Questions about the O2 Surfstick - Germany

Good evening everybody,

My name is Laurent. I am a French guy who came here 1 month ago to work in Germany, and incidentally tries to get used to this new language and way of life.

I bought an O2 Surfstick yesterday with a 6-month contract and an upload/download cap of 2 GB/month. And the salesperson told me surfing was unlimited.
Yet, I am a bit puzzled with this data cap stuff Internet providers use with the Surfstick. Unfortunately I do not speak German (yet) and had to speak English with the salesperson so I think there might have been a mutual misunderstanding on various points.

Today I received an SMS stating I had already reached 80% of my cap, though I have just downloaded 2 very small files since yesterday. And I do not really get all the data provided by the Mobile Connection Manager. So my questions are the following:

- Does just surfing/watching videos on the net or anything else is taken in account for the cap? If so, I really do not get the point in paying a monthly fee to have your Internet slow down so quickly just because you surf a lot...

- Additionnally: now, given all I have read so far, I am not even sure there will be no extra fees if I surf after reaching the cap.

I thank you all in advance for your replies and wish you a good night.
Laurent

Hey Laurent,

I have an O2 surf stick as well, but my "cap" is 10gb per month. Yes, watching videos and surfing counts because each page and video file is "downloaded" to your computer.

The way my plan works (and I would guess yours is similar) is that once this cap is reached, the speed drops... so you can still surf, but at basically a dial-up speed.

Also, in my plan, there's no additional charge once you reach the cap. There is a charge, though, for using it outside Germany, so be careful if you travel back to France with it.

If you have any other questions, PM me.

Absolutely, because there's no real difference between watching a video online and downloading it. If you watch a video on Youtube, your browser automatically downloads the video file in the background, saves it to your hard drive, plays it and deletes the file after a while. What matters for your internet provider is how much data was transferred over the internet. If the file is kept or deleted after watching it makes no difference.

Hi everyone,

And sorry for the late reply but on top of everything, I broke my PC last week... But I think that I have another problem I just realized yesterday. My Mobile Connection Manager has stated since the beginning that my cap is 30 MB, and I doubt this is due to having started my monthly contract in the middle of the month. I think I will have to call O2 to have this sorted too...

Anyway, thanks a lot for your replies and sorry again for my late one.

Laurent

It sounds like you have the "Internet-Pack-S" which is indeed capped at 30MB/month - thereafter €0.50/MB

Thanks YorkshireLad6.

It definitely does seem that the salesman scammed me. It was supposed to be a monthly contract for 6 month, 25 €/month for 2 MB with a 1 month trial... I did ask him several times to confirm the amount of GB available and the conditions of the contract. And even if we had to speak in English, I did make it clear I wanted this promotion and nothing else and he totally understood me.

I think the guy owes me a few explanations... I will close my contract with O2 ASAP and go for something else. And go to the shop to confront the guy.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Laurent

Hi Laurent-

Before you assume that the guy scammed you, be sure that your settings in the Mobile Connection Manager are correct. I opened a Surfstick account recently (with only really planning to be on it for a month) and when I opened the Mobile Connection Manager the upper limits were by default set to something very small (I'm pretty sure it was 30 MB). As far as I know, these programs do not know anything about your contract and the 'calculated usage and limits' are only there for your benefit and are based on user-defined preferences. You should be able to modify this upper limit in your settings. However, for your peace of mind, the best thing would be of course to go speak with someone. You should be able to get out before one month is up anyways? Good luck!

hi, I have bought a new prepaid O2 surfstick connection. i had bought a voucher for 30euros and charged my account with that. i was under the
impression that once i charge it, i automatically enter the monthly scheme. however, suddenly today i got the sms that i have 3euros left in the account (after only 5hrs of usage!), which would imply that they are deducting 0.09 cents per minute (there is a scheme for that). i have no clue why this happened - can anyone help me? whom should i talk to @02 ? my knowledge of german is zero, so any help would be appreciated.

You will always use the standard (9cents/minute) deal unless you specifically switch on the day flatrate (€3.50) or the monthly flatrate (€25). To switch on the flatrate service you need to send a text with "START DAYFLAT" or "START INTERNETL" to the number 5667. You will get an SMS response confirming the deduction from your credit and the enabling of the service. You send SMSs from the stick using the "Mobile Partner" software provided.

Hi

Does anyone know if O2 or 1&1 prepaid surfsticks are sim unlocked?

Looking to get an O2 surfstick initially and see how it is and want the option to switch to a 1&1 sim later as they have cheaper plans.

Thanks

Sorry, but they are SIM locked.

You can buy an unlocked one on ebay.

Or have a look on Geizhals, but there you have to explicitly check for each model that is branded (O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, E-Plus, Tchibo, ...) that it is "ohne SIMlock" (if it doesn't say so on the page of the shop where you want to buy it, it will not be unlocked).
The unbranded ones will be unlocked.

Most of all the mobile surf sticks are actually made by Huawei. You can find software via google to unlock many models from
this company and many others.