Again, café-cum-retailer Tchibo is selling its prepaid starter package including a SIM card and an UMTS surf stick for just EUR 29.95 to netbook and notebook users. The prepaid starter package does also include the flat rate tariff “Internet-Tages-Flatrate” for three single days. Usually, this flat rate tariff costs EUR 2.95 for every day the Tchibo customer is accessing the internet via GPRS or UMTS over the network of O2 Germany. This is quite a bargain for netbook or notebook users looking for a new UMTS surf stick in order to access the internet on their way.

Discoplus is a new discount provider in the Geman market that offers a prepaid price plan mobile phone calls within Germany at low rates. For calls to home phone and other mobiles in Germany Discoplus subscribers are charged EUR 0.08 per minute, for sending SMS they pay EUR 0.08 per message. The prepaid starter package of Discoplus includes a SIM card and calling credit of EUR 5.00 and is available at www.discoplus.de for EUR 9.95. Currently, new customers of Discoplus receive a bonus of 50 free calling minutes.

Mobile phone provider Klarmobil has launched a new cell phone plan with a flat rate tariff for all mobile phone calls and mobile internet access within Germany. The price plan “Flat Komplett 3G” is available for EUR 49.95 per month and includes all domestic mobile phone calls to home phone and other mobiles as well as mobile internet access via GPRS or UMTS over the network of operator O2 Germany. The prepaid starter package including the SIM card is available at www.klarmobil.de for EUR 9.95.

Expect monthly fees of EUR 60.00 or higher when booking a flat rate tariff of a German provider for mobile phone calls to all German networks. Operator O2 Germany is offering for a limited period of time a much cheaper flat rate plan: From today until Saturday, February 22nd, O2 Germany is selling the “O2o” price plan with a cost cap of EUR 40.00 per month at its web store (www.o2online.de). The same offer is also available at O2 Germany stores in fifteen cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig, Munich and Nuremberg until Saturday, February 27th. Usually, there is a EUR 60.00 cost cap for the “O2o” price plan.

In the past few years German network operator E-Plus has been successful with several low-cost brands for mobile phone calls and messaging such as Ay Yildiz or Simyo and not so much with own tariffs. Now, the operator takes it to the next level and does not distribute any price plans by itself anymore but just under its different brands instead. People looking for a postpaid price plan or flat rate tariff now have to look at the Base brand plans. Since the beginning of this month Base is offering two different price plans: a postpaid price plan with a two-year minimum term and with several tariff options and a prepaid price plan.

There are already a few low-cost providers in the German market that offer national mobile phone calls for EUR 0.08 per minute. With Hellomobil a new brand of Drillisch Telecom GmbH has joined the ranks of these discount brands. What makes the prepaid price plan of Hellmobil so special is that it is the first one allowing for mobile phone calls to other home phones or mobile phones in Germany at EUR 0.08 per minute over the network of O2 Germany. Checking voice mail within Germany is free of charge, sending an SMS message to other German mobiles costs EUR 0.08 as well.

Mobile phone and internet provider O2 Germany lets new DSL subscribers choose between a short minimum term of just one month and a long minimum term of 24 months. The only difference between these two options: New customers choosing a DSL contract with a long minimum term get a discount on the monthly fees. However, O2 Germany is one of the few German DSL providers not charging new subscribers deciding on a short minimum term a one-time set-up fee and higher purchase prices for new DSL router. A DSL package of O2 Germany with a short minimum term of one month and flat rate tariffs for web access and landline calls to other home phones in Germany is available for prices beginning at EUR 25.00 per month.

Some DSL and home phone packages of German providers such as Alice, Congstar and O2 Germany come with a minimum term of four or six weeks. The DSL packages include at least an analog landline and a DSL connection with a flat rate tariff for web access. Sometimes a flat rate tariff for landline calls to other home phones in Germany is already included as well. Since some providers rely in certain regions on a wholesale product of Deutsche Telekom in order to provide landline and broadband internet connections, they may add an additional EUR 5.00 per month to the standard monthly fee – depending on the place of residence of the subscriber. That is why in some cases the following overview of the Phone Guide Germany shows two prices for one DSL package.

Discount provider Discosurf offers a cheap mobile data plan over the network of T-Mobile for notebook and netbook users. Subscribers of the mobile internet flat rate tariff pay EUR 19.95 per month as well as a one-time set-up fee of EUR 24.95 and get an UMTS surf stick for free. The monthly fee of EUR 19.95 is effective for the first six month minimum term, afterwards the charge amounts to EUR 29.95. Subscribers can cancel the mobile data contract with four weeks notification. If the subscriber does not cancel the contract after six months, the term extends for another month.

People in Germany who are worried about friends or family members will probably not get through when trying to call Haiti now because after the devastating earthquake communications infrastructure in that country is down. And: Making a landline or a mobile phone call from Germany to Haiti can be really expensive. We show you how to keep costs low when calling friends or families in Haiti now or later.