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.

From today, the low end smartphone Blackberry Curve 8520 is available at Real supermarkets for EUR 199.00 without contract. That is less than what the operators T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 Germany ask for: T-Mobile sells the Blackberry Curve 8520 for EUR 229.96 without contract, Vodafone for EUR 269.90, E-Plus for EUR 209.99 and O2 Germany for EUR 249.00.

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.

Getting a new landline is pretty expensive, using call-through services is quite complicated – thus, two adequate alternatives for making international calls at low rates are not available to many phone users. Another way to make phone calls from Germany to other countries in the world at comparably low rates is to buy a prepaid SIM card of a German discount provider specialized in international calls. They offer cell phone plans with which mobile phone users can call family members, friends or acquaintances for rates beginning at EUR 0.09 per minute. However, prices vary and interested parties should select their prepaid starter package carefully.

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.

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.

Prepaid mobile data price plans are suited for notebook and netbook users who need mobile internet access via GRPS or UMTS at irregular intervals or just sporadically. Since there is no long minimum term, such prepaid data price plans also lend themselves to being used by travellers, exchange students or business men abroad who stay in Germany only for a few weeks or months. This article gives notebook and netbook users an overview of current prepaid starter packages including an UMTS surf stick and a mobile internet price plan of mobile phone providers in Germany.