Telephoning Around the World from Germany

Telephoning anywhere in the world can be an expensive prospect. Today in Germany, Deutsche Telekom is not the only option for a landline at home. As a result of the deregulation of the telephone industry in 1998, other providers have stepped in, such as Arcor and 1und1.de. There are a few catches though.

First, according to one of the providers, Deutsche Telekom must connect the phone line, regardless of the provider a contract is signed with. Which means residential customers of any provider must wait for the German telecom company to come to their home and make any adjustments necessary. This can take weeks to months right now due to a huge unpublicized back log.

Secondly, with providers other than Deutsche Telekom, a customer cannot normally use the cheaper telephone codes that are now available. These special codes, normally five or six digits, allow you to call most countries in the world for a very low rate. Special websites list the codes and related rates available per country. One example of such a website is www.teltarif.de.

Using the codes is easy: Simply dial the code, then dial the number you are calling as you would without a phone code. The charges are listed separately on your telephone bill.

The rate to Canada is almost always less than 1.5 euro cents per minute. The cheapest rate to Canada in the past few years: 0.7 euro cents per minute. The trick is to check one of the telephone code websites before you make a call; the rates normally changes every day so you need to get the code for the cheapest rate available at the time you are calling.

Skype and other providers allow computer-to-computer calls for free or cheap rates from a computer to a landline, for example from a computer in Germany to a landline in Canada for 2 euro cents per minute. For some though, using the internet is not an option for telephoning. That makes the telephone codes very useful.

Another option is prepaid sim cards for your mobile phone. You can buy a prepaid sim card for 15 euros and immediately have 10 euros of calls available to you. When you recharge your sim card in 15 or 25-euro increments, the entire value is available to you for long distance calls. (Essentially, you “pay” 5 euros for the sim card.) There is often a connection fee, sometimes for 15 euro cents per call. The benefit of these sim cards is that you can call internationally from anywhere in Germany using your mobile phone. Complete flexibility.

As an example, with an E-Plus sim card, the rate to Canada is 9 euro cents per minute. The rate is much higher than Skype or the cheaper phone codes, but you have more flexibility by using your mobile phone.