Cheapest rates in germany for...

[inquisitor]

further information:
details on purchasing and recharging Fonic
details on purchasing and recharging solomo pro

[Evan]

Very useful comparison of the two cheapest (?) MVNOs inquisitor.

I just noticed a new MVNO (started services on 20 April according to teltarif.de), called Minutel, that offers similar or even cheaper prices to Fonic and Solomo.

I didn't have the time to check it thoroughly but from the first look, it has two main additional advantages (especially for international visitors):

- The billing increments are per second, from the first second, also to international destinations. To my knowledge it's the first German MVNO to offer that.

- The recharge options are numerous and quite convenient for international visitors, like the Paysafecard and most importantly, through Paypal.

[inquisitor]

Minutel is interesting, but their website says calls are billed by full minutes ("Taktung minutengenau"). Also international calls are quite expensive, costing € 0,49/min even to neighbouring countries. Their comparably cheap domestic rates are offset by the billing in full minutes.
Their only innovative features beyond the versatile recharge options are the free call diversions to landlines in the following countries:
France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithunia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands.

Actually, in this thread I'm focussing on visitors to Germany, who seek to call home at reaseonable international rates. So from that point of view Minutel isn't really an option.

[Evan]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Minutel is interesting, but their website says calls are billed by full minutes ("Taktung minutengenau"). Also international calls are quite expensive, costing € 0,49/min even to neighbouring countries. Their comparably cheap domestic rates are offset by the billing in full minutes.

Actually, in this thread I'm focussing on visitors to Germany, who seek to call home at reaseonable international rates. So from that point of view Minutel isn't really an option.

Minutel is certainly an option for international visitors. My mistake, that I didn't write on my previous post that the prices I mentioned are for the "plus" calling plan.

Minutel offers two plans just like Solomo. The "simple" Minutel plan and the Minutel Plus (similar to Solomo Pro).

You are probably referring to Minutel and not the Minutel Plus plan. The "simple" Minutel plan has the rates and conditions you've mentioned but the Minutel Plus offers similar prices with Solomo Pro and Fonic, as I already mentioned. E.g.

- Billing increments are per second (Taktung: sekundengenau)
- National landlines: 0,079 €
- National mobiles: 0,099 €
- International landlines (EU): 0,089 €
- International Mobiles (EU): 0,289 €
- SMS: 0,129 €

http://www.minutel.de/plus/static/tariffs

All the above rates are cheaper than Solomo Pro (except for National landlines), albeit only very slightly cheaper. But they become significantly cheaper than Solomo, given that Minutel Plus charges per second from the first second, especially for German visitors who call international mobiles (given that the majority of mobile calls last less than 1 minute). For example, a 10-second call to an EU mobile number, will be charged with Solomo Pro or Fonic 29 cents while with Minutel Plus will be charged 4.8 cents.

[inquisitor]

Sorry, didn't see the Plus tariff, which actually is very interesting. Also they give bonus minutes for incoming calls when call diversions are set (so-called "Teleprofit").
The only advantage of solomo left are the cheap roaming rates and the VoIP-service.
I will add Minutel to the comparison table soon.

[Evan]

You are right. One more additional advantage of Solomo Pro regarding the data, is that that Minutel charges per 100kb increments.

Of course, I hope that their charges per second from the first second, don't have some "hidden" costs or prerequisites regarding the international calls. I failed to find any special "hidden" note, except the one posted on their detailed pricelist pdf files (Für die Berechnung der nachstehend aufgeführten Preise sind Verbindungsdauer, Verbindungsart und Nutzungszeiten maßgeblich. Während einer Verbindung wird eine Takteinheit immer zu den Tarifbedingungen berechnet, welche zu Beginn der Takteinheit gelten.), which I don't understand what exactly means.

[Motel75]

Sounds like a leftover clause from back when telephone calls cost different amounts at different times - talk for an hour from 16:59 and you'll pay a lot more than if you start two minutes later, because the entire call is billed at the before-5 rate.

Shame that Minutel doesn't allow call forwarding to the USA - that would be a big advantage. One of the reasons my main number is still with Vodafone, not Solomo, is that answering it in the USA costs 81 cents with Vf and 2 euro with Solomo (and you can't place calls there, either, not that I would do this in anything other than an emergency). Being able to forward German calls to my T-Mobile USA number would be neat indeed.

[inquisitor]

First thanks to Przemolog, who edited my first post on this page with the updated comparsion table now containing minutel's "plus" tariff.

@Motel75
I think minutel internationally don't offer free forwarding to North American numbers, since on the one hand overseas roaming still delivers high margins compared to European countries and on the other hand free diversions to North America could have an especially strong impact, as this would include forwarding to American mobile phones (there are no dedicated area codes for mobile phones in North America) and so evading roaming tariffs would be very comfortable and cheap. As North American phone networks use the bill-and-keep system, which means there's no termination fee for calls going to another operator's network, there is at least no financial reason for the lack of free forwarding to North America. Forwarding to Eastern European countries is way more expensive due to the high termination fees there.

@Evan
This article from teltarif.de mentions minutel being "quasi-prepaid". That means the tariff is based on a postpaid billing-platform, which may not run always in realtime resulting in the theoretical possibility of generating a negative balance. That's probably why minutel's terms and conditions contain the right to check customers' creditworthiness with Schufa (a German credit investigation company). So I doubt non-residents without Schufa-record can order minutel.

[Evan]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Their only innovative features beyond the versatile recharge options are the free call diversions to landlines in the following countries:France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithunia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands.

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Also they give bonus minutes for incoming calls when call diversions are set (so-called "Teleprofit").

What's the catch with that? I mean do they really offer free call diversions to landlines of 27 EU countries and free and cash-back call diversions to German landlines? Again, what's the catch?

Originally Posted by inquisitor

@Evan
This article from teltarif.de mentions minutel being "quasi-prepaid". That means the tariff is based on a postpaid billing-platform, which may not run always in realtime resulting in the theoretical possibility of generating a negative balance. That's probably why minutel's terms and conditions contain the right to check customers' creditworthiness with Schufa (a German credit investigation company). So I doubt non-residents without Schufa-record can order minutel.

Yes I noticed that the day before yesterday on the article of teltarif.de and I sent an e-mail to the author to confirm if this is a "quasi-prepaid" plan before I post more details here. Unfortunately, I haven't received any reply from him yet.

If it is indeed a "quasi-prepaid" plan (as opposed to a "real prepaid" plan), then is of no use for non-residents but also for residents of Germany (personally I'm hesitant to subscribe to a "quasi-prepaid" plan).

However, I highly doubt that Minutel's plan is "quasi-prepaid". It looks more like a "real prepaid" plan and there are strong indications for that, like:

1. The same author wrote another article on teltarif.de about the differences between prepaid and quasi-prepaid plans and how to recognize which is which. Based on that article, Minutel has all the characteristics of a "real prepaid" plan and almost none of the characteristics of a "quasi-prepaid" plan.

For example, they don't require a German bank account to purchase their starter pack, their starter pack comes with small amount of credit, you can top up your credit with a voucher/code purchased with numerous ways, and it is possible to check your credit balance via the *101# USSD code. To my knowledge, none of the above characteristics are available on "quasi-prepaid" plans.

2. According to their site info section, they are a daughter company of Callax and according to their ToS they are a MVNO of the ring Mobilfunk which is a MVNE of E-Plus. So far, "ring Mobilfunk" operated the MVNO "Ring" that has the same ToS like Minutel and also has only "real prepaid" plans.

3. Also according to another source, the German prepaid wiki, Minutel offers "real prepaid" plans.

4. Regarding the Schufa clause, I read that it cannot be used as an indication of which prepaid plan is applied. There are some "real prepaid" plans that has a Schufa clause on their ToS. For example, Fonic has a Schufa clause but actually it was never used so far. Same goes with Solomo, when someone wants to pay by direct debit. In the case of Minutel, and since they use the same ToS as Ring, I assume that the will use Schufa only for identity confirmation and not for a credit data query, just like Ring.

Nevertheless, the only way to know for sure is to contact Minutel and/or purchase a card for testing. I plan to do that soon.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by Evan

What's the catch with that? I mean do they really offer free call diversions to landlines of 27 EU countries and free and cash-back call diversions to German landlines? Again, what's the catch?

There's no catch. E-Plus receives € 0.0714/min in termination fee for incoming calls from other networks. Passing a call to a fixed network in one of those 27 countries costs them ~ € 0.01-0.02/min and so they earn more than € 0.05/min without wasting any of the rare capacity on their radio network.