This translation leaves a lot to be desired. Some people in the comments look like they could benefit from a better job of it, so here you go: After the inform

This translation leaves a lot to be desired. Some people in the comments look like they could benefit from a better job of it, so here you go: After the information was initially leaked, Deutsche Telekom has officially confirmed that they plan to introduce volume restrictions (throttling?) for all landline broadband connections from here on out. Starting May 2nd, the performance specs for all new contracts will include a fixed bandwidth restriction dependent on total upload/download volume. For the time being, the new restrictions won't affect existing customers. Till now, Deutsche Telekom had only ever introduced such stipulations on VDSL ("very-high-bit-rate DSL") - and fiber-optic connections with download speeds between 25 and 200 Mbps. After reaching a monthly download limit of 400Gb for customers with 200 Mbps connections and 75Gb for customers with up to 16 Mbps, the throttled data rate drops down to a uniform 0.384 Mbps - regardless of previous connection speed. (50 Mbps and 100 Mbps connections, if you're curious, are restricted to 200 and 300 Gb per month, respectively, before throttling.) For now, however, connection throttling, while practical, is not expected to be implemented yet - Deutsche Telekom is merely securing for itself the right to do so. When exactly the implementation will be introduced depends on how "traffic on the internet grows and develops." "As of yet, it's been our expectation that we won't introduce the limitation in a technical manner until 2016," said Michael Hagspihl, Director of Marketing at Deutsche Telekom. Once the throttle is actually implemented, customers should still be able to purchase unlimited monthly transfer volume as an "add-on" option. But that possibility is not set in stone. The use of IPTV (internet protocol television), Telekom's VOIP communications, and the sharing of connections via "WLAN To Go" will not count against the monthly traffic limit. Reason being, according to Deutsche Telekom, that customers pay separately for these services. Civil liberties activists and consumer advocates alike criticize such practices as violations of net neutrality. Deutsche Telekom justifies their move with the ever-growing volume of traffic, which requires continuous development/expansion of their network. A nationwide fiber-optic infrastructure for all of Germany would cost €80 Billion, Deutsche Telekom says. And that's just for residential connections. But bottlenecks develop on the backbone of the network, irrespective of whether DSL or fiber is used on the "last mile." Internet connections with higher data rates would only squeeze those bottlenecks even tighter.