German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Hi there!

I'm trying to figure out which dataplan to use with the n900 in germany. My current favourite is the one from o2, the "Internet-Pack-M". Unlimited data volume for 10€ and a cap to GPRS speed after 200 Mb. Seems pretty solid to me.

The other factor which makes me lean towards o2 is them allowing VoIP (and skype with that).
http://www.prepaidkarten-news.de/pre...t-erlaubt.html
This should be great with the n900.

Does anyone else have a good idea or suggestions concerning this matter?

Cheers
kore

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Not sure if you've looked into Aldi Talk with medion mobile, supposedely, if I read it right, they allow you to have 5gb of bandwidth for 15€ for 30 days. Only requirement I believe is that you have to have the prepaid voice also activated and in use for that phone.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I recommend the Tchibo Surf Stick with Internet Flatrate XL. It's a prepaid card with 5 or 10 gb (don't remember) of hsdpa included for 20 bucks per month. There's no contract but the sim/stick bundle costs around 60€,

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

With O2o you get an Internet Flat for 8,50€. Maybe something for you?

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

See http://wiki.maemo.org/Data_plans#Germany as a start, and do update it with any information not already there.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I've a employees contract from T-Mobile. That's basically a Combi Flat M with mobile-phone but for 19,95€ per month (instead of 59,95€ per month). That's Data-Flat, Festnetz-Flat, D1-Netz-Flat (Calls/SMS/MMS), T-Mobile-Hotspot-Flat.
0,203€ per call to other networks (0,29€ - 30% Rebate) and 0,133€ per SMS to other networks (0,19€ - 30% Rebate).
So if you know someone who works at T-Mobile you can ask him to get that contract for you.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

You cannot make GSM phone calls with the Surf Stick SIM, can you?

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

No, I didn't see an option for phone calls with the stick. But you can use the sim card with your phone so you share your connection over bluetooth (works fine for my N800 and my netbook) and use your phone for calls.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

FYI: I just decided to not to extend my contract at o2 Germany.
Reasons:
1. Often poor UMTS/3G signal - you'll see people with Vodafone getting about as twice as much downloading speed as you do

2. 200mb data volume - I usually hit that mark on the ~20th of each billing period (would be much earlier if I didn't try to avoid traffic all the time, e.g. asking a friend if he could quickly look sth. up on google so I would not have to do it).

3. I was able to get a much better price at Vodafone:
For 29,95€ per month they offered me:
Unlimited calls to Vodafone + German landline
Unlimited texts to Vodafone
Unlimited calls (for 12 months) to a german provider of my choice
UMTS Flatrate 5gb (after hitting 5gb -> GPRS)
40 texts to any provider

+ They do not care if you use skype and/or tethering with your mobile phone. Friend of mine uses skype all day and didn't receive anything asking him for some extra money due to the usage of voip.

I hope my post was helpful.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Hmm, this dataplan stuff is really strange here in Germany, esp at TMO:

If you want to combine voice and data option for one sim card you have 3G limits of 300MB per month and connection drops to 64kbit if you reach that limit.
So, if you want to listen internet radio 64kbit is not enough and 300MB volume is nothing, if I check my imap account regularly 300MB is also nothing. And *I think* if you use the big 3G dataplan option (5 GB/month) you can not combine this with a multisim option, for what reasons ever.
So far I will use my current +200kbit/unlimited EDGE data plan + openvpn proxy to break the internet port limits and check if the data Day-Flat is an option. 200kbit is fine for internet radio.

Looking at 1&1 you can get Vodaphone-net + 3G 1GB/month reduced to EDGE(!) as part of their all-in-one offer
http://pocketweb.1und1.de/common/pdf...rnetTarife.pdf.
But Vodaphone has no good multisim option - if you want/need one.

But look at the small numbers!! If you use the Smatphone as modem you will be a poor person in a short time :-)

When using the N900 can I change easily between EDGE and UMTS if I have two APNs?

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Sounds good. Does anyone have experience with the e-plus network concerning data rates? maybe especially in munich? They do not mention any limitations using VoIP. Any experience using that?

I think that's the one i mentioned in my post, they just have a reduced price for a couple of days.

Sounds like 200 mb is really nothing. I will check vodafone.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

i think i will get a contract like this one.. t-mobile is the best provider i think an most important, t-mobile has the best coverage (had so many problems with that on Vodafone)

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I just checked and you can have the same dataplan (unlimited for 20€, speed reduction after 5gb) in combination with any tschibo prepaid card.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

It depends where you are and how much you want to use. Where I am in Bonn, 02 offers HSPA which means fonic and Alice are a great deal depending if ou want to go daily or monthly. Alice offers a month-by-month flat for 20 Euros.

If you can bear going HTTP only via a proxy, Vodafone offers their flat for 10 Euros per month. I've been using this for 2 years now and never hit a limit.

On Vodafone and T-mobile, expect to pay 30-35 Euro for the 5GB open, high-quality internet connection.

I am likely to take a Vodfafone voice+data contract next year again but at the moment I can't find a data-centric plan. I rarely use voice and SMS so these flat-rate deals are usually poor for me!

Some test results in Bonn.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2009/06/3g...-vs-x70-vs-s5/

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

T-Mobile Netherlands does something similar. Quoting Data plans entry on wiki:

Please, if you have accurate information about such add it on wiki's Data plans entry.

I wouldn't call OpenVPN a proxy btw. Proxies run on layer 5 or layer 7, are configured in client, often run by 3rd parties, often not encrypted or authenticated, and serve entirely different purposes such as caching data. What you use OpenVPN for is tunneling data encrypted between you and tunnel endpoint which is also your gateway, and all this happens on layer 2 (TAP) or layer 3 (TUN) instead making it much easier to run transparently. FWIW, IPsec runs on layer 3, and doesn't use UDP to establish tunnel (layer 4) but is easy to detect. Why is this important? For one, privacy. Also, packet mangling and QoS. Telcos will start to use these methods more often.

And something really odd is that on Vodafone NL when I tether to my phone with proxy set, and I used my laptop's browser for surfing, I could not use my phone's browser anymore. It'd require me to fill in a username/password. This would continue for approx a day. Unsetting the proxy solves the problem, but I think the proxy does increase the speed of browsing.

Vodafone, and Vodafone cares more about what you use your connection for in the sense that they don't allow VoIP and tethering by contract. Especially in Germany. T-Mobile is known to be more lax in this regard but cap heavy users.

In NL, Vodafone provides faster speed than T-Mobile, but FUP is 10x average usage whereas average usage is unclear. Vodafone (and KPN) also have better 3G network. These are also factors to take into account!

(Note to self: multisim = multi SIM)

You'd lose your current connections.

Question is also whether N900 supports multiple APNs. Not sure if it does. See the MMS thread for some discussion on this.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

What exactly do you mean by going HTTP only via proxy?

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

That you cannot disable the proxy because then it won't work.

Following 2 common setups:

• Data from your IP isn't routed far enough to get Internet access, but using the proxy gets you 'on the web'.
• Or that its a transparent proxy being fed dport 80, 443, and/or layer7 filtered HTTP data.

Both of these setups is easy, and common (1st method accompanied by lack of NAT), but IMO not necessary to enforce in current quality infrastructures anno 2009.

However, its up to them, and sometimes 'web' does not equal 'Internet access'.

There are ways to get around such pathetic filtering though. Example: httptunnel.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Hi Kore,

If you'e planning on using VoIP (Skype/SIP) services on your N900, it's worth noting that o2 are the only German network operator not blocking the ports

http://www.gomonews.com/dont-mention...ens-its-doors/

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

E-Plus itself says no VoIP, not on Phone Flat and not on Notebook Flat.
I just talked to customer support from e-plus, was a call back for a longer email I sent: he stated that there is nothing new on the internals about VoIP at the moment but EDGE implementations will finish 80% till new year (gives 512kb/s), HDSPA is available in huge cities, airports and train stations, further expanding!
250MB volume till GPRS traffic restriction (54Kb/s) with a 10eur Internet Phone Flat and 5GB with 17eur Internet Laptop Flat.

Actually when I start to think what I need... nearly everywhere (with FON you join a world of free wifi) I get wifi access where I would need a fast connection, for VoIP? not really, my land-line is VoIP and if I am in need to call someone its most of the time his/her mobile (so I use my mobile as it's cheaper), for people calling me?! well still have the mobile and my voip phone got an answer machine. when I get connected to wifi my n900 will ring on a land-line-call... what else?
skype? well skype is the second IM-VOIP service I would get rid of after ICQ. but get average john to use SIP, IRC and Jabber...

BTW: I got 3 vouchers for 333free minutes at sipgate.de

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

If you have a spare voucher, i would happily take one off your hands :)

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

i'm using o2o prepaid (they regularily ship simcards for free, google "o2 freikarte"). Plus the 200mb/unlimited plan for 10€ per month.

Reception is good, i've never managed to use more than 50mb per month. I use my umts phone to surf the web when i'm not at work or at home. For everything else, there's wlan.

No problems, no complaints. I'll definitely keep that data plan.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

That sounds good. May i ask where you usually use it? Doesn't happen to be munich? :)

EDIT: Can you say anything about speed? someone earlier in this thread said that he usually just gets half the speed with o2 than with vodafone.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

You still are breaking the contract at that time. They clearly state "No Voice over IP" and "No Instant Messaging" (and "No p2p").

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

O2 Reception in Munich is just fine (hey, they have their headquarters here), reception while travelling (especially in ICEs with the metal in their windows) isn't that good.

The UMTS "stick" I have can only do 3.6Gbit/s, but I sometimes do get that.

The N900 is supposed to support up 10 Mbit/s. And: O2 starts HSPA+ network in Munich (German)

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Those recent posts all sound very good. I think, I'm gonna go for o2 with the mentioned 200mb plan for ~10€.

Thanks for all the usefull information!

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I'd consider Simyo's 1 GB for €9,90:

http://www.simyo.de/de/informieren/a...tpaket1gb.html

As they cash up in 10 KB steps, 1 GB is more than enough. Talk minutes and SMS are just €0.09 and there are no basic fees because it's prepaid.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

1 GB for 10 bucks is a fair deal but Simyo is E-Plus, right? Which means Skype and the such are not oficially allowed, right?

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I use o2 too. I want to change, because my hometown did not have umts. Have it now bout 1 Year and i'm happy. I have the "L" option, because i do very much internet stuff with my phone. (Internet Radio, Streaming TV to my Phone,.... Surf the whole Day ...)
Thats one reaseon why i want the N900 so much. Its not a phone with Internet, Its Internet with phone ^^.
I have no problems @ all sice o2 does umts here. No breaks during any stream till now. I even use my N97 atm with the FM Transmitter in my Car. Internet Radio everywhere hehe.
It is up to your needs.... ;)

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Not allowed, but nevertheless it works.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Hi,

I've got an old BASE UMTS Flatrate with still UNLIMITED download for 25€ per month which I don't use any more.

A short time after I took over this contract from someone else, BASE imposed an X Gb (5 Gb?) limit on all flatrates.

So this is one of the last contracts without bandwidth limits.
If anyone wants to have this contract before I terminate it, then msg me.

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I've got a FONIC sim card with a day flat in my laptop right now, and I can safely say that HSDPA on the O2 network absolutely FLIES. Thinking about getting a Tchibo (think it was about 10€ for 1GB) prepaid card for the N900, because they use the O2 network as well...


-edit- Looks like I remembered wrong... it's 500MB for 10€ :(

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

Brog, could you please tell me where they told you about that option? Any time I asked for a 5GB Flat with tethering, I was told that it will not be possible. The only way I saw was to get the mobile Connect Flat (5GB -> GPRS with 34,95€/month) together with my SuperFlat (29,95€ Flat to landline and Vodafone + 12month Flat to a second mobile-Network) and asking about combining those two on one sim-Card is (according to the sales-people on the phone or in a shop) not possible.

So please tell me: where did you find that offer (espacially with tethering allowed!)

Re: German dataplan - suggestions?
 

I had blau.de suggested to me -

http://www.blau.de/tarife/einheitstarif.html

I attempted to sign up, but my card was rejected, so I'll have to go down to the bank and see what's up with that.

Of course, the problem for me is I speak no German at all, so sadly, I'm a fish out of water with all this.

Any advice from anyone that finds a good pre-paid data plan would be nice! (Leaving before a year is over, most likely, and so I don't want to be stuck in a contract.)