Minimum contract duration for Alice internet - Germany

Hello,

yes, I have done a search for Alice, Alice + minimum, internet, ADSL... most of the post seem to agree that Alice does NOT have a minimum contract duration.

However, most of them are also quite old and I am wondering if they changed their mind becasue here:
http://www.alice-dsl.de/kundencenter/expor...ukte/alice_fun/

they say no minimum contract, can cancel 4 weeks in advance. But here:
http://www.alice-dsl.de/tavp/choosePromoti...CE0471FF4.jvm61

they say this is true only for the more expensive (29.90) option.

Am I understanding this correctly? I speak no German at all and babelfish requires a good deal of guessing... If so, are you aware of any other option that is cheaper?

Or, I assume that if I move to another address it will be possible to move the connection AND/OR if I move out of the country it will be possible to cancel. Is this right?

Thanks,
Edoardo

You understood it correctly. In their early days Alice had no contractual minimum, but since learned the error of their ways (massive customer churn) and now impose it for their better offers. If you move to another address in Germany where Alice can provide their service you must take it with you. If you move abroad you MAY have an "extraordinary" right to cancel but you can't rely on it.

Okay sorry people Alice still does month to month contracts. You are just limited to one IP. So the new boxes will only let you connect one computer at a time sometimes you might get lucky and get a old box like we did so that we can get more connections. I am actually canceling my Alice now and going with a regular provider. If you only need decent service for a short period of time Alice works for you. The say 16mb but count on it being around 7 to 9. Also you are not allowed to change in settings in your router unless you get there Wlan router and you have to hope they give you a good one. They have a lock on there service so don't look to change alot of things. Your best bet is to go to a Saturn or a company that has a Alice rep. They are not going to make it easy for you to find there month to month service easily on there website. So if you have any questions just drop a line.

No-one said they didn't:

@chicagolive

What the feck are you on about? What residential DSL service comes with more than one IP address? Hardly any of them even come with a static IP. To the average consumer this is completely irrelevant.

Alice have always supplied a cheap modem, which isn't surprising when it's free setup and you can cancel after one month. If you want you can feel free to purchase your own router for 50 euros that works fine with their service. I know, I'm using one now.

And I connect at 13mbps, which is what I would connect at regardless of the provider. It's all down to your phone line and where the exchange is, which is something your provider has no influence over.

All,

thanks for answers!

IP: not relevant to me, I would not expect any DSL provider to give me a static IP or more than one IP for 20 euros/month anyway
Router + DSL modem: I have my own
speed: I grew up with 56Kbps so even 1M is huge

I guess my best bet is to go for the more expensive option...
One last question, with the 29.99euro/month plan do you still have to pay when you relocate (within Germany) and you want to take it with you?

Thanks,
Edoardo

for the sake of clarity

they will always just give you a single IP, that is the IP of your modem.
But if you have a router attached to the modem you can connect whatever you want to it.

At least this is what I know...

Edoardo

Yes that is normal but Alice some how figured out how to prevent more than one computer, IP however you wanna put it from connecting to there network at a time.

You can connect more than one PC provided you have a decent modem/router like FritzBox.

Not only are you wrong in this case, but this would be technically impossible to do. Simple as that.

Not a 100% on that Hutcho. I had the same issue with the Siemens SL2 wireless box they sent me. They've been preprogrammed to only allow one connection. They have to be hacked to allow them to have more than one or to allow a DHCP connection. They can also not have a wired and a wireless connection going at the same time. These boxes are complete junk, I replaced mine with a Belkin and it's fine. Once rid of the supplied hardware, I think Alice is as good as any other provider.

I should clarify. My point is that they can do nothing to the line/network (as mentioned by the person I quoted) to prevent you from sharing it. They could definitely limit it to one connection on the equipment provided. But they cannot stop you replacing that box (for under 50 euros, like I mentioned originally) or plugging that box into something that does indeed share the connection. They can't prevent that because their equipment doesn't know anything about what the boxes further down the line are doing.

I realize this is late for the original poster, but for anyone reading this be careful with Alice.

I did research and thought Alice was a month to month service, that is why I chose it. Because I was not sure how long I would need this for. Well I just tried canceling my service tonight and they told me i have a 2 year contract. I told them, uh...no i dont, thats the whole reason I went with Alice, I would never have signed a 2 year contract because Im not sure how long I will be in Germany. Their response: its on page 6, its your fault for not reading it, tough luck.

Naturally now I am very pissed off. The contract was in German, and even so, my German GF and I reviewed it. But one small line stating a 24 month minimum was far too easy to overlook. I suggest you speak with a representative when signing up for Alice and make sure you are getting month to month service, they will try and sneak you into a contract without you knowing otherwise.

My option now is to write them a letter kindly asking to be removed from the contract, which I am sure they will promptly laugh at and decline.

That's harsh. But if they want to fuck you, they're going to fuck you - the representative can simply lie to you and then point to the (semi-hidden) 24-month clause in the contract later. The legality is questionable, but unless you have him on tape swearing your contract is month to month, you lose.

Well, in the end I am not going to let them fuck me. I am not going to pay them for something I am not using in a questionable contract that I never physically signed. A clause in my "welcome letter" with my password and username does not constitute a binding contractual agreement in my mind.

I will close my bank account if I have to. Fuck them.