DSL Internet access providers in Germany

Hi all,

after 3 months of staying in a hotel I'm moving to an apartment

I will install internet of course, but I'm not sure which type of access is the most common and cheapest in Germany.

I've saw some T-mobile dsl flat rate for 50 euros, but it requires 24 months contract. Unfortunatelly, I don't know for how long I will stay in germany.. So it is not the best option for me!

I would like fast internet ( from 2Mb to above) a download / upload limit of at least 20Gb and of course.. no 2 years contract!

the need for phone is not obligatory, so maybe there is cable access?

Thanks a lot for all possible suggestions,
_zZz_

http://www.1und1.de/angebote/

1&1 also have 24-month contracts.

It's worth looking at Alice, who offer a flat "Alice fun" without the usual minimum contract. You can cancel at 4 weeks notice to the end of the month.

However, Alice does not include the WLAN router in this offer - just a DSL modem which remains the property of Alice.

If you're prepared to live with that solution or to invest in your own WLAN router, then Alice may be the right provider for you.

Alice is the best at the moment for the reasons gtappend says. Main thing is no contract, so if a better deal comes along, you can just change over only giving 4 weeks notice. Further to that, they are one of the cheapest. 1 and 1 sucks, forget them right now. I know people who have been kicked from them for downloading too much in a month.

I've just heard that going abroad (back to portugal for example) is enough to cancel a 24months contract. Is it true?

In this situation the T-mobile offer for 50 euros seems reasonable...

This alice also seems interesting!

How can i see if there are any download limits per month?

And in germany... Are they very strict with less legal downloads (series and movies) for example?

Thanks in advance

One month I downloaded 300gb on Alice - no problems. Leaving the country is probably a good enough reason to cancel though, so maybe you don't want to let that bother you. Alice offers a deal with 16mb flat rate internet, a phone line and free German calls for 44,95 euros a month and no setup. Is your line rental included in the deal with T-Com? If not, that will cost another 17 or so euros a month. With Alice, they take your line, so you don't have to pay this.

T-Com would be quicker to get setup though I'd imagine. Alice took 10 days to get installed for me, but that's pretty quick I think. I've heard some people have to wait like 4 weeks. It just depends..

I signed up to cablesurf a couple of weeks ago. EUR24.95/month for a 6MB connection, and so far so good.

Only took a few hours to get online. Popped down to their shop at cable corner, Astallerstraße 25. I knew my apartment was covered because I am on KMS cable, but 'cable corner' checked anyway.
Signed a couple of forms, bought one of their Motorola routers for EUR95 (with English instructions and a cable TV splitter), went home after a few hours shopping in Munich and was online after 5 or 10 minutes.

Minimum contract length is 3 months. Not sure about download limit - was not a concern for me. You can also rent the router at EUR2.95/month.
If you were interested in phoning you can pay an additional EUR9.95 for cablefon or it is free if you go for the 16MB connection at EUR40/month.
I decided against it as I prefer using the cheap prefix numbers to call internationally on the Telekom line.

The only bad thing I read about them on a German forum site is that their telephone support is not so good. Well it is limited to working hours.
Another discussion about cablesurf:
Experiences with CableSurf Internet

With regards to cancelling contracts, I think you can cancel most contracts within a month if you move to an area that is not covered by them.
Or if you move out of the country. It is been discussed before on this site.

You'd need a lawyer to go through the particular contract to give you a definite answer on that one.

From my own experience some things work that way, other's don't. In most cases where I cancelled contracts before returning to the UK many years ago, it was because the basis for the contract was no longer given - it had nothing to do with not being in the country.

My feeling is that if you know it may happen, then don't tempt fate and have to sort out a contractual problem from abroad, just for the sake of saving a few euros now.

I know we got out of a freenet contract by just moving addresses within Germany..

You have to wait 6-8wks for any sort of installation appointment for T-Com at the moment and to be honest, the connection I've got only works intermittently and the software's shit!

This is because the backlog following the strike and would apply to any provider as the line is owned by Telekom in the first place and has to be identified and handed over to them. Many new installations don't need an installation appointment so would not be subject to such a delay

Hi!
I will be moving to Mettingen area from August onwards and will be there till December (FIVE Months). During this period I am planning to take a wireless internet or DSL internet connection. I would be using this connection mainly for checking mails and downloading movies.

Can anybody tell me how to choose between the several options available? I am very much confused regarding this.

Thanks in advance.

Topics merged by admin

Hi there,
i would suggest you to try out Alice DSL. They have several offers.. like from 2MB to 6 MB.. and the best of all is that you can cancel your contract anytime. I have had good dl speed and nice service..
all the best.
Krish

If you search you can find many discussions on the same topic.

i´d go with alice.
pros listed in post no2

however, it might happen that, as my landlord did, your landlord would want a landline to be exclusively serviced by t-com. in that case afaik your cheapest option is www.lidl-dsl.de
they are powered by t-com. I ordered their service 10 days ago, and I am still waiting for some papers (pass and username ), so i didn´t have the chance to try the connection itself, but there are no initial 100 euro costs if you order 2+Mbps connection ( 20.51 a month + volume fee - none for big cities, gues mettingen isn´t one of them ). also , if you don´t have your own router, they mail you a targa for 20 euro.
when i receive the docs, i can pm you with first impressions.
also, try pming michwi. she did the same thing as i some time ago.

I would advise against using O₂.

Whats the best website for information on the packages alice have, preferably in english. Also anything specific to Frankfurt would be useful too. Finally anything specific to experiences with the setup time would be intersting. I read somewhere that they SAY 4 to 8 weeks to set it up!!! However in reality is it faster than this?

If you have DSL then there is no need to install the T-Online software, especially if you are using a router (eg. a Speedport).

Alice itself doesn't seem to offer anything in English. I have contacted them for another member here regarding a DSL problem and wrote the first communication in German, asking them to contact the member directly and in English - they just wrote a long e-mail to them in German.

If you like you can PM me with your phone number and I'll check out what Alice says for your line about what is available and how long it would take (T-Com too , if you want). Or call me.

Thanks for the offer but I will not put you to this much trouble! I have instead decided to just apply with the online form and see what happens. Wait and see huh? I will post my experiences here for future searchers.

So someone tell me what's the best deal for Munich city internet right now , flatrate everything to go? Say about 3mb download.

Ther are no good or bad Internet Access Providers in Germany:-)) A Pricelist for DSL Providers in Germany!

What are the fastest DSL providers, that is the ones that can get your DSL connection up&running really quickly? (I'm waiting about 2 months now...)

Telekom/T-Com 25/50mb VHDSL (Fiber to the Neighborhood) Avail. in all of Telekoms 12 "Core cities"
(Such as, Frankfurt,Berlin,Munich,Stuttgart,Koln/Bonn,Hannover,Hamburg, Dresden) and an additional 15 cities by the end of this month.

Ah, sorry just saw Speed as in "How long to install".. In any case its still DT.

:) thanks

2 months??? It literally took me 3-4 hours to get online with my Cable internet company, i.e.. travel to shop; sign up & buy WLAN router; meet a friend for a beer; go home and connect.

The basic Telekom contract is open ended with a 6 day notice period, but if you add DSL to that then they try to lock you into a 12/24 month contract. If you inform them clearly that after six months or whatever you have to leave the country and get this noted in your contract then they will most likely let you out without a fuss. It's worth getting a German speaker to help you get set up, T-com's somewhat schizophrenic split between T-Com and T-Online is sometimes tough to navigate, and when you need 'special' stuff like this it's worth being doubly sure. In the end all the providers are trying to lock you in to their service and stop you shopping round every week for the cheapest option, and you get hit.


Isn't the 6-8 week delay a myth now? When did anyone last wait anything like that? In 8 years with them I once had a problem on their side and they fixed it within a few days and the service staff are always helpful and friendly (I speak German). There can be many reasons for a dodgy internet connection and honestly it's unlikely to be Telekom's infrastructure - if the green 'link' light on the modem stays on then it's probably your stuff that's misconfigured. You don't have to use their software, just the keys for your connection.

It took m-net over two months (less than a year ago). They claim 16mbit, I've never gotten over 6mbit, usually more like 3-4mbit.

There's the rub - Telekom gave me a 6Mbit connection but tested the line from their equipment to my modem and said it's only good for ~3-4Mbit and it's probably the bit of the line from the street to the building and up the stairs that's pants.

I live out in the sticks where some towns still don't have DSL access yet. I'm using D-Telekom (T-Online) DSL-6000 and can't say that I have any major complaints. Average download speed is about 500kb per second (even during peak times).

The ONLY complaint that I have about D-Telekom and T-Online was the major screw-up when we switched from ISDN (64b dial-up) to DSL. We did everything through Telekom in a main shop. Everything was "good to go", or so we thought. The day our DSL was turned on, I switched on the router and never turned it off. Then we got one of those "five figure" phone bills. The same for the next month. Telekom said we never told T-Online that we were switching our internet plan. I asked to talk to someone from T-Online and this guy literally tapped the guy next to him on the should and said "got a customer for you". I had copies of the bills with me and told both of them that they could shove the bills where the sun doesn't shine, the originals were going to my lawyer. 2 years later, we get a letter from Telekom asking us to settle and pay half. We said "no". Another year later, our lawyer gets a letter stating that the charges had been erased because the "fine print" was too vague. Apparently, a few thousand other people had the same thing happen to them and a major lawsuit was in the works. They just wiped every bill out and said "sorry for the mistake".

Have been searching for a 'quick & cheap' phone & flatrate internet solution for a friend who just got an moved to Munich - seems to have access to Kabel Deutschland (as opposed to the cablesurf connection I have).

Comparing Alice Light, T-Com Call & Surf Basic, and Kabel Deutschland Paket Classic; KD seems to offer the best deal at the moment with €9.95 sign-up fee, free phone/WLAN router(if sign up online), free installation and €19.90 monthly fee (for a 1000kbit/s connection which should be sufficient).

Calls to GB would be 4.9cents/min - not as good as Call by Call which now are down to 1cent/min (via T-Com) but better than Alice at 7.9cent/min.

The OP asks for contracts that he can get out of easily without a 12/24 month minimum. Do any of these companies offer anything?

Alice and Congstar(Deutsche Telekom's "hip" brand)...1 month minimum.

The OP has long since gone and left the country. But as he left the country, he would have been able to cancel the contract due to 'Sonderkündigungsfrist'.
Basically if you move to an area where they cannot offer you the service (eg. leave the country) then you have the right to cancel.
I called Kabel Deutschland to confirm this, as I knew I could do this already with T-Mobile (when I extended my contract by 2 years).

Normal contract termination must be done at least 6 weeks before the end of the 12 month minimum period otherwise it is extended for 12 months. If you decide to sign up for KD then better by phone/online then going to the stand at Media-Markt or Saturn as you don't get the special deals (e.g. free phone/WLAN router).

That's how most ISP's and Telcos handle it, but they do so voluntarily. You signed a contract and if you decide to move before it's up, that's not the ISP's problem...legally at least.

Are you sure it is voluntarily...as I had no problems cancelling my digital cable tv connection with Iesy in Hessen when I moved to Munich with 1 month's notice...even though my contract had been extended by 12 months.

Plus I got the word wrong...it should be Sonderkündigungsrecht = 'extraordinary right'

Lots of experiences on TT regarding cancelling contracts - seems some companies (or more likely individual employees who did not the right to cancel) were a pain about it.
When cancelling it maybe worthwhile asking for a confirmation letter for peace of mind. In the case of Iesy I received one by default.

Search - TT - Cancelling contract

M-Net do offers where you have to sign up for 24 months to get the good price. But reading the small print you can actually switch to their next special offer after only 12 months. It says that this is available for customers who explicitly request it. That is to differentiate it from an automatic change over for the same service.

Edit: They have changed the small print again and existing customers can change to the new offer at any time as long as they sign up for another 24 months.

It's a legally moot point. In principal at least, the contract is no longer enforceable if you leave the country, so that is good reason for a "special" cancellation. How easily the supplier accepts this is up to them (and most base their business model on the contract length to return their investment). How hard you fight is up to you. It could (and has been) argued that they would be entitled to claim outstanding fees to the end of the minimum term or pay for some or all of any subsidised equipment (e.g. modem/router) you were originally provided with. Deutsche Telekom are pretty good with early cancellation if you leave the country, but you need to provide a copy of your Abmeldung and evidence of a new non-German residence, others less so. If they could show you signed up at the beginning in the knowledge you would be leaving before the end of the minimum term you probably do not have a leg to sand on.

I just did a little more reading on the subject and there's a chance that BGB §626 applies, at least if the provider insists on the full remaining payments. In practice the major ISP's/Telcos (Telekom, Arcor, Freenet) grant you a Sonderkündigungsrecht when moving to an area where service is not available, while the smaller ones can be a pain about it (M"Net and NEFKom in particular).

Just for info: In the end my friend signed up for the Arcor deal at €33.90 per month: free connection, DSL 2000 flatrate, Germany Festnetz flatrate (€29.95/month) PLUS International Flatrate 1 (€3.95/month - mainly European countries but more importantly for her the UK). This was after checking if she could cancel if she left the country (which she can) otherwise minimum contract period is 24 months.

Tried Kabel Deutschland but they said we had to speak to the 'house owners association' as they did not have permission to provide an internet service. Landlord replied to say that the apartment is actually connected to KMS cable which meant cablesurf. But KMS/cablesurf said they could not provide an internet connection via cable.
Looked at M-net but their prices were a little higher when I looked and Arcor were offering the first month for free.
Now we wait to see how long it takes to connect.

but you need a basic t-com conection to be able to get that ALICE FUN ...right?

Some providers are starting to offer Internet and VOIP services without the need for a T-Com ISDN or analog line.
Perhaps YL6 can give us some more info on what providers are doing this, and how good the deals are.

I personally would be careful about this. Having worked in the telecoms business for many years I have seen many operators who try and do this on the cheap and then you end up with problems and they don't have the resources and experience to fix them quickly.

The problem is that to offer such services providers need to have equipment in (nearly) all Points of Presence sites (POP sites) as DTAG, in order to cover the most population. But I think that there is something like 6000 of them in Germany so this requires a high infrastructure cost.

I worked on a project a couple of years ago where many customers were left with no phone service for several weeks (albeit not in Germany), and one customer went to the nationals of the country because her husband had a heart condition and they couldn't even call the emergency services if he had another heart attack.

As such my new DSL line is still using a T-Com, as T-Com may be bad but they do have the money and resources to fix the issues. They also get something like 88.5% of the DSL line cost from the provider to cover such costs.

I think the market is still too immature, and in a couple of years after some consolidation it will be much better I am sure.

Of course this is just my opinion and experience, and I am sure that many operators are doing a much better job.

Getting lazy Darkknight? (Add Cable services to that list)

No. Alice take over the complete line and you have no connection or contract with Telekom.

If you mean that you physically have to have a line to connect to then yes...

Hmm, in case someone needs it in the future: I can recommend Moobicent. They provide DSL, mobileDSL and a few other related services without the need for signing up with the German Telekom. You do not even need a phone.

Hi Yithmas,

I take it you have Moobicent. Do you happen to know if VPN and Skypw (VoIP) work with this service?

To register with Moobicent, you have to give a German ID card (not passport). How did you manage that ?

I am only here for 6 months and was hoping to use them.

fft999,

We just got it here in Lehel. Works pretty good. You need to have a German bank account, but there's a drop-down box for "nationality" that doesn't have to be German.

Now if I could just figure out the modem script to get it to work with our Cradlepoint PHS300 wifi router...

the problem on the website is the id number. it has to be german format, not a passport.

Anayway, I gave them a ring, and they were very helpful. sent them an email with my passport, bank account details and address etc, and they faxed through a contract which i signed and sent back. Did all this last Thursday. They sent the usb stick and sms card which arrived yesterday morning at 8am (so, 2 working days). I then phoned up to activate it, installed the stick, it installed itself and it worked straight away.

very impressed. only downside is that while it is flat rate and unlimted, there is a 10gb a month 'fair usage' limit - after which vodafone may stop your account, or charge you more. This is definitely unclear as to what happens in reality since there options are very open... has anyone had a problem with this ?