Can One Call Betamax Gateways In Germany on German Flat Rate Plans?

[ronwi]

Perhaps it's the American lawyer in me, but....
from everything I have read, Germany has some very pro-consumer rules re mobiles (e.g., right to refund of prepaid balance.) Given that the chart that Inquisitor has linked shows that O2 blocks many discount dialing numbers, perhaps someone in Germany should file a complaint with the governmental entity that regulates cell phones regarding the O2 practices?

[Evan]

Originally Posted by ronwi

Perhaps it's the American lawyer in me, but....
from everything I have read, Germany has some very pro-consumer rules re mobiles

Nah you read wrong

When it comes to mobiles, Germany is one of the less consumer-friendly countries, at least in Europe, and especially with postpaid contracts.

There aren't many countries where:

- You get a 2-year contract (in most other countries, it's one year)

- If you don't cancel your contract at least 3 months before it expires, it is automatically renewed for 1 additional year (in most other countries, after the 1st year, you can cancel it anytime)

- You get a SIM-locked phone for the duration of your contract (in many other countries, the phones are sold unlocked by law)... this will hopefully change soon.

- It's prohibited to use your data plan for VoIP and P2P applications (and those ports are closed)... also this will hopefully change soon

- The price for SMS, stubbornly remains at 0.19€ (national) and 0.29€ (international), with most pre- or postpaid plans of the four major mobile telcos (while everywhere is Europe is falling down to 2c per SMS)

and so on and so on...

I learned the above the hard way... so when in Germany, use prepaid cards but not from the 4 big mobile telcos