New MVNO in Germany

[schoen]

Hi,
from today there is another virtual operator called "o.tel.o" which is the first MVNO brand from Vodafone D2. Otelo offers a tariff which 9 cent to all national destinations (except special numbers) and 9 cent to the landlines of 30 countries but 1,49€ to the mobile phone of these countries. and 9 cent/minute for data call (officially only 3g (umts), but it should work also on HSPA)
The set is available online with 5€ initial airtime for 4,95€, but you will need a german passport (because the postman would like to have controlling look at your passport before giving you the set). No worries it will also be available at Euronics, EP, Promarkt, Saturn, Mediamarkt but for 9,95€ with 10€ initial airtime.

Regards schoen

[dg7feq]

Also today:
HelloMobil
new tariff on the o2 network.
8ct to all domestic networks.
Details here: helloMobil - helloTarif

[Motel75]

Hmmm, o.tel.o (slogan: "For a better understanding") was one of the first private landline competitors to Deutsche Telekom in 1998, and was bought by Arcor a couple of years later, which in turn was now majority-owned by Vodafone, which bought Mannesmann in 2000. I was wondering if they'd make use of some of these old brands.

Shame that Voda can't seem to drop the silly per-minute data billing, or improve upon the small group of countries that one can call for 9 cents/min (not even Canada and the US are included - just Europe). It's still a much better deal than CallYa - perhaps this is a "trial balloon" offer, as Vodafone isn't exactly hiding its ownership of it like it did with smobil being run via "Allmobility".

[smudge]

Three years on, many people do not realize how good the otelo prepaid card has become.

Although the €20 otelo sim card purchase price is more expensive than most other cards, an otelo sim card also has a €20 monthly flatrate "speech option" which can easily be cancelled/restarted. Best of all, the flatrate option does not require a german credit card or bank account, and otelo uses the higher quality vodafone network.

For tourists who want to make long international calls to friends and relatives back home, the otelo flatrate option may initially appear to be more expensive than other cards but the beauty of this option is that it allows people to make very cheap international calls via call-through companies, sometimes for fractions of a cent per minute.

The otelo flatrate "speech option", however, may not be perfect for everyone because it does not include any monthly data or SMS allowances.

There are two kinds of otelo cards:

1. "Genuine" (or "original") otelo cards obtained directly from vodafone
2. "Other" otelo cards sold/resold by card providers such as Debitel, Mobilcom, Drillisch, The Phone House

Visually, both kinds of otelo card appear to be identical. They are both simply called, "otelo".

Purchasing an otelo card is easy in Germany:

1. "Genuine" otelo cards can be bought in vodafone shops, or, if you have have a german address and bank account, online at otelo.de
2. The "Other" otelo cards are sold in supermarkets and electrical superstores like Saturn, MediaMarkt, etc, and are very common on ebay.de

Both types of otelo cards can be topped up using "otelo vouchers", bank standing orders, etc. Genuine cards, however, can also be topped up using vodafone "CallYa" vouchers, as well as by direct (international) bank payments to vodafone. A Genuine card has additional access to the vodafone portal. Think of it as a special kind of CallYa prepaid card.

[Marschel]

The Vodafone network is since a few month nearly a half a year very overcrowded. I would further recommand Lebara which uses the network of Telekom Deutschland.

[smudge]

Marschel, the lebara tariffs look slightly complicated. Which lebara flatrate would you recommend instead of otelo's?

lebara.de/FLAT

Here is a summary of the otelo flatrate for you.

Die otelo Allnet-Flat, in alle deutschen Netze telefonieren:

Für 19,99 Euro/Monat (entfällt im 1. Monat bei Aktivierung) ohne extra Berechnung unbegrenzt nat. in alle deutschen Netze telefonieren, ausgenommen Sondernummern, Rufumleitungen, Konferenzverbindungen und Videotelefonie. Option verlängert sich automatisch jeweils um einen weiteren Monat, wenn nicht gekündigt wird. Fehlt zum Zeitpunkt der Abbuchung Guthaben auf dem otelo Konto, wird die Option ruhend gestellt und es wird vorübergehend gem. zugrunde liegendem Tarif abgerechnet. Sobald Guthaben aufgeladen wird, wird das Entgelt für die Option automatisch abgebucht u. die Option ist wie gewohnt nutzbar.

otelo.de/produkte/allnet-flat.html

[Marschel]

Flatxxl