German Mvno's

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Gryphone

Some news about German "MVNO"s (they are in fact providers and don't have any network structure):

Right.
The only MVNO now is Vistream with the sunsim, che-mobil, telesim... as brands has own network infrastructure (but uses the eplus base stations)

Chris

BTW: Sunsim lowered the prices for calls and SMS inside germany to 25ct. But still more expensive than the others.

[Motel75]

Now that Vodafone Germany's international SIM, mobi, has had a month or two to straighten out its website, it appears that it does not offer any cheap calls to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or the pre-2005 EU countries (except for Greece, which I guess counts as a "guestworker country"). Of other rich countries that Blauworld can call cheaply, Japan is included but South Korea is not. It looks a little like the original Blauworld pricelist. However, I don't see any good reason why anyone would take mobi instead of Blauworld; Vodafone Passport would be one, but it's largely of interest for people travelling to the countries that are not included.

http://www.mobi-online.info/tarife.html#01

[snaimon]

http://www.onlinekosten.de/news/arti...t_Spitzenplatz

Bottom line is subject. Now 8 cents / minute to landline phones from sunsim.

Rate changes in good ol' Germany are hard to keep up with these days. The site has done a good job with that, I think.

Thanks, webmasters!

Stan

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

http://www.onlinekosten.de/news/arti...t_Spitzenplatz

Bottom line is subject. Now 8 cents / minute to landline phones from sunsim.

Rate changes in good ol' Germany are hard to keep up with these days. The site has done a good job with that, I think.

Thanks, webmasters!

Stan

Yes, indeed. New tariffs nearly every day.

The other good thing about Sunsim:
They simplified the roaming list. Now only 3 zones and many countries are in Zone 1.
See http://www.sunsim.de/preisliste_SUNSIM.pdf page 3.

Chris

[Gryphone]

And, there is now another new offer:

Name: Youni
Activation Fee/Credit included: 9,95€/5,00€
Network: E-Plus

Debiting: 60/1
Standard calls/texts: 0,16€
On-tariff calls/texts: 0,06€
International calls: 1,84€
International texts: 0,20€

The new brand is dedicated to university students, however anybody may buy such a card. The above charges don't look to special (they are excactly the same as Simyo and Blau), however there is one noteworthy part: the city option.

You may chose one German area code where you only pay 0,06€/min. instead of the usual 0,16€. Of course the idea is for students to chose their campus city, however you might as well chose one where your calling card operater offers a local number.
According to a report by Teltarif there is a special offer until end of June where all calls to German landlines will be charged at 0,06€/min.

The charges for data calls are the old E-Plus charges though, therefore much more expensive than the 0,24€/MB that Simyo, Blau and Aldi are charging now.

[snaimon]

Do you think they are making money at 6 cents / min to landlines 24-7? I bet they are! Used to be the cheapest was 9 cents and then weekends only.

Stan

[Gryphone]

Originally Posted by snaimon

Do you think they are making money at 6 cents / min to landlines 24-7? I bet they are! Used to be the cheapest was 9 cents and then weekends only.

Until recently there was an O2 Loop tariff where you could landlines for 0,07€/min. on weekends.
And already since 2003 there is an E-Plus tariff (contract though) where you can make calls to landlines for just 0,03€/min. around the clock.
So yes, I'm quite sure they are still making money.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

Do you think they are making money at 6 cents / min to landlines 24-7? I bet they are! Used to be the cheapest was 9 cents and then weekends only.

Stan

They will for sure. The interconnect fee to landlines is less than 1ct/min at peak times. You get flatrates for about 10 Euro/month to all landlines on some contracts... (Tchibo [o2] , Base [eplus], 1&1, arcor [both on vodafone])

Chris

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Gryphone

And, there is now another new offer:

Name: Youni
[cut off the details]

to my opinion this tariff is quite useless if they dont make the starting offer of 6ct/min to all landlines permanent.

Most students i know (and including me when i still was a student) use a Genion tariff which gives you a landline number in your homezone as well. And the new Genion S without a monthly fee and 3ct to landlines and 19ct to mobiles is quite a good deal (not to mention the cheaper international rates from within the homezone).

Chris

[andy]

I noticed the data rate on Sunsim, and wondered if it also applies when roaming. Given the way the tariffs are listed separately, home and roaming, probably not.

Originally Posted by Gryphone

And, there is now another new offer:

Name: Youni

You may chose one German area code where you only pay 0,06€/min. instead of the usual 0,16€. Of course the idea is for students to chose their campus city, however you might as well chose one where your calling card operater offers a local number.

So it need not be the local code you're actually in?

Hmmmm ...... then I think maybe Düsseldorf 0211

I'm starting to like the idea of using it with a Voipcheap account, which introduced callthrough numbers a couple of weeks ago. Then about 45 countries are 1 cent a minute on top of the 6c, and quite a few cheap mobile destinations.

edit - nb - this needs to be a German VC account, as one can only use the callthrough number for the account's registered country, but it's easy enough to set one up