Not only can you choose to have flat-rates and extra fast internet, you can also save some money if you don’t need a new mobile phone, or if you are under 25 (or even 29 if you are a student). Reliable and constant Internet connection is a prerequisite to fulfill all these desires. It depends on your budget and how much you travel outside of major metropolitan areas. If you need more than 10GB of data on the fastest download speed and with the best network coverage, then you’re likely to spend upwards of €35 a month. © 2016 – 2021 Live Work Germany, All Rights Reserved. You never know, if you need to move away again from Germany at least you are not stuck with a 24 months contract. As mentioned before, we are only comparing the best mobile phone providers in Germany, which is why this list is not complete, but it will be frequently updated. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile network offers the best coverage, closely followed by Vodafone and then finally O2 (which is owned by Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica) offers the patchiest coverage. Maybe you haven’t heard of Tarifhaus yet, as this is a very new phone provider in Germany, but it is definitely worth checking out their offers. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Deutsche Telekom continues to operate the best performing mobile network in Germany, Chip magazine's Network Test 2017 found. Heavy data usage and fast download speeds are the things most likely to increase your monthly bill. As such, I’ve not included fixed-term contracts here. Other terms and conditions set out by your network provider still apply, wherever you roam to. ... Germany. Luckily Tarifhaus offers different options for all needs. Deutsche Telekom should be your No.1 choice if you are looking for great mobile network quality. Let’s not beat around the bush, while o2 is great in cities, it can be really annoying if you live in a small German village and constantly have to fight for signal. This is particularly so when it comes to contracts. Registered in England & Wales. ✅ Cheap starter packages to pricier high speed packages With this in mind, I would strongly advise that you opt for a SIM-only plan. EU flat does not include Switzerland. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. If you do not need a mobile flat rate for all German mobile providers, or the fastest mobile internet available, then you just pick the package that suits you best, which means you can save a lot of money. 1. Deutsche Telekom should be your No.1 choice if you are looking for great mobile network quality. Price: From £6 to £25 SIM-only | Find out more at … They’re the only network offering an LTE speed similar to what you might expect from standard fibre optic broadband via a landline. However, keep in mind that this flexibility will come with higher costs than signing up for a 24 month contract, for example. Now let’s move on and get the other bad news out of the way first: Compared to other countries, your German mobile phone package probably won’t seem that great (unless you’re coming from the US or Canada!). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pricing of these three main providers mirrors their quality: So here’s one tip: if you do live in a village, the best thing to do would be to ask your neighbors which German mobile provider they are with, and how good – or bad – their signal usually is. Either way, the following mobile carriers offer special discounts for students and young people and will definitely save you money compared to their standard offers. You get what you pay for but the contrast can be quite stark with T-Mobile being considerably more expensive than O2. You will find new and used cars, as well as motorhomes, motorcycles and utility vehicles at mobile.de – Germany's largest vehicle marketplace online And there's growing discontent among the business community in the country on the pace of mobile network experience improvements, with claims that poor broadband speeds are hindering economic growth. After all, moving house can be the difference between great signal at home and one useless bar of patchy reception. See also : mobile bitrates map and Vodafone Mobile, O2 Mobile, T-Mobile mobile networks coverage. Thank you for supporting us - we appreciate it! PremiumSIM 2. Prices are the highest in the country but look out for data deals as there are often good offers available. Deutsche Telekom has won every test regarding quality of net coverage and quality in the last couple of years. If you prefer flexibility you better sign up for a contract that can be quit on a monthly basis. This data depicts the estimated revenue share of network and service providers in the mobile communications market in Germany in 2020. So which one is the best SIM card in Germany for students? This is why we decided to update this page and give you an overview of the hidden cost that can drive your monthly phone bill up. Try our corporate solution for free! ✅ Great mobile network quality If you are looking for a cheap contract go for an option with o2-Telefonica network. The main MNOs in Europe are listed below. This map represents the coverage of 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G mobile network. 1&1 is using the same network as Deutsche Telekom. Which is the right plan and provider will depend on your circumstances and individual needs. If you prefer good reception both in cities and in rural areas and fast mobile internet you should pick one of the D1 network contracts. A mobile network operator or MNO (also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier) is a provider of wireless communications services. There are hundreds of SIM card providers and deals available in Germany, which may seem daunting. It’s worth noting that German mobile phone contracts are notoriously inflexible (much like German contracts in general). It offers customers 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE services. O2 (check network coverage) [E-Plus is now O2] (check network coverage) Generally speaking, there are two different types of networks in Germany: D-network (mostly used by T-Mobile and Vodafone) and E-network (mostly used by O2). Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. done your Anmeldung with city hall. The best mobile phone deals for the … Unless you’re making a lot of business calls to German landlines or mobiles, trust me, it really doesn’t make sense to sign a fixed-term contract. Make sure that with your new contract you also check the box “Drittanbieter sperren”. For complete transparency, I’ve indicated the last time the article was updated. A great advantage of 1&1 is that you can choose between different mobile networks. We therefore STRONGLY recommend not to sign a long-term contract and to go with post-paid options instead. The rules probably won’t be as strict as in Germany to get your hands on a SIM card, and this buys you a couple of months to get settled and sort out all the admin required to get set up with a German mobile phone package (up to 60 days roaming is considered “fair usage”, so this should be ample). At the dawn of 5G in Germany, this report provides an overview of the current mobile experience on the country's 3G and 4G networks. It simplifies things hugely to know that they all purchase airtime from one of the 3 main German mobile networks: Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile network offers the best coverage, closely followed by Vodafone and then finally O2 (which is owned by Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica) offers the patchiest coverage. There are ways round this, even if you’ve not found a permanent address yet, or you’ve not yet registered i.e. ✅ Many different options We have been made aware that some people were charged more than they should have been with their contract and they did not understand why. Once you even ran out these 3 extra times they will cut your mobile internet speed until the new month. As such, all the call and data recommended below are SIM-only. Great deals combined with the flexibility of choosing your favorite mobile phone and network paired with their outstanding customer service make for a great combination. If you are only looking for the cheapest option available, don’t sign up with Deutsche Telekom. But if you are in need of fast mobile internet and great network coverage throughout Germany then Deutsche Telekom is your best pick. The majority of our time (about 8 days) will be spent in the Munich area. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies do not store any personal information. To help you find the best mobile contract for your own personal needs and preferences, we put together an overview of the most popular German phone providers. With this I’ve made the assumption that internationally mobile people are less likely to want to bind themselves into long contractual commitments. I am a student so the word “best” has been automatically interpreted as “cheap and best” by my mind. To connect to the Network in Germany, you should not leave the area of WiFi hotspots or have to pay for roaming to your mobile provider. limit my search to r/germany. This is probably 10 times faster than your internet at home! The Best Mobile Network Operators in Germany Deutsche Telekom – The Largest Network in Germany With 44.657 million users, this company is the main telecommunication company in the whole country. You only pay for what you really need. In contrast, if you don’t use your device much for data-intensive activities like watching YouTube, streaming music and making video calls, then you can find a good package for as little as €7 per month . Deutsche Telekom has been rated best German mobile network 3 times in a row by several popular consumer magazines, such as ‘Connect’ and ‘Chip’. Find the best internet provider in Germany with our help. Or if you don’t find that option online in the interface of your account make sure to call the hotline and request this. Top currencies. A key part of any mobile phone specification is its operating frequency bands. ✅ Very fast mobile internet with LTE On the other hand, if you’re going to be making lots of calls from rural areas, or on an intercity train or from your car on the Autobahn, then I can pretty much guarantee that an O2 SIM will be useless. As already mentioned, o2 has good reception in German cities. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. ✅ Flexible contract duration starting from 1 month to 24 months But quality comes at a price, which in this case is slightly higher costs than other German mobile phone providers. This is something you are really going to appreciate if you’ve ever had a mobile provider that only provided bad signal that made it impossible to have long calls. When comparing the rates for similar packages, you will see that Deutsche Telekom is slightly more expensive than other German mobile providers. If you need very fast mobile internet, make sure to sign up for a contract that includes the LTE option. Mobile phone Germany contract overview: If you were good enough to go through your anmeldung and open a bank account before, you are then able to sign for a contract at one of the following German mobile phone contract providers. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Reception in big cities is very good, but if you live in a rural area ask your friends first if they experience problems with reception with o2. So if you are going to live in a very remote area, or if you travel a lot, then Deutsche Telekom is a very good choice. ✅ Flatrate for calls within Germany and flatrate for SMS This network is called D-Netz and has the best coverage in Germany. If you don’t cancel before this 24 month period is up, most contracts have an automatic renewal clause which immediately ties you in to another 12 months! When you try to get your money back this is almost always impossible as those Drittanbieter are mostly located somewhere abroad. At the moment, the maximum speed for LTE is 50Mb/s, which is probably faster than your internet at home. ✅ Very competitive prices. Before we begin, there are a few things to bear in mind: This is a constantly changing marketplace, and there are always new deals and products on the horizon. It simply depends on your needs: Do you need a lot of mobile internet, or do you need free minutes and SMS? Tarifhaus will be a perfect fit for anybody who is looking for a contract with, ✅ 8GB of mobile Data with LTE speed It’s very hard to cancel them, even if you’re leaving the country and can prove it. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Quality comes with … use the following search parameters to narrow your results: subreddit:subreddit find submissions in "subreddit" author:username find submissions by "username" site:example.com find submissions from "example.com" url:text search for "text" in url selftext:text Many choices to get the best deal for you personally, no matter if you need a lot of mobile data or if you prefer to get the newest smartphone. ✅ Fast mobile internet with LTE But if you don’t mind paying a bit more in order to get the best network quality, then Deutsche Telekom is your best pick. After sorting out your German mobile phone provider it is time to consider signing up with a German internet provider or get German cable TV. So just follow our advice and block those 3rd party providers from the start and safe yourself a lot of trouble. These are usually paid via direct debit, but you can cancel them with only one calendar month’s notice, affording much more flexibilty than an iron-clad contract. This means that usually, even in the most remote German village, with Deutsche Telekom you will have strong signal for calls and mobile data. Plus 1&1 is know for their excellent customer service. We will endevor to keep this article up-to-date! As of June 2017, roaming charges have been outlawed for anyone with a SIM from an EU country traveling to another EU country. 1&1 has been rated as the best German phone provider in recent years in several leading customer magazines. Especially within notorious areas in Berlin such as Eberswalder Strasse, where you have 0 signal for example with O2, Telekom is your best choice. I hope that in no time you’re happily enjoying cat videos on Facebook with your new German SIM! Well, first of all, their websites to sign up will all be in German. Freenet and winSIM tend to offer the best deals in the vast majority of cases for their respective networks, depending what you’re looking for. As you can see, there are no clear cut winners and losers. Network coverage > Germany 3G / 4G / 5G coverage map, Germany Cellular data networks in Germany . Whatever your needs are, with our help you will find the best German mobile contract! A great choice for your new mobile phone provider is 1&1. Find the best German mobile phone contract with our help. Company Registration Number 11833746, Registered Address: Suite 2A, Blackthorn House, St. Paul’s Square, Birmingham B3 1RL, United Kingdom. There is also a third option: to get a SIM card with mobile data transfer. It’s probably best to give a cheaper network a try first, and then switch if you find the coverage to be poor. Germany is well behind its European neighbors when it comes to coverage with high-performance mobile network technology, a study shows. Again, T-Mobile is by far the best network in Germany. It’s pretty straightforward to take your existing number with you (except for business customers). Vodafone Hit by Three-Hour Mobile Network Outage in Germany The German unit of British-based Vodafone, the telecoms group with the most users in Europe, said its network … Deutsche Telekom has been rated best German mobile network 3 times in a row by several popular consumer magazines, such as ‘Connect’ and ‘Chip’. United States Dollar $ Euro € Pound Sterling £ Naira ₦ South African Rand R Australian Dollar $ You must give a valid address in Germany in order to buy a prepaid German mobile phone SIM card. Network coverage in GERMANY. o2 recently became the biggest German mobile provider after merging with Eplus. Disclosure: Some of the links contained in this article are affiliate links, meaning we receive a small commission for any sales resulting from these clicks. The supported frequency bands determine whether a certain handset is compatible with a certain network carrier. Other providers (such as Deutsche Telekom) offer the option to use your phone in Switzerland as well for normal conditions. News Germany's 4G mobile network one of worst in Europe. Telekom Deutschland has the best mobile network of all four mobile operators in Germany, according the annual network test executed by German online ICT magazine Chip Online. Comparison Best German Mobile Phone Providers, This website uses cookies. A smarter move if you’re coming to Germany from another EU country could be to buy a SIM card in that country before you get here. There are way too many internet providers out there to not get lost. But, importantly, it allows you to cancel with 1 month’s notice. Answer 1 of 4: I will be staying in Berlin and Dresden for 12 days next month and I was wondering about the best mobile network concerning coverage and tourist plan etc... thanks Berlin Your service provider will then add this on top of your monthly bill. And that’s not something you’d want to commit to for 2 years. ✅ Great mobile network quality Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pricing of these three main providers mirrors their quality: T-Mobile is the most expensive, followed by Vodafone, with O2 coming in as the cheapest. So it’s always best to study the small print if you’re not sure. The fact remains that Germany is punching well below its weight in terms of mobile network speeds. We strongly recommend Tarifhaus for anybody who is looking for a good compromise of good prices and quality plus the advantage of being very flexibel. The best mobile network in Germany is Telekom. Also know as Telekom, it is considered the largest European provider in the entire continent thanks to its revenues (€75.66 billion in 2018). So I am listing the two best mobile carriers which I have personally used. Network coverage in GERMANY A key part of any mobile phone specification is its operating frequency bands. These mobile providers generally ask for a local Bank account and a local address. ✅ 6 month contracts For example, if you live in a large city like Berlin and rarely leave the city to visit more rural areas, you’ll probably be fine using O2. Mobile network operators & Internet service providers in Germany. What sounds like a neat option is actually something that can cost you a lot of money. This another benefit of SIM-only’s flexibility. While other German phone providers only offer LTE with up to 50Mb/s, Deutsche Telekom is one of the few companies that can already offer up to 100Mb/s. The largest mobile network providers in Germany are Vodafone, T-Mobile and Telefonica O2. In 2014, O2 (Telefónica) bought E-Plus, which means that both carriers use the same network now. Interestingly, even though O2 has by far the worst network coverage, their bandwidth for data appears to be the best. If you want to check out some of the other major phone providers in Germany, have a look at Vodafone, Congstar, and Yourfone. I have selected what I think is the fairest plan but feel to explore. In addition, the price of data bundles with a German calls and data package tends to be more expensive than other EU countries. Signing up with the best German mobile phone provider will save you a lot of money and trouble, as problems are bound to arise if you pick the wrong provider. For technical details on 5G NR and a list of its designated operating frequencies, bands, and roaming possibilities, see 5G NR frequency bands.. Commercial deployments. There is no single best answer to which network is best for you. As with the other networks, customers will be able to use their UK minutes, texts and data for no extra charge. Live Work Germany and liveworkgermany.com are trading names of James Meads Media & Consulting Ltd. speed of up to 225MBit/s, which is probably even faster than your internet at work or at home. As mentioned before, Deutsche Telekom is known for having the best mobile network quality of all German mobile providers. Right now our clear No 1 pick for a mobile phone contract in Germany is 1&1 Internet. What happened in the past that some malicious websites might have installed some code that made you book some services in the background (like sex-sites) and then charge you for it. ✅ Good reception in cities Note: This list of network deployments does not imply any widespread deployment or national coverage. Also some companies will offer contracts that can be terminated monthly while other contracts are for a minimum duration of 24 months. Live Work Germany uses cookies to improve your experience. o2 is especially popular in big cities and less popular in rural areas, as their signal in cities is quite strong while when on the road a lot you might have trouble finding a signal. General information. That being said, some of the cheaper SIM-only plans out there specifically exclude the abiltiy to roam with your SIM.  Weaker signal in rural areas. The second best is Vodafone. Best German Internet Providers. By clicking "Accept" you agree to cookies being used in accordance with our. Deutsche Telekom is the largest provider in the country, previously named T-Mobile. It is true that Deutsche Telekom is a bit more expensive than other German phone providers, but in return you get the best network coverage in Germany. Datenautomatik means that after you used up your monthly limit of mobile data the provider is allowed to book up to (usually) 3 times per month some more mobile data for extra cost. 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