Number Porting in Germany
 

How easy is it to port numbers in Germany? My Dad lives in Germany and has a German T-Mobile prepaid that he is spending way too much money on. I keep suggesting he switches over to one of the cheaper MVNO's, but he would like to keep his number. Are there any restrictions on number porting with prepaids? How long does it take on average? I can't even figure out which of the MVNO's is best value at the moment. He does not need data. Just decent international SMS rates and domestic calls. The new Fonic looks very good. What do you German guys think about reliability? This is so important to him as he uses it for work too. A few years ago I suggested he go for EasyMobile, but it's a good thing he didn't follow my advice now.

He may after all need a contract, but he spends on average 3 to 4 months away from Germany in the year, so he would only go for one if it is a low monthly payment. Any advice on where I can find comparisons and good deals?

You can quite easy port numbers in germany. It cost about 25 Euro on the old contract or prepaid card. So make sure you have enough balance on your dads T-Mo prepaid when you start the porting.
Not all prepaid operators allow inbound porting though. I dont know about Fonic (which runs on o2-Network). For postpaid/contracts porting is in possible everywhere as far as i know. You just have to state that you want to keep your old number when you sign the contract and they will give you the required documents.

Usually the porting will be timed to the start of the new contract. In case that your old contract didnt run out yet you will get a temporary number assigned (i did that from vodafone to o2 once) before your number will get ported. Some other providers (T-Mobile) can only port the number if it is already available for porting (no prob for a prepaid, its always available there).

If you need some special info i could try to gather it. Just tell me.

Regarding the offers: I use a o2 contract and a Simyo prepaid.
O2 offers a contract without monthly basic charge and also offers a home zone with a assigned landline number (o2 genion s card). All calls outside the homezone are 19ct/min. A contract has the advantage of easy porting of your old number. There are many other options too - depends on which network your dad would prefer.

Chris

Thanks Chris. Plenty to digest there! I didn't realise it would be that expensive to port! It used to cost us around £10 here before competition authorities scrapped it! I know he's going to complain about that even though he is spending well over €25/month at the moment and he will probably quickly recover it. A question about your Genion S. Is there minimum useage? Also, I suppose when you are in home zone you can also make cheaper outgoing calls (supposedly at 'landline' prices) but is it possible to make cheaper international calls say using services like 0100xx etc.?

Hello from Germany,

Genion S is running in the o2-Germany Network, which can roam in the T-Mobile D1-Network in some, but not all areas, if no o2 network should be available.

No its not.
Genion Card S ("Genion ohne Handy online") costs no monthly fee, only the usage. With the "online" option you should do all questions online at www.o2online.de the telephone support is only available by an 0900-premium-number at 0,62 EUR/Minute

If You make the contract in a shop, you will have the normal option with toll free customer care from your phone 0179-55222.


The prices are lower inside the "Homezone" to local numbers (must have same area code, like the city where you are)
with 3 Cents per minute. (round about 2 p)

All other fixed line and mobile numbers are 19 Cents per minute. (round about 12p) but no premium or specialnumbers like 013x, 018x, 0900.

0800 is tollfree
00800 is not available with o2 Loop (Prepaid) or Tchibo/Fonic.

No. The Call by Call prefixcode 010xx or 0100xx is not available in mobile networks.

For calling to the UK he could use some calling-through-services like www.sparruf.de or something else.

If he is calling to abroad within his "Homezone" he pays lower prices. Details can be found (well disguised) at www.o2online.de in german language.

Porting a number towards a prepaid-card in Germany is only possible

to T-Mobile Xtra
to Vodafone CallYa

but not to any E-Plus Prepaid-Product (like E-Plus Free & Easy, Simyo, Blau, Alditalk etc.)
and not to any o2 Prepaid/Discount-Produkt (o2 Loop, Tchibo, Fonic)

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for that excellent further explanation.

That is a real shame though! So it's not possible to even port any number to one of the newer cheaper MVNO's. I wonder how Tschibo, Aldi, Blau and Fonic feel about this? After all surely they are aiming at people as a contract replacement and who are already established mobile phone users and are likely to have a number they wish to keep! I wonder who is blocking this then. If it is the other networks, surely this is a case of the bigger networks stifling the competition? If so perhaps it is a case for him to send a letter to the EU Directore-General for Competition? (Well if they have managed it against Microsoft, why not T-Mobil or Vodafone :) )

Hello,

no problem, you're welcome

[quote]
So it's not possible to even port any number to one of the newer cheaper MVNO's.

It's a question of not working IT systems. Mobile phone companies are cutting staff and costs so everything you don't need (or they think you don't need) is going slowly or not at all.

You can export your number from Tchibo, Aldi, Blau and Fonic
but you cannot import another number to their cards at the moment.

It's on the agenda for later, they told me.

Could be interesting. EU-Comissioner Viviane Reding will read your letter with interest :-)

There's a quite unknown MVNO on the E-Plus network called solomo, who support importing numbers, have very cheap international rates, very cheap roaming rates, low data rates and reasonable domestic rates - all that as a prepaid service.

Phone calls to the UK (and the rest of Europe) cost € 0.09/min, respectively € 0.29/min to mobile networks.

Domestic also cost € 0.09/min, respectively € 0.18/min to mobile networks.

International SMS are billed at € 0.19 where as domestic ones are charged with € 0.14.

Incoming roaming calls within Europe cost between € 0.05 and € 0.10 and outgoing roaming calls within Europe cost between € 0.29 and € 0.39.

The price for data is € 0.24/MB.

All in all very attractive for foreigners in Germany in my eyes.

Not quite true -- you can port to Solomo, and at the moment they're not charging the usual fee for it: http://www.solomo.de

Looks like Inquisitor beat me to it!

Thanks so much guys. I note that the free porting is only available until 15 October with Salomo. Do you think he will still have to pay to leave T-Mobile Prepaid?

I can't believe how long he has been paying 39c for all calls on T-Mobile. It is just robbery! He uses it sometimes when he is in Switzerland too. I dread to think! This Solomo looks like a perfect product... even for roaming. 10-15c/min incoming in most parts of Europe, and integrated with Callback. The 10% discount with €10 topup and 20% with €20 is also a great feature. The only tiny drawback I can see is that it is on E-Plus and the coverage is not perfect.

Yes, the fee from T-Mobile is not changed in this case. Only no "inbound" cost at Solomo.
I have such a card here at work for testing and after some small issues after the start of this still new provider it works flawlessly now.

Chris

Actually the E-Plus network doesn't provide the best coverage for Germany, but it's still good and since E-Plus and O2 (both used only the GSM1800 band before) got EGSM900 frequencies last year, they're about to close the gaps quickly with futher reaching EGSM900 basestations. However E-Plus' 3G network is cappy - it has bad coverage, is overloaded and doesn't support HSPA at all.

Regarding the porting process you should know the following:

1.) If you're on a postpaid plan you need to cancel the contract before initiating the porting or if you're a prepaid customer you need to send a so-called "Verzichtserklärung" (disclaimer) to your provider, so they'll release your number for porting. You can download a corresponding form for T-Mobile from http://klarmobil.de/nl/verzicht/tmobile.pdf

2.) The old provider will always charge about € 25 for the export of your existing number. If you're a prepaid customer you must make sure you have at least € 25 of credit left. Otherwise the old provider will refuse the porting.

3.) You shouldn't order your new SIM card 2-3 days before you have send in the "Verzichtserklärung".

More info about Genion S Card
 

The genion s card is a really good idea if you make land line calls from your "home zone". After setting-up the first free home zone, each change of home zone costs about 5 euros. You can choose any german address to be your home zone address, and set it up yourself on the o2online.de website. The home zone has a radius of up to approximately 2 km within a city, and it can be a bit wider in the countryside. (O2 only guarantee a maximum radius of 500m, but in practice the actual radius is bigger.) On many new phones, a "little red house" icon appears on your phone display while you remain inside your home zone.

This site gives an accurate idea of the coverage of a typical home zone:

http://gsm.yz.to/karte.php?x=379732&...ehz=43264&kr=1

You can click on the map to physically optimise your address in order to maximise your home zone coverage. You can click on "zoom" and then click on the map to move to other parts of Germany. You might need to press the "Zeichen" button to update the map. Use: move the location of the central "X" marker to your preferred home zone location and keep your desired base stations (the small dark blue squares) within the brown 2km radius circle. Whenever you update your home zone, you will find that your real coverage has a radius of about 1.9 km. So don´t be disappointed if you lose a base station just inside the edge of the 2km radius limit.

If you are into voip, you can cheaply call or forward voip calls onto the land line number of a genion s card.

Within the home zone, you can make cheap international land line calls using a service like budgetmobil.de. Calls to the UK work out at about 5 cents per minute if you use the genion card to dial the budgetmobile access number. (Genion 3c/min plus budgetmobile 1.78c/min into the UK.) Call quality and reliability are first class. No problems in the last year. Normal direct genion calls to UK land line: 11.3 c/min, to UK mobiles: 36.9c/min. Budgetmobile calls to UK mobiles using genion to dial into Budgetmobile: Genion 3c/min plus budgetmobile 11.2c/min = 15c/min. Budgetmobile announces the charge per minute when you set up the call.

You may also wish to consider one of the german prepaid cards that offer unlimited german land line calls for about 13-15 euros per month. Tchibo, Aldi, etc. Personally, I prefer Aldi because of their "anywhere within Germany" 24c/MB data rate. Genion cards also have the option of cheap data rates for connections made within the home zone. For example, "Internet@home-Pack-M" gives 1GB/month for 10 Euros. You might find better rates if you ask the gurus on this site.

The last time I checked, the genion s card had a 25 euro connection charge but no monthly rental charge. If you buy the "genion s card with a mobile", the "monthly rental" is 10 euros per month.

It is probably better to buy a "genion s card" in an O2 shop. That way you get free telephone support when you dial direct with the "genion s card". Otherwise, if you buy the card online (then appropriately called: "genion s card online"), telephone support costs 62 cents/Min from a Deutsche Telekom land line, and 62 cents/Min from the "genion s card online".

Just in case I have confused anyone, let me say that telephone support calls are free with a "genion s card", but they cost 62 cents/Min with a "genion s card online".

I now got the ball rolling thanks to you guys! Thanks. The problem he has is he has a bit too much credit now. In any case, if it takes about 3 days for T-Mobil to process the "Verzichtserklärung" (disclaimer), I now doubt that I will be able to get this done before Solomo's special offer of free porting finishes on Monday. Anyhow, the €10 normal charge is not too bad. I am confused about one thing with Solomo. It appears the discount applies for any topup made for over €10. But if you make a €10 topup do you get a 10% discount for that month only or is right it until that credit runs out? It would seem silly for anyone not to make the €20 topup (which is not that much really) to get the full 20% discount. I've just realised with such a discount applied, incoming charges in some EU countries is only 8c/min!! That seems like a good roaming product in its own right!

Thanks also to babble and the rest of you who mentioned the Genion S. I really think this is a very nice mobile product that you guys have in Germany. It's good not so much for the cheaper outgoing rate (that is nothing great) but for the fact of having a landline incoming number in your home zone. That really opens up exciting oppurtunities for VoIP diverts from Finarea/Betamax products etc. I was living in Germany in 1999 when this product was first launched and remember seeing the ads etc. A few friends of mine got it and I too was very tempted... but I didn't even have a German SIM at the time :( Genion was quite a bit more expensive then.... but so was all mobile telephony in Germany. I remember thinking it was so useful for me to call my friends who had Genion onto their "Festnetz" number from the classic old Deutsche Post style 'Yellow Brick' phoneboxes. All for a few 10 Pfennig pieces. I miss those phone boxes, just like I miss the red ones here in the UK. They are getting rid of so many of them, and are leaving them only in touristy areas! Ah Nostalgia... but slightly OT!

No, it does not have anything to do with the recharge but with the volume of calling within one month. If you spend more than 10 Euro a month you get 1 Euro extra top-up in the next month. If you spend more than 20 Euro a month you get a 4 Euro extra top-up in the next month.

Chris

Radius of O2 Home Zone reduced
 

O2 seems to have now reduced the radius of a home zone to about 1.43 km (for new home zone contracts).

Here is an example:

Patricks GSM-Seiten