The Cell Phone Junkie

The Cell Phone Junkie Podcast listener Nicolas heard Scott’s question on show #208, and wanted to help shed some light on the various carriers and services.  Thanks to Nicolas for this great writeup of the services!

Mickey already mentioned the four main carriers: T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and E-Plus/BASE, but since those carriers are relatively expensive, there is a huge variety of prepaid MVNOs, who use the infrastructure of the main carriers, but offer essentially the same service at much lower costs.

One downside is that you need to have a German address to set up the account, but maybe a relative or colleague, who lives in Germany, can do that for you.

I chose three providers, who all use either the O2 or the E-Plus network.

You need to know, that the GSM networks are pretty much on the same level, but datawise there are big differences. E-Plus has a relatively small 3G footprint and offers speeds of up to 1,4 MBit/s, but mostly just something at 300 KBit/s.

O2 on the other hand has a pretty large 3G network with speeds ranging from 3 MBit/s up to 6,5 MBit/s.

Keep in mind, that your phone needs to have the 900 and 1800 Mhz bands for GSM and 2100 Mhz for UMTS. If your phone supports them, it can be used on every German carrier and as far as I know on every other European carrier as well. There are no such things as CDMA or AWS.

Here are links to the coverage maps of the O2 and E-Plus to check the availability at your destination. As Mickey always says: the cheapest plan isn‘t very useful, if there is no service at your most frequently visited places:

http://www.o2online.de/nw/support/mobilfunk/netz/netzabdeckung.html

http://eis03sn1.eplus-online.de/geo/portal/umts

If you want to use data, these are the cheapest prepaid options without any obligations. You just buy credit (which usually starts at 10-15 Euro) online, at gas stations, drugstores or kiosks and after two years of not buying more credit they get cancelled automatically at no cost.

1. FONIC (subsidiary of O2):

SIM card cost: 9,95 Euro. If bought online 75 minutes for free, if bought in a store no credit preloaded.

Calls/texts:

Calls to German, European, Canadian and US landlines and German cell phones:

9 ct./min (If you order the SIM card online, you get 75 minutes for free)

Calls to European, Canadian and US cell phones:

29 ct./min

Texts to German cell phones:

9 ct.

Texts to European, Canadian or US-cell phones:

19 ct.

Data:

Without any data plan:

24 ct./MB

200 MB/month (after 200 MB no extra costs, but only GPRS speeds, technically unlimited)

10 Euro

Unlimited/day:

2,50 Euro (If you use the service for more than 10 days and paid 25 Euro, you get unlimited data for the rest of the month for free)

More information in English:

http://www.fonic.de/html/eth_tarif_uk.html

2. blau.de (subsidiary of E-Plus)

SIM card cost: 10 Euro with 10 Euro already loaded onto the card (limited promotion, price changes often)

Calls/texts:

Calls/texts to German landlines and cell phones:

9 ct./SMS or min

Calls to European, Canadian and US landlines:

9 ct./min + 15 ct. connection fee per call

Data:

Without any data plan:

24 ct./MB

100 MB/month

3,90 Euro

1 GB/month

9,90 Euro

Unlimited/month

19,80 Euro

Unlimited/day

2,40 Euro

The 100 MB/month, 1 GB/month and unlimited/month plans extend themselves if not cancelled and enough credit left on the account!

More information in German:

http://www.blau.de/

3. Simyo (subsidiary of E-Plus)

SIM card cost: 4,90 Euro with 5 Euro already loaded onto the card (price changes often)

Calls/texts:

Calls/texts to German landlines and cell phones:

9 ct./SMS or min

Calls to European, Canadian and US landlines:

12 ct./min

Calls to European, Canadian and US cell phones:

29 ct./min

Texts to European, Canadian and US cell phones:

13 ct./min

Data:

Without any data plan:

24 ct./MB

1 GB/month

9,90 Euro

More information in German:

http://www.simyo.de/