Germany is a highly developed economy which is not shy of any international benchmark. In times of the digital transformation discussion, politicians frequently address one of the foundations of making digital business and digital work place models a success: fast broadband internet. Yes, my friends in the US, we have a challenge here.

Germany’s soccer fans are unhappy this season with Sky who does not offer any more all Bundesliga games, while prices for their subscription have not changed. Clients have to sign up for the Amazon/ Eurosport channel to see the Friday games.

Last Friday I went to a local bar/ pub to watch the game of VfB Stuttgart with friends and many local supporters and had a real new live soccer experience:

The first five minutes the large plasma TV was all but not HD. Reality was it was unsharp lagging and stuttering. While discussing the first scenes and missed chances over a beer, I noticed vibrations in my pocket. It was my phone obviously alerting me that VfB Stuttgart leads 1:0. But the entire bar was still seeing the 0:0 score.

So I said to my friends “I bet player x has missed some chances, but he will score a goal today” with a bright smile on my face 😉  From this moment on a new pattern got established in the bar. People started to follow the game on live tickers and Twitter using their mobile phones to be right faster.

Everytime a critical alert came in people stopped their conversations, put their phones and came closer the the TV screen to see what will happen – or better “has” happened.

For all fans of live sport events, this is clearly a momentum, where watching sports in the internet is getting less attractive. In our case the bar owner was said because their guests have been unhappy about this. The bitter truth is, it is not their fault. They would go for a high speed internet deal, but is is just not available. I would go for it to, but it is not available.

How can the future of a connected home, working from home and all IoT connected devices work, if there is no fast internet?