German
partners have to plan for several years of communications
difficulties. Modern services such as Fax, Teletex or high-speed
leased lines are virtually unknown in the "other Germany" -- with the
exception of two government-owned hotels which have direct wires to
the Federal Republic.
The PTT Ministry in Bonn is now looking into the possibility of
creating a temporary communications system via the West German PTT
satellite "Kopernikus".
--------end of article--------
Wolf N. Paul, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Schloss Laxenburg, Schlossplatz 1, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
Phone: (Office) [43] (2236) 71521-465 (Home) [43] (1) 22-46-913
UUCP: uunet!mcvax!tuvie!iiasa!wnp DOMAIN: iiasa!wnp@tuvie.at
[Moderator's Note: My special thanks for passing this along, and
making the translation for us. PT]horwath%cell.mot.COM@uunet.uu.net (George Horwath) (11/23/89)
Last year (Sept. 88) I was in East Germany visiting a relative. I found out two things of interest while I was there regarding the DDR's telephone system. First, my relative lives in a fairly large city and she has been waiting 12+ years for a telephone. She claims that she could have gotten one after about 10 years if she had gone to the telephone company and complained every week. Since she hasn't been very vocal about it, she is still on the waiting list. I took a side trip to Dresden, which is a large city in the DDR. At the hotel I was at, I attempted to place a call home. (This was NOT a hotel reserved for Western visitors, but was mainly for citizens of East Germany.) The person at the front desk had to place the call for me and (she said) had to go through East Berlin. After the number was given to the operator, the operator said she would call back when the connection went through and it would take about 30 minutes. Sure enough, a half hour later, the phone rang and the call was placed. I'd compare the quality of the voice to a poor rural line here - not the best, but it worked. After the call, the operator called back with the charges which I had to pay immediately. It was around 35(!) East German marks for a 25 minute call. At the official exchange rate (1 East German mark = 1 West German mark) that was roughly $18!