German cellphones

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Beowulf
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German cellphones

Post by Beowulf »

So, I'm currently in Deutschland, and I'm finding that I need a SIM chip for my phone with at least a decent data plan. I got a T-mobile SIM, but it's got a 100MB cap for a month before throttling down to crappy speeds. That took all of 4 days to hit. And I was trying to minimize my usage. I'd prefer 1GB/mo, and other wants include a foreign to Germany phone number (namely US) (that way I can have my family call me easily).

Any recommendation? T-mobile seems to have good reception in our new location though, so if it's the same network, that's a plus.
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salm
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Re: German cellphones

Post by salm »

How much is you current plan?

Personally I´ve been quite happy with o2. They have the Option to cancel the contract within 1 month notice while others often only have 12 or 24 months. They also have some cheaper deals than t-mobile. I think t-mobile is the most expensive company.
Reception is good except maybe rural areas where you might have better luck with t-mobile.

It might be worth something to know that there are only 4 companies who own networks.
t-mobile
vodafone
o2
e-plus

There are other mobile phone companies but they only rent network time from one of these four big ones. Stay away from e-plus and companies that rent from them. Their network is crap. The other networks are fine. If you´re in a very rural area t-mobile is probably you best choice. In cities it doesn´t really matter.
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Beowulf
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Re: German cellphones

Post by Beowulf »

salm wrote:How much is you current plan?

Personally I´ve been quite happy with o2. They have the Option to cancel the contract within 1 month notice while others often only have 12 or 24 months. They also have some cheaper deals than t-mobile. I think t-mobile is the most expensive company.
Reception is good except maybe rural areas where you might have better luck with t-mobile.

It might be worth something to know that there are only 4 companies who own networks.
t-mobile
vodafone
o2
e-plus

There are other mobile phone companies but they only rent network time from one of these four big ones. Stay away from e-plus and companies that rent from them. Their network is crap. The other networks are fine. If you´re in a very rural area t-mobile is probably you best choice. In cities it doesn´t really matter.
Currently I have: http://www.t-mobile.de/T-D1/cds/Shop/td ... 88,00.html as my plan. The problem I'm facing is that I don't really know much German, so I'm stuck using google translate for everything, which can be problematic, especially when companies decide that they really need to have their text embedded into images.
"preemptive killing of cops might not be such a bad idea from a personal saftey[sic] standpoint..." --Keevan Colton
"There's a word for bias you can't see: Yours." -- William Saletan
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salm
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Re: German cellphones

Post by salm »

Ok. No time at the moment but maybe I can look something up tomorrow.
For the 10€/month you are paying at the moment you won´t get far, though. if you want the 1GB Data and a foreign phone number I´d estimate something more like 30 or 40 per month.
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Beowulf
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Re: German cellphones

Post by Beowulf »

salm wrote:Ok. No time at the moment but maybe I can look something up tomorrow.
For the 10€/month you are paying at the moment you won´t get far, though. if you want the 1GB Data and a foreign phone number I´d estimate something more like 30 or 40 per month.
I'm fine with paying a bit more. I'd like to keep it under 80-90 per month for me and my wife though.
"preemptive killing of cops might not be such a bad idea from a personal saftey[sic] standpoint..." --Keevan Colton
"There's a word for bias you can't see: Yours." -- William Saletan
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Zaune
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Re: German cellphones

Post by Zaune »

As far as a US number goes, do you use Skype? You can rent a number from them for about $15 a month.
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salm
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Re: German cellphones

Post by salm »

It´s possible to communicate with the phone company via chat. If you´re on the website for a while a chat window will pop up. You can insert your name and question and they will respond after a while. It´s possible to communicate with them in english.

Ok, here´s a plan from o2.
It has
- Flatrate SMS,
- Flatrate to German Landlines,
- Flatrate to other o2 Phones,
- 100 Minutes Free to other cell phone networks
- 1 GB Internet and a foreign phone number.
-It´s 34€/Month if you take it for 24 months or 41€ if you take the option where you can drop out of the contract every month.


Go to the following page. You´ll see a whole bunch of plans.

http://www.o2online.de/tarife/smartphone-tarife/

-Chose the one caled "Select". You have to press the button "Zum Tarif".
-You´ll be forwarded to a page where you can chose options
- Under "Tarif-Laufzeit" you can chose 24 months or 1 month
- Under "Internet Upgrade - für mehr Datenvolumen" chose "Surf Upgrade M"
- Under "Minuten Upgrade - Inland/Ausland" chose "Festnetznummer im Ausland" (This is the foreign phone number)

Beware if you you chose options and later on swich from 24 months to 1 month or vice versa the website "forgets" the options you chose.

If you are satisfied with your plan press the Button "In den Warenkorb"

You´re forwarded to a page where they want your address.
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