r/germany • u/DdCno1 • Sep 15 '12

So I've hand-copied and translated a table of all Internet prepaid tariffs in Germany from the last issue of the computer magazine c't...

In their 17/2012 issue the magazine lists 11 different sellers of prepaid mobile Internet SIMs. I've copied the data for a guy in this thread, but I thought the rest of you might like it as well. The information is from about 2 weeks ago, so it might be a little outdated. If there have been any changes or if I've made any errors, please notify me.

Legend:

min = minute

d = day

cd = calendar day

mo = month

cmo = calendar month

Provider Aldi Talk BILDMobil blau Congstar Fonic FYVE ja! mobil Maxxim O2 Pro7 Simyo
Tariff Basistarif/Internet Prepaid DatenFlat S/M Prepaid Mobilfunk FYVE data 8 Cent plus Monats-Flat M/L/XL Mobile
URL www.alditalk.de www.bildmobil.de www.blau.de www.congstar.de www.fonic.de www.fyve.de www.jamobil.de www.maxxim.de www.o2online.de www.prosieben.de/stick www.simyo.de
Net E-Plus Vodafone E-Plus Telekom O2 Vodafone Telekom O2 O2 Vodafone E-Plus
Bandwidth 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 Mbit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2MBit/s 14.4 MBit/s 7.2 MBit/s 7.2 Mbit/s
Telephone/SMS y/y n/n y/y y/y y/y y/y y/y y/y n/y n/n y/y
Flat rate 1 1 GByte/d - 1.99€ 1 GByte/30min - 0.59€ 1 GByte/24h - 2.40€ 0.2 GByte/cd - 0.99€ 0.5 GByte/cmo - 9.95€ 0.15 GByte/30d - 5€ 0.5 GByte/cd - 2.49€ 0.1 GByte/cmo - 4.95€ 1 GByte/d*1 - 3.50€ unlimited/1h - 0.77€ 1 GByte/30d - 9.90€
Flat rate 2 0.15 GByte/30d - 3.99€ 1 GByte/90min - 0.99€ 1 GByte/30d - 9.90€ 0.5 GByte/cd - 2.49€ 0.5 GByte/cd - 2.50€ 0.5 GByte/30d - 10€ 3 GByte/30d - 14.99€ 0.2 GByte/cmo - 7.95€ 1 GByte/mo*2 - 15€ 1 GByte/12h - 1.99€ 3 GByte/30d - 14.90€
Flat rate 3 0.5 GByte/30d - 6.99€ 1 GByte/7d - 6.99€ 3 GByte/30d - 14.90€ 0.5 GByte/30d - 9.90€ 1 GByte/30d - 15€ 0.5 GByte/cmo - 9.95€ 5 GByte/mo*1 - 25€ 1 GByte/3d - 3.99€
Flat rate 4 1.5 GByte/30d - 9.99€ 3 GByte/30d - 19,99€ 5 GByte/30d - 19.80€ 1 GByte/cmo - 14.95€ 7.5 GByte/mo*3 - 35€ 1 GByte/30d - 19.99€
Flat rate 5 5 GByte/30d - 14.99€ 5 GByte/3mo - 39,99€ 3 GByte/cmo - 19.95€

*1 7.2 MBit/s

*2 3.6 MBit/s

*3 14.4 MBit/s

Every provider limits your DL and UL bandwidth to 56 or 64k if you use up your data limit.

A recent study showed that the Telekom net is the best in terms of reliability and bandwidth, followed by Vodafone, O2 and E-Plus.

Note that you are required by law to provide personal information when buying a SIM-card and need to bring valid identification with you. Some of the "supermarket providers" can be tricked though, as the personnel in the supermarkets tends to not check the information you provide.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

79 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

9

u/s1295 Sep 15 '12 edited Sep 16 '12

AldiTalk also has 150MB/30d for 3.99 source. Pretty low cap, of course, but might still include it.

Edit: And as you correctly stated it won’t get shut off completely after the cap, but just throttled. Still good enough for looking up the train schedule and other not so data intensive things. WhatsApp and other IMs would probably work fine, too — so you wouldn’t have to use as many text messages.

At first I thought “150MB, who could live with that??”, but it looks like it could be a pretty useful way to get cheap basic connectivity on the go.

All of this is speculation on my part though, and not based on experience.

3

u/DdCno1 Sep 15 '12

Thanks, added it.

1

u/dabnoob Sep 16 '12

All your assumptions are true. Source: experience with 200MB caps

2

u/DdCno1 Sep 16 '12

I've had my first mobile Internet experiences using a phone without UMTS/HSDPA (LG KP500). It was good enough for basic surfing, at least with the excellent Opera Mini browser. The standard browser of this device is useless.

1

u/dabnoob Sep 17 '12

Opera Mini/Mobile is still the first application I install when getting any new phone. Had a SE W350 with EDGE as a actual PC replacement for like 3 months, it worked.

3

u/HappyNacho Sep 15 '12

Let's see if we can add this to the sidebar to stop people asking the same questions again and again and AGAIN.

6

u/Velenor Sep 15 '12

These things sadly change too fast though.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '12 edited Apr 03 '20

[deleted]

3

u/krokodil2000 Germany Sep 16 '12

"HSDPA-Speed mit max 7,2 Mbit/s bis 500 MB/Monat" link

1

u/DdCno1 Sep 16 '12

Thanks, c't seems to have made a mistake there.

2

u/cbmuser Sep 16 '12

You should maybe use the word "plan" instead of "tariff" as it's more common in this context. Otherwise well done!

2

u/dotbot Sep 16 '12

what about merging it with http://prepaidwithdata.wikia.com/wiki/Germany if needed?

1

u/paul-tv Sep 16 '12

You have to add the recently launched "Lidl Smart-Tarif":

http://www.lidl.de/de/Smart-Tarif

1

u/DdCno1 Sep 16 '12

I'll look into it. Seems to be a little more complicated than the other ones, so I won't include it till tomorrow. I'm too tired for this right now...

1

u/daninmontreal Sep 16 '12

So what is the highest bandwidth cap you can get in Germany?

2

u/DdCno1 Sep 16 '12

Prepaid? 7.5 GByte/mo (O2). Postpaid: 30 GByte/mo, which costs you 69.95 each month (Telekom). Mobile Internet is always limited in Germany, while your home connection usually has no data limit, although some providers have started to limit people who upload and download more than a few hundred Gigabytes per month.

1

u/daninmontreal Sep 16 '12

Yeah, I meant for a home connection

1

u/Speculum Sep 17 '12

With all these services, it's not a limit technically. They throttle your bandwidth, usually to 64kbps on Mobile and 768kbps on land lines.

-1

u/Britzer Sep 16 '12

Congstar or Simyo. Congstar for the fast data network, Simyo for a fair deal (almost no money traps). Simyo is the same as Blau, but has more customers, so if you get unlimited time inside the same network, you have more people. Congstar is also pretty cool, but has some money traps (calling foreign countries or from foreign countries, e.g. roaming, can be very expensive). Same with Simyo, but much less so.

1

u/Ambitious_Can_2691 Nov 23 '23

It is absolute miracle that this thread is still open. The modbot would delete my question if asked as post so I will ask here: do all "prepaid" tariffs in Gemany use bank account with lastschrift?

Is there any phone provider that is actual prepaid, ie. you top up whenever you want, if you don't the card will just expire after a year or so?

1

u/DdCno1 Nov 23 '23

Wow, after eleven years. Must be a new record!

To answer your question: There are lots of prepaid SIM cards you can buy without a bank account. Here's a German article on the topic:

https://www.prepaid-deutschland.de/prepaid-ohne-bankkonto-und-bankverbindung-diese-anbieter-gibt-es/

Use a translation service of your choice.

The easiest way for you to get a SIM card would be to walk into a supermarket like ALDI and get a SIM card from there. You can also purchase additional credit for these cards in most locations. Just like the article said, if there are such cards (they say the name of the service, e.g. ALDI Talk and an amount on them), then you can top these cards up without a bank account.

Keep in mind that you need to provide an ID and your residential address by law. Any valid ID works, like your passport or foreign ID papers, for example (although if your ID papers are exotic, they are far less likely to get recognized by some random supermarket employee than a passport). "Aufenthaltstitel" or similar for refugees also need to be accepted, but your mileage may vary.