I have to admit: I didn’t know this pay as you go tariff until a few days ago. The Mobilka tariff addresses mobile phone users in Germany who also make international calls. It offers low rates of € 0.05 per minute for mobile phone calls over the E-Plus network in Germany to home phones in 45 other countries. That sounds familiar? Well, you are right.

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.

Upcoming Tuesday, discount provider Blau will launch a new tariff option called “International-Flat 500″ for its pay as you go tariff Blauworld. Blauworld users can book the new tariff option “International-Flat 500″ for € 9.90 per month. The name of the new tariff suggests that it is a flat rate tariff option, but actually it’s not - however, “International-Flat 500″ offers 500 minutes over a period of 30 days for international calls from Germany to 25 other countries.

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.

The pay as you go tariff “Lidl Mobile” of grocery retailer Lidl ist quite interesting: With the “Lidl Mobile” price plan mobile phone users pay € 0.09 per minute for mobile phone calls and € 0.09 per for each text message sent within Germany until they have reached a billing amount of € 40.00 - from then on Lidl Mobile will not be charged for further mobile phone calls and SMS until the next billig cycle begins. Upcoming Thursday, December 9th, Lidl will add mobile data flat rate tariffs and a 3G web stick for notebook and netbook users to its “Lidl Mobile” offer.

A few days later than Aldi Nord, Aldi Süd will start selling a smart-phone during christmas season, too. From next Monday on,the Nokia 5230 will be available at Aldi Süd supermarkets for € 129.00 without plan. This is a completely different offer than that of Aldi Nord from last Thursday: With the Samsung Galaxy 550 Aldi Nord has been selling the past few days a new Android smart-phone – the Nokia 5230 now available at Aldi Süd is not a new handset, but has been on the market since the end of 2009. But still, the touch-screen smart-phone Nokia 5230 is quite interesting. Here are the fast facts about the new smart-phone offer at Aldi Süd supermarkets.

As in 2009, grocery retailer Aldi is selling a smart-phone at the beginning of christmas season. This year it is the Android smart-phone Samsung Galaxy 550 which is available from today at Aldi Nord supermarkets for € 169.00 without plan. On its flyer Aldi Nord uses the mobile phone’s old labeling Samsung Galaxy 5 GT-I5500. Here is a short review of the touch-screen phone running on the Android OS 2.1 (Eclair) and an evaluation whether the Aldi smart-phone is a good deal or not.