[snaimon]

Lidl is the main rival to Aldi in Germany. According to teltarif, Lidl has been contemplating a low-price mobile offering for some time. The hope was for 9.9 e-cents per minute. This is more speculation than cold, hard facts in my opinion. Time will tell.

OT:

It is somewhat amazing to me, a relative outsider, that in the last 7 - 12 months there has been such a change in the German prepaid mobile market. TRUE, Europe has free incoming, but rates in Germany are reported to be or have been relatively stable and relatively high for YEARS.... until Spring this year (2005).

It is also reported that T-MO DE is going to reduce its Click and Go network internal rate to 5 e-cents to match the Aldi-talk offer, down from 15 and reduce the landline rate to 25 cents, down from 30. To bad those are the only rates that may be in flux.

The family will probably be headed to Europe again next summer and I am holding off making any additional SIM purchases or tarif changes until just before the trip. I am questioning the value/usefullness of my 2 D1 cards. Versus the SIMYO card, the only advantage is 9 e-cents on weekends to German land lines. Otherwise, SIMYO or Alditalk beats my XtraOne tarif. It might be possible to switch to the XtraClassic and then apply for NON-STOP. NON-STOP is in trial until Jan 31, so there is not point at this time. It costs 5 Euro to switch rate plans.

Stan