> German here. The latter statement doesn't really hold for us. Super patchy coverage on trains.

Germany has a different issue, you have multiple providers and those combined have pretty good coverage. I visit germany frequently by train and roam and it kicks me from provider to provider.

Iirc your providers are mandated by the gov to also service these rather unprofitable areas, which they do. They split up the uninhabited regions, build a few antennas there. So if you have a plan with a national provider you get shitty coverage. If you roam and can use any provider, it's actually mostly fine (in my experience).

I don't understand why they don't do national roaming in these areas.