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Wondering if anyone from Germany uses "O2 Free"-plans?
Right now there's still that deal for 25€/month
phone+sms flat + 15GB LTE highspeed data and after throttling to 1 Mbit/s in the 3G net of O2. Wondering if 1 Mbit/s on a phone is smth to work with compared to that lousy 32 kbit/s throttle most providers use.
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I am sorry, I cannot contribute. I am using my company's SIM card all day long. T-Mobile. Some close-to-unlimited corporate volume contract. Never hit any cap, so I have not been watching the german mobile provider market since years.
Haha you are covered then I guess :P
hmm, never heard of before, but have to admit I am not watching that market closely.
I am cheapskate when it comes to mobil phone contracts too, so actually using the gmx (1&1) thing with 1GB + 100minutes at 6,99 since more than a year already (old offer, D-Netz, no LTE though) which is still enough for my needs.
just not interested to pay more than that anyways, sorry ;-)
Haha aight thank you guys anyways :P
@Amitz Gimme that deal xD
The o2 network is very hit or miss, I have lots of connectivity issues where I live. Unusable for anything that requires a constant connection (like SSH sessions or games). Support is also terrible.
As usual, you get what you pay for. 1 mbit is fast enough to surf comfortably and stream video at 360p.
Yeah, Im using O2 Free S. 1GB and then 1mbit. Its absolutely better than what I had before. Oftentimes you dont get more than 12-15mbit anyway, so 1mbit is good enough for music, youtube, surfing etc.
Just need to be sure youre somehwere where this map tells you you have good 3G coverage: https://www.o2online.de/service/netz-verfuegbarkeit/netzabdeckung/
Because once youre through your included data, LTE will be turned off and the 1mbit will go over the 3G network.
The price is surely very attractive when we keep the prices of the two competitors in mind, and that unlimited data approach, even though it is just 1mbps, is unique among german providers. 1 mbps is absolutely okay for surfing and streaming at low resolutions, but their network quality is definitely a dealbreaker. When it comes to speed, o2 has no chance against its contenders, due to the lack of a widespread 1800 and 2600 mhz lte network, but coverage is also worse. If you live in a very big city it is acceptable but otherwise, it gets hard to even use more than those 15gb, without forcing it. At least that was in my case, I had been using o2 until May having 50gb lte per month, and could barely use more than 7. Youtube videos were very unstable ,also had lots of stutters, you might be thinking I am living somewhere in the nowhere, but I am actually living in a city with more than 500k people..
So you should think that through.
Ah sweet! Thanks for the first hand experience feedback
Im living in Erlangen and gonna study there for the next 4 years at least so I will be fine network wise I guess. Network coverage is "very good" in Erlangen for 2G, 3G and 4G. Btw I read somewhere that existing customers can somehow switch to the 15GB special plan if you are interested^^
@atrava Feedback like yours makes me think I should rather go with the 20 GB telekom offer for effectively 15€/mo. But they throttle to 64 kbits ugh
o2 - de with just 2G and 3G is quite annoying... Their 3G coverage is actually bad and their EDGE is unusable at best. I'm fine with my o2 contract for 11€ or so for 4GB of real LTE data.
Whether you go with O2 Free or 20GB Telekom depends entirely on how much data you think youre going to use.
For me, I used prepaid mobile sims until the o2free offer, because I was never sure how my data consumption was going to develop. Up til now I used around 4GB a month, but I didnt wanna be stuck in a contract for 2 years (again) and not have enough data.
What ultimately made me go O2 Free S was the fact that I got a deal on it. I wanted to buy a Samsung S8 anyway and the O2 Free contract came effectively free with it.
@Ympker Nice. I am actually living near erlangen. And network coverage in erlangen is rather average, but not 100 % sure. I am now using telekom and it is such a different experience. But 20gb for 15€ is great and at that price point you should really go for telekom. At least I am paying a hell of a lot more. Don't you have cable or something, because 20gb seems a lot to me.
Well there is that O2 Free 15 deal where you pay 30€/mo but get a 265€ saturn/mediamarkt coupon or iphone 6 (or other phones) for 1€.
Sweet :P Yeah I do have cable but I play hearthstone on phone and watch youtube Vids ;P Atm I pay 10€/mo for 3gb lte at premiumsim (o2 network also but Drillisch AG).
probably talking about that offer: https://www.mobileforyou.de/smartphone-tablet-aktionen/telekom-data-comfort-mega-auszahlung-deal.html
so more like 35,- € monthly, 20GB for young people only, but with 500 bucks cashback (calculated over 24 month you might get to them 15€ effectively).
Hmm.Interesting. Still have my contract running.. ,unfortunately.
Thanks though. Will hit you up when it expires.
Just keep an eye on mydealz.de or something. They post deals like that all the time, not only for mobile phone contracts. Schubladenvertrag.de is good if youre looking for a phone and want a free contract on top or want to "finance" it, I guess.
Yup it's the one Im referring to
@MagicalTrain I am :P Didnt know about SchubladenVertrag. Usually I check mydealz, dealdoktor, allnetflat, verivox, sparhandy and deinhandy.
@Ympker Stop making me jealous...
Yes, I am able to get a constant SSH connection up for extended periods of time, but that's nothing compared to the abuse my provider gives. (example: no warning when you hit 100% on your data cap)
What plan do you have? (:
As long you're not in very crowded places, as example the Messe Berlin or the Berlin Main station it's OK. Around Garmisch-Partenkirchen does it suck because there's only 4G or EDGE. I'm currently with 60GB O2 LTE for 25€ per month (this offer was on mydealz and still works ;-))
May look for other deals on telefon-treff
You could upgrade it to o2 free for 5€/mo
would make a great deal
So I read this and my immediate thought was: "No way this could be true! They must have 3G available where LTE is available, right? After all, LTE is just a more advanced version!"
I use a Telekom reseller that provides only 3G (they even have a page that claims LTE is just a gimmick, and that you won't notice the speed difference). But I've had terrible problems when in the mountains getting anything but EDGE, which is totally unusable.
So I check the Telekom coverage map (https://www.telekom.de/start/netzausbau), and, wow!, it's true! In some areas, the various LTE signals cover significantly more territory than regular 3G. That would explain my lousy service... Maybe LTE isn't such a gimmick after all?
@aj_potc
It is definitely not only a gimmick. All three operators often skip 3G , and instead go for lte, especially in rural areas, because it simply doesn't make sense to have redundant coverage in low density areas. Furthermore, Lte 800 covers much more area than UMTS.
Well, I am very sorry for you.
Decided to wait it out. Im gonna try O2 Free Flex plan first which can be cancelled month to month. If it works well in my area I will upgrade to O2 Free 25€/mo for 24 months which then will obviously a bit cheaper price wise. With the special having expired by then I still get 10gb highspeed data as they upgrade their plans on September 6th. Not 15gb but not a cat in a sac either. Guess that was for the best.
If you arent using a special deal (ie. with phone), get the O2Free Young plan. Its 5€ cheaper per month. So 20€/month.
you can get 15gb for free today http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/o2-ab-heute-15-gb-datenpaket-kostenlos/
I have a O2 Free contract as backup. After you hit the limit you fall back to 3G and 1mbit limit. It is ok for browsing, mail, texting, Spotify and some low-end YouTube experience.
In general signal quality and coverage is pretty bad with O2 compared to the other German carriers.
You are a student, right?
Instead of O2 Free I would get this contract:
https://www.mydealz.de/deals/telekom-data-comfort-l-datenflats-mit-extrem-viel-cashback-bis-zu-20-gb-lte-300-mbits-bis-zu-500-eur-auszahlung-grundgebuhr-ab-2995-eur-update-1020145
20 GB LTE for effectively 15,78/month after cashback in the Telekom network. Data only.
Get a dual SIM phone and add another contract from Sparhandy:
https://www.sparhandy.de/allnet-flat/#infos
9,99/month for unlimited calls to every German carrier. Telekom network. SMS not included but WhatsApp & Co. will do the job pretty fine.
Both combined you pay 25,77/month for 20 GB LTE in the Telekom Network with unlimited calls (also Telekom network).
Nobody can beat Telekom when it comes to coverage, signal quality and speed. You won't regret it.
The o2 network is one of the worst mobile networks I've encountered by today, if you go only a little outside a city, it's crushing down from LTE to 3G, sometimes even EDGE.
Oh, don't let yourself impress by their "LTE" though, it's the most cheapest LTE possible, I was sometimes even questioning if the cell tower was connected by DSL, etc. due to horrible speeds and latencies - this might be either to weak connected cell towers or too many users for this low capacity - o2's network (even LTE) is free to resellers after all in comparison to the other one's (Vodafone and T-Mobile) that aren't. Even though they are throttling you to useable 1mbit/s, the service they provide is not worth it's price, which is actually rather low. Recommending you a dual-SIM smartphone, one with some call-units, etc. if you need it (prepaid is fine for that) and a second data-SIM from T-Mobile or Vodafone with a decent contract if you need heavy data usage (~20GB, etc. is not that expensive anymore), just look for a deal with decent cash-back and don't choose the contract directly at provider and you'll get a good price.
Some friends told me that they were happy with the o2 network, but they all live in huge cities, friends in the rather rural area were furious with it - my experience is stated above - so choose for yourself if you would like to have lots of data but no decent network to use the data. ^^
It's only 1 GB LTE though
I do have a One Plus 3
@ympker oh, i thought you meant the s version, cause it normally costs 25.