Tonight, the first mobile phone manufacturers will show their upcoming smart-phones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We will get to see devices such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play or the LG Optimus 3D, just to name two examples. I am visiting Mobile World Congress and will give you a short overview of the most important announcements after the show. For the time being, here is a tip for people looking for an good pay as you go tariff for connecting to the web in Spain via GPRS or UMTS.

In my overview of low-rate pay as you go tariffs in Germany, the prepaid tariff of the Vodafone no-frills brand o.tel.o had been one the few examples without any tariff options. Now, there are four tariff options among which users of the prepaid SIM card of o.tel.o can choose.

The Internet provider Endesha will relaunch its DSL tariff range: From now on, new customers can choose between four different DSL packages of the “Surf-n-Phone” series. All four DSL packages include a connection with up to 16 mbps (download), a voice over IP account and a flat rate tariff for accessing the Internet and surfing the web. Monthly prices range from € 19.90 to € 29.49 and all four DSL packages are available with a short minimum term commitment of one month.

German operator Telefónica O2 Germany has launched a new mobile data flat rate tariff for netbook and notebook users. The new flat rate tariff “Internet-pack Spezial” with a minimum term commitment of six months costs € 15.00 per month. The postpaid plan offers unlimited Internet access over the mobile network of Telefónica O2 Germany with 1 GB for faster data transfers.

There are still dead zones in Germany in which people have to take potluck with narrowband connections or with DSL light with a download speed of up to 384 kbps. But there is hope for people living in the country: Telekom Deutschland and Vodafone are now marketing LTE services in the 800 MHz spectrum band in some parts of Germany without DSL or cable Internet coverage. Here is a short overview of how you can get a 4G Internet connection at home and how much it will cost.

The Voice over IP service provider Sipgate has launched the new Sipgate One service in Germany. People from the US already know this service: It provides a mobile phone number on the Vistream/E-Plus network starting with 01570 to Sipgate customers from which all inbound calls can be forwarded to their home phone and mobile phone and to their Skype account for free.

As with soldiers in step, stilettos are clacking on the brightly polished tiles. The three nurses’ uniforms consist of short white coats, bonnets, stockings and high heels. Step by step, the nurses are moving through the corridors of a hospital until they stop at the door of a cell which looks just as white and sterile as the nurses dresses. The patient is a businessman, barefooted, with his shirt open and his tie wrapped around his forehead. First part of our new series “Understanding German Ads”.

Telekom (T-Mobile) will launch two new mobile data tariff options for mobile phone users who have booked one of the pay as you go tariffs “Xtra Card”, “Xtra Click” and “Xtra Nonstop”. With the new day flat rate tariff option “Xtra Handy Dayflat” Telekom customers can access the Internet via GPRS or UMTS over the mobile network of Telekom for € 0.99 per calendar day. The “Xtra Handy Flat” which allows for unlimited Internet access over a period of 30 days costs € 9.95.

There is a new prepaid tariff with cost cap in the German market. Mobile phone provider Fonic, a subsidiary of operator O2 Germany, has launched a cost limit to its pay as you tariff from which new and existing customers benefit. From now on, Fonic customers will not pay more than € 40.00 over a 30-day period for mobile phone calls and text messaging (SMS) within Germany. Until this cost limit has been reached, Fonic charges its customers € 0.09 for every calling minute and every test message sent.

Dear readers, we wish you a happy new year! As you have noticed we took a little break around Christmas and new year’s eve. Now we are back and will keep on offering you new information on low-priced pay as you go tariffs for mobile phone calls and mobile Internet access by smart-phone, netbook or laptop and new reviews on the latest handsets available in Germany. But first, let us look back at the most important developments in the German prepaid market in the past year.