Germany | Tchibo underbidding competitors: data-flat for €20 + 500MB-pack for € 10

[inquisitor]

teltarif reports Tchibo, a MVNO on the O2 network with more than 1000 shops throughout Germany, will launch prepaid data tariffs from December.
For € 20 per month they will offer the cheapest data flatrate available in Germany, including HSDPA- and EDGE-usage. If traffic exceeds 10GB per month, bandwidth will be limited to 64 KBit/s.
Besides this flatrate they will also offer a data pack of 500 MB for € 10/month. That's more expensive than simyo, but with Tchibo you will get real mobile broadband instead of the modem-speeds on the eplus-network, which simyo uses. Excedding traffic will be billed with € 0,24/MB. No word on billing-increments yet.
Tchibo will also sell a UMTS-modem (presumably a netlocked Huawei E160) bundled with their SIM card.

[futaris]

Even cheaper than the post-paid O2 Active Data Rate, of € 25/month @ http://www.o2online.de/nw/active/lap...rif/index.html

[inquisitor]

Yes, in general prepaid tariffs - no matter if data or voice - are cheaper in Germany than postpaid ones. The only reason why postpaid still makes sense is, that you get subsidized hardware and some online retailers even pay out a part of their borkarage. I, for instance, do have an o2 active data tariff including flatrate a a discounted rate of € 20/month, for which I was additionally given a Huawei E169 USB-modem for free and € 300 in cash when signing the 2-years-contract.

back to topic: It's still unclear if Tchibo's data tariff will be available for all SIM cards or if it will be limited to the one sold with their USB-modem.

[TheMadBrewer]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

back to topic: It's still unclear if Tchibo's data tariff will be available for all SIM cards or if it will be limited to the one sold with their USB-modem.

Will one be able to turn it on and off on a month to month basis?

I get to Germany about 3 times a year -- for less than a month but €20 is less than I usually end up paying for internet access.

I guess the other question is it by calendar month (e.g. Jan 1 thru Jan 31) or if you activated it on Jan 15 it would be good until Feb 15 (depending on whether 30 or 31 days in a "month")

I guess I could go read the website, but I'm lazy and reading contracts in German is generally beyond my skill level -- I'm more at the "noch ein Bier" level

[inquisitor]

I'm sure they'll bill by (30) days, not by calendar month and you'll also be able to activate and deactivate the flatrate whenever you want. But except for the rare information in Tchibo's press release there are still no details available - Tchibo don't even mention the new data tariffs on their website yet. I will give you an update, as soon as details come up.

[TheMadBrewer]

An update on Tchibo:

They told me that you could not purchase then SIM alone, but only the €49.95 package with modem and SIM.

My brother bought one and had no problem using it on his PC.

I was also able to use the modem in my Mac with no problem (concerns about Mac was why I didn't buy one -- its hard to get technical questions answered by the person pouring you a coffee )

I was able to put the Tchibo SIM in my Sierra Wireless modek (875U I think) with no problem.

We tried putting my Vodafone CallYa SIM in the Tchibo modem and it almost worked -- we didn't have all the settings set right but it didn't reject the SIM and we appeared to register on the Vodafone network. Could the modem be unlocked? Seems unlikely but who knows. I don't have much experience with 3G modems -- when I put a "foreign" SIM in a locked phone it has always immediately rejected it.

[kctopitz]

Info is now available on the Tchibo website.

Tchibo USB Stick with Prepaid SIM Card

What's unclear is whether the "first month free" promotion still applies. It says it expired January 31, 2009, but they haven't removed it yet - so maybe it's still available.

[kctopitz]

MadBrewer - can you give us any info on the brand/model of the USB stick you received?

[snaimon]

Sorry, already sold out.

[TheMadBrewer]

Originally Posted by kctopitz

MadBrewer - can you give us any info on the brand/model of the USB stick you received?

I am traveling and don't have it with me, but I am pretty sure it was Huwawei -- it looked just like the picture on the web page you posted.