Mobile in Germany: networks, prepaid freedom and contract traps

The four networks (this is 80% of the decision)

Germany has four physical mobile networks - three mature ones and a newcomer. Every SIM you can buy, from a €5 supermarket starter to a €60 flagship contract, rides on one of them. Pick the network first, then the cheapest brand on it.

The old wisdom - "o2 is cheap but terrible" - is dead. In the connect network test 2026, Vodafone and o2 tied at 937 points, both "very good", and o2 gained 20 points in the data discipline year-on-year. Telekom still wins outright (15 consecutive victories) and holds the best rural coverage, which is why it charges like it.

Combined, the networks cover about 98% of Germany's land area with 4G/5G; 5G alone reaches roughly 95% (Bundesnetzagentur monitoring, late 2025). Check your own commute on the official Bundesnetzagentur coverage map (breitbandmessung / gigabitgrundbuch.bund.de) before choosing: search your street, toggle between operators, and watch for the "kein Empfang" (no signal) patches - German housing forums obsess over this for a reason, since a great network nationally can still mean one bad bar in your specific Altbau kitchen. Coverage maps model outdoor signal; thick prewar walls, basements and elevators knock a bar or two off in practice regardless of operator.

The 2026 plot twist: the Drillisch budget brands (WinSIM, sim.de, PremiumSIM, handyvertrag.de, simplytel, maXXim, yourfone…) no longer run on o2. Their owner 1&1 finished migrating all ~12 million customers onto its own new Open RAN network in November 2025, with national roaming on Vodafone wherever 1&1 has no coverage yet. In practice: city coverage via 1&1's own antennas, everywhere else you're effectively on Vodafone.

Decision shortcut: city dweller → any network works, buy on price (o2 or 1&1-family brands). Rural commuter or Deutsche Bahn regular → pay the Telekom premium; congstar and fraenk are its budget doors.

Before you land: the travel eSIM bridge

Don't burn airport money. Airport SIM kiosks and hotel-lobby resellers charge €20-40 for what Aldi sells for €9.99. The smarter sequence:

1. Before departure: load a travel eSIM (Saily, Airalo and friends) with 5-10GB for the first week. Works the minute you land, no German paperwork.
2. Day 2-5: buy a German prepaid starter kit at any supermarket and register it (next section). You now have a German number - which you need, because German banks, delivery services and doctors' offices all want an 015x/016x/017x number.
3. Month 2-3: once your Anmeldung is done and a bank account exists, move to a cheaper SIM-only plan and port the number for free.

A German number matters more than data volume early on: appointment SMS, package notifications, bank 2FA and Anmeldung-adjacent bureaucracy all assume one.

Two practical notes for the bridge phase: confirm your phone actually supports eSIM before relying on this plan (most phones sold since roughly 2019 do, but check the model specifically - a travel eSIM is useless on a phone that only takes a physical card), and toggle data roaming on manually before you board, since many phones default it off and you'll land to a dead data connection at exactly the moment you need maps and a taxi app.

Prepaid first (the arrival move)

Prepaid is the expat cheat code: no Anmeldung certificate, no bank account, no Schufa check. German telecoms law (TKG) has required identity verification for every SIM since 2017 - but *identity*, not *residence*. A passport is enough, and a hotel or Airbnb address is accepted for the registration form.

Activation, step by step:

1. Buy a starter kit (Starterset) at a supermarket, drugstore or kiosk - typically €5-10, usually including the same amount as starting credit (Aldi Talk: €9.99 with €10 credit).
2. Go to the provider's activation page and verify your identity. Two routes: VideoIdent (10-minute video call, show your passport to an agent, done from your sofa) or POSTIDENT (take the coupon and your passport to any Deutsche Post branch; the clerk verifies you on the spot).
3. SIM goes live within minutes to a few hours. Top up (aufladen) with vouchers (Guthabenbons) at any supermarket checkout, in the provider app, or by card.

Non-EU passports work for both routes. If a provider's online VideoIdent rejects your document (it happens with less common passports), POSTIDENT in person is the reliable fallback - Deutsche Post accepts essentially any valid passport. One catch worth knowing before you queue at the till: registration is to a named adult, so a SIM for a child or teenager has to sit in a parent's or guardian's name, with the minor as a secondary user - there's no under-18 self-registration route.

Prepaid plans bill in 4-week cycles, not calendar months - 13 billing cycles per year, a quiet ~8% markup Germans rarely mention.

Calling home a lot? Lycamobile is the prepaid specialist for cheap international calls - same passport-only activation, now on the o2 network (since September 2024, with 5G), with bundles built around international minutes: the International Plus M packs 35GB plus 500 international minutes to 230+ countries alongside the usual German allnet flat.

Prepaid tariffs compared (July 2026)

Prices rotate constantly - this table is the market shape, the deals page has the live numbers.

All of these include allnet calling/SMS flats, EU roaming and 5G at no extra charge. eSIM is standard across the board now - Aldi Talk issues the first eSIM profile free (replacement profiles €9.99).

The annual-package hack: if you know you're staying, prepaid year packages crush monthly pricing on total cost, even if the per-GB rate isn't always cheaper. Aldi Talk Jahrespaket XS: 60GB/year for €69.99. Jahrespaket S: 250GB/year for €99.99. Jahrespaket L: 450GB/year for €149 (Aldi Talk periodically runs a limited-time app-bonus that adds extra GB on top - check the current terms, since the bonus round is time-boxed and reverts to these base figures when it ends). Vodafone CallYa's annual package: 250GB for €99.99. Telekom's: €99.95/year with 20GB per month (240GB total). One payment, zero cancellation admin, no Schufa - arguably the best value in the entire German mobile market for light-to-medium users.

Run the math and the trade-off is clear: Aldi Talk's own Kombi-Paket M (50GB, €13.99 per 4-week cycle) costs €13.99 × 13 = €181.87 a year for 650GB (about €0.28/GB). The Jahrespaket S delivers 250GB for €99.99 (about €0.40/GB) - a worse per-GB rate, but roughly 45% less total annual spend, with no risk of forgetting a top-up. If your usage genuinely sits under about 19-20GB/month, the annual route usually wins on total cost even though the headline per-GB price is higher.

Going postpaid: SIM-only once you're settled

Postpaid (Vertrag) needs what prepaid doesn't: a German address, a German IBAN for the direct debit, and it triggers a Schufa credit check (Bonitätsprüfung). Fresh arrivals with an empty Schufa file get rejected regularly - it's not personal, the algorithm just has nothing to score. If that's you, stay on prepaid for ~6 months, then retry (see our Schufa guide).

Why bother with postpaid at all? Slightly better prices per GB at the top end, phone financing, and - usefully - a small monthly contract that builds your Schufa history for the apartment hunt.

fraenk deserves a call-out: Telekom's app-only brand, 25GB in the best network for €10 (bumped from 20GB on 1 June 2026; a "fraenk for friends" referral code adds +5GB permanently for both sides, taking it to 30GB), monthly cancellable, eSIM in minutes. It is the default recommendation for most expats who've cleared the prepaid phase. Speeds are capped (around 25 Mbit/s) - irrelevant for maps and streaming, noticeable for huge downloads. The whole signup lives inside the app: download it, verify identity the same VideoIdent way as prepaid, pick the plan, and the eSIM QR code appears on screen within minutes - no waiting for a physical card in the post, no Bürgeramt-style appointment.

The Drillisch/1&1 brands run aggressive rotating promos (10-25GB for €5-8 is common); take the monthly-cancellable variant even when the 24-month version waives the €9.99 activation fee. €9.99 is cheap insurance against a job change, a move, or the network not working in your flat.

Contract traps and the laws that protect you

German telecom law got dramatically consumer-friendlier in 2021-2022. Know these five rules and the classic traps stop working:

1. 24 months is the legal maximum initial term (§56 TKG, since December 2021) - and the provider must also offer you a 12-month version of the tariff before you sign. They will price the 12-month option unattractively, but it must exist. Concretely: a WinSIM-style plan with a €9.99 one-off fee on the monthly-cancellable version versus €0 on the 24-month version is not actually free - it is that €9.99 spread as risk the provider transfers to you. Leave in month 8 of a 24-month contract and you still owe the remaining 16 months' base fee, easily €100+ more than the activation fee you tried to dodge.
2. No more year-long renewal traps. For contracts, once the initial term ends the contract continues indefinitely but you can cancel any time with one month's notice (Fair Consumer Contracts Act, in force 1 March 2022). The old horror - miss the window, locked in for another 12 months - is gone.
3. The cancellation button is mandatory. Since 1 July 2022 every provider website must carry a "Verträge hier kündigen" button that lets you cancel online without logging in. Screenshot the confirmation; they must acknowledge receipt.
4. Price increase = free exit. If the provider changes prices or terms mid-contract, you get a special termination right (Sonderkündigungsrecht) - they must inform you and you can leave without penalty.
5. Set the Drittanbietersperre on day one. The third-party-charge block stops "subscription" scams from billing your phone account (the classic: a dodgy banner tap becomes a €4.99/week "service" on your bill). Every provider must offer it free - two minutes in the app or one email using the Verbraucherzentrale template letter.

Traps that still work in 2026: bundled-phone contracts at electronics chains (the "free" phone is priced in, total cost usually beats buying phone + SIM-only separately by €100-300 in the wrong direction); "D1 network quality" resellers charging €30 for what fraenk sells at €10; and 0%-financing phone deals that quietly add a credit line to your Schufa file right before your mortgage application.

For the full cancellation playbook - letter template, proof of delivery, special termination rights - see our contract cancellation guide.

Switching and taking your number with you (Rufnummernmitnahme)

Porting a German mobile number is a legal right and, since 1 December 2021, free by law (§59 TKG - the old €6.82 fee is history). Better: providers pay *you* to bring a number - switching bonuses of €10-25 are routine, and promos reach higher.

The process, which the new provider runs for you:

1. Order the new SIM/tariff and tick "Rufnummer mitnehmen" (take my number), entering your old provider and number exactly as registered.
2. For prepaid: first confirm the port-out release (Verzichtserklärung / porting consent) in your old provider's app or hotline - and make sure the name/birthdate on both accounts match exactly, the number-one cause of failed ports.
3. The new provider ships or activates your SIM/eSIM, schedules a porting date, and handles the paperwork with your old provider automatically - you don't contact the old provider yourself for a postpaid port.
4. The port completes in a few working days; you keep both SIMs until the switch moment, which usually lands in the early morning so you lose service for a short window rather than a whole day.
5. Prepaid leftovers: request your remaining credit (Restguthaben) back - refunding it free of charge is mandatory (see next section).

You can port any time - mid-contract too. You'll still pay out the old contract's remaining term, but the number moves immediately.

Prepaid credit: it never expires (they just hope you think it does)

Two consumer rights German providers don't advertise:

• Paid-in credit cannot expire. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) settled this in 2011: money you loaded stays yours, even if the "validity window" for making calls lapses. (Promo and bonus credit can expire - only your own top-ups are protected.)
• Refund after termination is mandatory and free. When a prepaid SIM is cancelled or deactivated, the provider must pay out remaining credit on request - no "processing fee" allowed. The Verbraucherzentrale publishes a fill-in template letter: fill in your account/mobile number, the exact remaining balance if you know it, and your IBAN for the payout, then send it by post or the provider's contact form and keep proof of sending. Your claim lasts three years from the end of the year you topped up.

The catch: providers may deactivate dormant prepaid SIMs after long inactivity - typically around 12-15 months without a top-up, though exact terms vary by provider, so check your own provider's conditions. Losing the SIM doesn't lose the money (see above), but it does lose the number. If your German number matters, set a calendar reminder to top up €5 twice a year during any long absence.

eSIM, dual-SIM and keeping your home number

The standard expat setup in 2026: physical home-country SIM (or its eSIM) in slot 2 for banking 2FA and old contacts, German eSIM in slot 1 for everything German. All four network operators and virtually every relevant sub-brand (fraenk, congstar, Aldi Talk, o2 prepaid, CallYa…) issue eSIMs, usually instantly by QR code.

Hardware notes before you rely on a phone you brought:

• 3G is gone (all German networks shut it in 2021) and 2G dies in 2028: Telekom by end of June 2028, Vodafone September 2028, o2 in the second half of 2028. Your phone must do 4G with VoLTE for calls - anything sold in the last ~8 years does; a treasured 2012 backup phone will become a paperweight.
• Phones from the US or Asia usually work but may miss band n78 (3.6 GHz 5G) or band 20/28 coverage bands - check your exact model's band list if 5G matters to you.
• SIM locks are rare in Germany; phones bought here unsubsidised are unlocked by default.

Roaming: the EU is free, the edges are expensive

German SIMs roam in the EU/EEA at domestic conditions ("roam like at home") - guaranteed by EU regulation until at least mid-2032. Calls, SMS and data come out of your normal allowance. Two footnotes:

• Fair use on big-data plans: providers may cap roaming data below your domestic allowance using an EU formula (relevant on unlimited and very large plans); they must tell you the cap and warn you at 80% of it.
• Fair use on time: live abroad on a German SIM for months and the provider may apply surcharges after warning you - RLAH is for travel, not for using a German SIM as your permanent Spanish plan.

In practice you'll usually get a courtesy SMS the moment you land in another EU country confirming you're on roaming and reminding you of any fair-use cap - that text is the provider discharging its EU-mandated notification duty, not a sales pitch, so it's worth actually reading once.

The traps sit at the edges: Switzerland and the UK are not covered by the EU rule. Some tariffs include them voluntarily (several Vodafone and Telekom plans do; most budget brands don't) - check before you board the train to Basel or you'll pay per-MB rates that belong in a museum. Same for Turkey, the Balkans outside the EU, and cruise-ship/airplane networks, which can bill €10+/MB. Before any non-EU trip: set a data-roaming cost cap in the provider app or switch data roaming off and use a local eSIM.

Edge cases: students, families, freelancers, the freshly rejected

• Non-EU arrivals: everything in the prepaid section applies unchanged - passport is enough. Your residence permit status is irrelevant to prepaid; postpaid may ask for it indirectly via the Schufa/address route.
• Students: no meaningful student mobile discounts exist in Germany (unlike broadband). The Aldi Talk / Lidl Connect year packages and rotating Drillisch promos are the student meta. Some campuses have eduroam everywhere, making the 25GB tier plenty.
• Families: additional-SIM schemes (Telekom PlusKarte, Vodafone family options, o2 Grow-style stacking) discount 2nd-5th SIMs on flagship contracts - only worth it if you're already paying flagship prices. Budget route: one cheap plan per person, done. Kids' prepaid with no top-up autopay = built-in spending cap.
• Freelancers: mobile costs are deductible business expenses (fully, if the SIM is business-only; proportionally otherwise). A second cheap SIM-only plan as the "business number" makes the Steuererklärung cleaner.
• Rejected for postpaid? Empty or fresh Schufa file. Standard playbook: 6 months on prepaid, pull your free Schufa data copy to check for errors, then apply again - or ask the provider about a deposit (Kaution). Details in the Schufa guide.
• Remote workers and digital nomads: if Germany is a home base between long trips, prepaid's lack of a fixed term is the whole appeal - top up before you leave, let it idle, top up again before it lapses (see the inactivity note above), and skip postpaid entirely unless you also need the Schufa-building side benefit.

Common mistakes that cost real money

1. Signing a 24-month contract in week one. Your address, job and even city may change. Monthly-cancellable costs €1-3 more per month; being stuck costs €200+.
2. Buying the "free" phone bundle. Calculate total cost of ownership over 24 months; the bundle almost always loses to SIM-only + separately bought phone.
3. Ignoring the 4-week billing cycle. Prepaid "€8.99/month" is really €8.99 × 13 = €116.87/year, not €107.88. Annual packages sidestep this.
4. Skipping the Drittanbietersperre, then paying €30 in "mobile subscriptions" before noticing.
5. Letting a prepaid SIM lapse while abroad and losing the German number your bank's 2FA depends on. Top up before long trips.
6. Not porting because it seems bureaucratic. It's free, the new provider does the work, and you often get paid a bonus for it.
7. Ignoring a final bill after cancelling. Unpaid telecom bills go to collections (Inkasso) fast and can end as a negative Schufa entry - poison for your apartment hunt. Pay it, then dispute it if wrong.
8. Buying at the airport. €30 for a SIM that costs €9.99 at the Aldi next to your hotel.
9. Assuming the cheapest advertised price is the ongoing price. Budget-brand promos are usually a first-12-month discount; check the tariff's regular post-promo price before committing so month 13 isn't a surprise.

Frequently asked questions