Mobile phone provider Lebara Mobile has been operating in The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom for years, now it has entered the German market. Lebara Mobile is using the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business model and targets primarily ethnic and immigrant people in these countries by offering low rates for international calls by cell phone. In Germany, the mobile phone provider offers a prepaid price plan just for domestic and international mobile phone calls and SMS messaging over the network of T-Mobile. Subscribers will not be able to send MMS messages or access the internet via GPRS or UMTS with this cell phone plan.

Lebara Mobile charges customers EUR 0.19 for the first 15 minutes of a mobile phone call to another Lebara Mobile user. From the 16th minute on, users pay EUR 0.15 per minute for such a mobile phone call. Voicemal can be checked and landlines or other mobiles in Germany can be called for EUR 0.15 per minute plus additional EUR 0.19 per call – Lebara Mobile is the only German discount provider charging an extra fee per domestic calls. SMS can be sent within Germany and to other countries for EUR 0.15 each.

For international calls from Germany to countries such as Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the UK, Lebara Mobile charges its customers EUR 0.05 (to home phones) or EUR 0.29 (to mobiles) per minute and an additional connection fee of EUR 0.19 per call. Calling a home phone or a mobile phone in the United States costs EUR 0.05 plus connection fee.

The Lebara Mobile prepaid price plan is available online and through several sales channels throughout Germany. New calling credit can be topped up by buying a voucher from one of many participating outlets in Germany or online by using a credit card or debit card. Currently, Lebara Mobile adds free calling credit.

There are no monthly service charges or any contract obligations. Another good thing about Lebara: There is a multilingual customer service with the ability to cater for more than 30 languages (from German and English to Polish and Turkish and others). Information on the website at www.lebara-mobile.de is also given in different languages. Lebara Mobile SIM cards will be automatically deactivated when the user has not made a chargeable call for more than 90 days in a row. Deactivated SIM cards cannot be reconnected and the mobile number also stops being available for the customer to use after this time.

Overviews of current cell phone plans in Germany:
Prepaid Price Plans with Single Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls
Prepaid Price Plans with Community Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls
Prepaid Price Plans with Flat Rate Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls