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Well I just checked the T-mobile site in Germany. I can't read everything on the site but as noted on their site. The most popular calling plan as stated is the Relax 100:

http://www.t-mobile.de/calling_plans

100 free minutes included, call all networks for the same price, voice mail access free of charge extra: 0.39 € / min. monthly fee: 28.00 €

This price does not include any SMS.

So in terms of calling plans the germans are used to paying this amount is what I can see.

And I just checked another site:

http://freenetmobile.freenet.de/shop.php?pid=1101

Just couldn't find anything on the phone options (just 10 € for unlimited internet and at least 20 € per month in phoning, but no phoning prices), but well, this is the concurrence. They also offer you the possibility to preorder the Curve :D
 
Just to chime in on the American deal. Wow, paying for incoming calls and txts? So if you have no money on your phone then you're basically screwed?

There are almost no prepaid phone plans available in the US. My guess is that 97% of cell phone users are on some type of monthly plan, and those plans get charged at the end of the month not at the beginning. That way, you can go over your minutes and then they can charge you a premium for the overage. But they never cut you off unless you don't pay for a few months.

Being that every call, incoming and outgoing, costs minutes it can be very easy sometimes to go over your alloted minutes.
 
That really sucks. So they are paying 90 USD for some really basic plan?

That is a lot of quid for the current german.
 
Don't tell me you Americans have to pay for incoming calls???!!!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Don't tell me you Europeans STILL act like you don't know this. How many times has this been discussed ad nauseam? :rolleyes: Yes, we pay for both incoming and outgoing minutes. No, you don't. Yes you get raped in every other possible market. No we don't.
 
Trenki from Austria tells the truth:
http://klarmobil.de/trenki/trenkilizer/index.html


Some roughly translated transcripts:

Grundgebühr
Diese Schweine mit denen ihrer Grundgebühr und der ganzen Scheisse. Ich zahl doch nix nur weil das Handy bei mir irgendwo herumliegt

Basic fee
These bastards with their base fee and all this crap. I'm not gonna pay just because the cellphone is lying around somewhere.

-----------

Zweijahrevertrag
Zweijahreshandyvertrag? Ich soll den Müll unterschreiben? Für wie blöd halten die Arschlöcher mich eigentlich?

2 year contract
2 year contract? Am I to sign this garbage? Do these assholes take me for a mug?

--------

Andere Anbieter
Diese Handyscheiser! Kosten die jetzt 49 Cent in der Sekunde oder 10 Euro die Monute oder sans einfach einfach nur sauteuer?

Other providers
These cellphone bastards! Is it now 49 cent per second or 10€ per minute or just fucking expensive?

----------
 
I'm sure wheer you are will have EDGE coverage. I was surprised by how many areas will have it. There's a thread on here about it somewhere.


Both Euro and Euros are correct, and most certainly most if not all non-English speaking countries in the EU use the termn euros for the plural.. with the local language adaptations, of course (evrós in Greek, e.g.)
 
Huge negatives while all the Germans are asleep ...

Well, of course all the Americans, who have no idea about German cell phone rates, are trashing the prices and rating this negative, even though incoming calls are free to users.

Outgoing calls have ALWAYS been expensive - hence the HUGE use of SMS messages by young Germans to keep down their charges. A way to chat with each other on the cheap.

All outgoing phone calls on fixed lines, even local, are charged by the minute to the caller. When I lived in Germany a few years ago I used to pay more, per minute, to call my downstairs neighbor than to call the US or Canada. Of course calls to Handys (cell phones) are very expensive, but that's part of their stucture that people are used to.

FYI, here's a random comment from a GERMAN on the site wher ethe original article was: "Ich find EUR 50 absolut OK dafuer das EDGE und HotSpots flat dabei sind (wenn es dann wirklich FLAT ist)." If it really is flat rate, HE has no problem with the pricing if he can use TMobile's Hotspots.

Don't forget that Germany is a very concentrated country (smaller than Montana, with 82 million people). Free WiFi makes a ton of sense for surfing using an iPhone.
 
Don't forget that Germany is a very concentrated country (smaller than Montana, with 82 million people). Free WiFi makes a ton of sense for surfing using an iPhone.

With the forthcoming SDK, someone is going to figure out how to do VoIP and that will be the end of the free WiFi.

Even though of course that's how all mobile phones will eventually work, and the brutal cell phone carriers will go the way of the dinosaur.
 
If those are correct then the iPhone is bound to fail in Germany. I know no one, and I mean NO ONE, that would pay that much for a contract.

Unlimited calls and sms within the cell phone network and to land lines are usually around 40€. So this is not gonna fly.
 
If those are correct then the iPhone is bound to fail in Germany. I know no one, and I mean NO ONE, that would pay that much for a contract.

Unlimited calls and sms within the cell phone network and to land lines are usually around 40€. So this is not gonna fly.

dude, why don't you just read the thread?
that's the normal price for cellphone contracts in germany.
 
I am from germany, and I think the worst part of these plans are the 39 Cents for further minutes. You can get a prepaid card with only 9,9 Cents a minute, and with no monthly fee. So this is really a rip off.

The positive thing about T-Mobile is their really good coverage, and I think that also their EDGE network is faster than AT&Ts.
 
What is that incremental cost? 1/100th of a cent instead of 1/200th?

from my british telecom home phone a daytime call to a landline costs 3.25 pence per minute whereas a daytime call to a mobile phone costs 12.5 pence per minute.
 
With the forthcoming SDK, someone is going to figure out how to do VoIP and that will be the end of the free WiFi.

Even though of course that's how all mobile phones will eventually work, and the brutal cell phone carriers will go the way of the dinosaur.
I understand how VoIP will hurt and the phone companies will be angry, but they can't cut WiFI (and I'm not even speaking about the legal ramifications) - that's part of what makes the iPhone work at the present time.

Just because people are pirating music, the music industry didn't stop producing CD's.
 
I love how T-Mobile is not really subsidizing the phone and you still have to pay so much for that contract. I mean even if this is normal in germany, wow.
I guess all that extra money goes to Apple?

Sometimes I think I am really lucky for unlocking my phone, even if I don't have a very good data plan. I pay 7 cents from Canada to Austria, for crying out loud.
 
I'm sure wheer you are will have EDGE coverage. I was surprised by how many areas will have it. There's a thread on here about it somewhere.

This is based on using the Internet from my Macbook via my Nokia 6230i on Orange on the train, it was always extremely slow, and Orange have an extensive EDGE network. Though maybe my Mac couldn't access EDGE via Bluetooth.
 
from my british telecom home phone a daytime call to a landline costs 3.25 pence per minute whereas a daytime call to a mobile phone costs 12.5 pence per minute.
And for the unaware, double those prices to get to US currency.
 
I am from germany, and I think the worst part of these plans are the 39 Cents for further minutes. You can get a prepaid card with only 9,9 Cents a minute, and with no monthly fee. So this is really a rip off.

The positive thing about T-Mobile is their really good coverage, and I think that also their EDGE network is faster than AT&Ts.
That is quite a discounted rate! My Vodafone D2 Call-Ya is about the same as the iPhone rate (granted, no monthly fee, but no free minutes either).

Here's the non-iPhone rates for T-Mobile, which seem to be similar as well:
http://www.t-mobile.de/tarifuebersicht_tarife/0,12022,17267-_,00.html
 
This is based on using the Internet from my Macbook via my Nokia 6230i on Orange on the train, it was always extremely slow, and Orange have an extensive EDGE network. Though maybe my Mac couldn't access EDGE via Bluetooth.
This is the beauty of Hotspots, though, as many ICE trains have them. So you could take an ICE from Frankfurt to Berlin, and possibly access unlimited WiFi for free the entire journey!
 
good for Germany, if you consider the free internet. Germany is not very competitive anyway. Without internet, some prepaid cards are cheaper and charge 15c per minute or SMS. But with flat rate internet, it's quite decent and much better than previews t-mobile plans. Let's just ope they don't use their horrible logo and corporate colors anywhere on the phone or interface.
 
That is quite a discounted rate! My Vodafone D2 Call-Ya is about the same as the iPhone rate (granted, no monthly fee, but no free minutes either).

Here's the non-iPhone rates for T-Mobile, which seem to be similar as well:
http://www.t-mobile.de/tarifuebersicht_tarife/0,12022,17267-_,00.html

Of course it's discounted, but it's the future. 39 Cents with 49€ monthly fee for 2 years is ridiculous. In a year the prices will be even lower, and you're still stuck with those expensive plans..
 
This pricing is really crazy. T-Mobile and Vodafone are traditionally expensive carriers in germany, but as someone mentioned before: you can easily get a phone with 10ct /min with or without a plan. And for the EDGE: at this pricing you can get a HSDPA (UMTS/3G)-Flatrate, even in germany....
 
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