• gorillaNdaMist@lemm.ee
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    13 days ago

    because the old Kanzler Kohl, decades ago, chose copper instead of fiber optic. I believe his family member was in the copper business…

    • trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works
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      12 days ago

      It wasn’t a family member of his, but a family member of his post minister, a Mr Schwarz-Schilling, who was in the copper cable business. Kohl and his entire government are synonymous with incredible levels of corruption and nepotism. Kohl made corruption a kind of national sport for German politicians. Our upcoming Chancellor, Friedrich Merz is of his ilk.

      This is how West Germany chose copper, when even the by then almost bankrupt (and ruled by even more senile backwards looking geezers) GDR was already starting to lay down fiber optic.

      • lord_alois@feddit.org
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        13 days ago

        I think the spread of cable television also played a big role in this. It seems that the public broadcasters were too left-wing for Kohl. It was hoped that the private channels would provide more sympathetic coverage or at least a better distraction.

    • AlexisFR@jlai.lu
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      12 days ago

      What are you talking about? The whole of Europe was doing ADSL by then in 2000-2010. Fiber didn’t start being a common thing until 2015 at the earliest.