Contents |
Call-by-Call for cheaper phone calls
From a private Deutsche Telekom fixed line, you can dial a short prefix before the phone number you wish to be connected to, and you will be connected via another carrier. Generally these carriers are cheaper than the Deutsche Telekom rate for that call. You'll still receive only one bill (from Deutsche Telekom), but call-by-call connections will be listed in a separate section.
e.g. to dial the UK 00 44 1234 567890, you may choose to dial 01035 00 44 1234 567890
There are many call-by-call carriers. Their company nanes often indicate their short prefix, e.g. 01051 Telecom uses the perfix "01051"!
Good prefixes for dialing the UK from Germany are: 01051 and 01024.
Call by call prefixes tend to start 010 but some carriers may use 01900xx or 0900xx (these shouldn't be confused with longer 0190 or 0900 numbers that are premium rate numbers)
The price of calls via a carrier to a destination change regularly, although most carriers provide a price announcement before connection so you can tell if the price has risen signifigantly. It is best to check with one of the following websites regularly to see if there are cheaper numbers available for your chosen destination.
http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/
Best prices to land lines in Europe / USA should be somewhere in the region of 1.3 - 2.5 cents per minute.
Public phones
For dialing from a public phone you can use "scratchcards". These are available from shops in central station. They're usually pretty cheap at 5-10 cents per minute to the UK or Ireland. An example is: http://www.gobananas.de which come in €10 and €25 cards. Cheapest if used from a landline, but can also be used from a mobile.
From public phones use http://www.komserv.net
- 0180 5 024 024 (12 ct/Min.)
- 0180 5 036 036 (12 ct/Min.)
- 0180 3 018 018 (9 ct/Min.)
These numbers can be used from public phones, hotel phones etc.
Understanding German area codes
Like many countries, Germnay has tried to organise the phone numbers so you can try to see what type of service or area you are calling just by looking at the area code. Unlike other countries, e.g. the UK, Germany hasn't quite managed to completely separate services, but the listing below should help to clarify service the code indicates.
Special Numbers
- 110 - Police
- 112 - Emergency, Fire Brigade
- 116 116 - stolen EC card / credit card reporting number
- 118xyz - Enquiry Services
- 0 - national destination (toll / non-local) access code
- 00 - international destination access code
- 010xx - call-by-call carriers (use code before the number you wish to dial)
- 0137, 0138 - Televoting - Caution, these can have a high cost!
- 0180 x - shared cost services. "x" indicates cost and charge type. This can either be a per call or per minute tariff.
- 0700 - Personal Numbers
- 0800 - Free Phone
- 0190 x - Premium Rate numbers (in use until 31 Dec 2005). The number "x" indicates how much you have to pay
- 0900 x - Premium rate. The number "x" indicates the type of premium service.
Mobile Phones
- 015xx, 016x, 017x Mobile phone numbers (016x includes some pager services)
Fixed Line Numbers
- 02xxxx - 09xxxx - Generally fixed line numbers. The main exceptions are listed above in the special number section.
The second digit gives an indication of the part of Germany the number is located, e.g. 3 = East, 7 = South West, 8 = South East
Major cities have 3 or 4 digit codes, e.g Berlin 030, Munich 089, Stuttgart 0711. Smaller towns have longer codes (up to 6 digis long)
Further info
For full details, see German Phone Regulator's Numbering Plan Web Site (english)
Dummy header
...so that the index is created at the top of the page (four headers required)