German broadband Internet provider Hansenet (Alice) takes a second shot at marketing highspeed VDSL lines a second shot. This week the ISP will start offering VDSL lines with flat rate tariffs for surfing the web and home phone calls to other landlines in Germany and with data transfer speeds of up to 50 mbps (download) and 10 mbps (upload). New subscribers ordering the new VDSL package “Alice Speed” of Hansenet until the end of October will have to pay just € 29.90 per month for it. New subscribers ordering “Alice Speed” later than that will probably have to pay a monthly fee of € 39.90.

Soccer fans traveling to South Africa for watching the games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup should leave the SIM cards of their regular mobile phone provider at home - because of high roaming charges for outgoing and incoming calls as well as for mobile data services. At teltarif.de we have found out: Subscribers of a cell phone plan of one of the German operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, E-Plus or Germany pay as much as € 2.55 per minute when calling their family back at home from South Africa. For incoming calls in South Africa German operators charge up to € 2.00 per minute. A less expensive way to keep in touch with family and friends at home while visiting South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup from June, 11th to July, 11th is to buy a prepaid SIM card of a South African provider.

You want to get a DSL internet connection. You don’t want to get in three or four weeks, which is the usual time it takes providers in Germany to set up the broadband internet connection, you want to get it today. One way to access the internet immediately is to buy a prepaid SIM card and an UMTS surf stick and to access the internet over the mobile network until the DSL connection is activated. Another way is to order a DSL bundle of a provider that offers an UMTS surf stick to new customers itself. Unfortunately, at the moment there is only one provider offering DSL with a short minimum term commitment and with such an UMTS surf stick in the German market: Hansenet with its Alice brand.

DSL provider Hansenet (Alice) is offering more favorable conditions to landline and DSL subscribers who have also booked the mobile internet tariff “Mobile Surf-Flat”. While before this tariff option held just 300 MB data volume per month in store for notebook, netbook or smartphone users, the “Mobile Surf-Flat” has now become a real flat rate tariff with unlimited data volume for transmissions over the network of O2 Germany. However, there is a data volume limit of 300 MB per month for transfers with EDGE, UMTS or HSPA speed of up to 7.2 mbps (download). Once this limit has been exceeded, the maximum transfer speed will be reduced to GPRS level for the remaining days of that specific month.

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.

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.

Despite DSL, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is still quite popular among home phone users in Germany. It offers two lines, at least three phone numbers (Multiple Subscriber Numbers or MSN) and a better voice quality as well as more service attributes than analog lines. It also helps internet users who cannot get a DSL or another broadband connection by doubling the data transmission rate of the narrow-band internet connection. Here are three ISDN telephones that are available in German stores for less than EUR 100.00.

In a loose order we present individual price plans with a short minimum term for home phone, mobile phone or internet users in Germany. This time we give you all important details on the DSL package “DSL 16000 flex” of the provider Easybell. This DSL package includes a DSL line with data transmission rates of up to 16 mbps (download) and up to 1 mbps (upload) and a flat rate tariff for accessing the internet. The monthly charge for the user amounts to EUR 15.99, the set-up fee amounts to EUR 69.00. Currently, new subscribers pay only EUR 9.99 per month over the first half year. DSL hardware is available at the Easybell web shop for prices starting at EUR 39.00.

My top price plans of 2009 in Germany for home phone, broadband internet, mobile phone and mobile internet users are: O2 o of mobile network operator O2 Germany, Aldi Talk 24 Stunden Internet Flatrate of discount provider Medion Mobile and the double flat rate tariff Alice Fun of Hansenet. All three offers are still available and will stay my first choices in 2010 when it comes to booking a new home phone, mobile phone or internet package until another provider will launch a better price plan. Read why I recommend these three tariffs.