Germany | Fonic's data dayflat (€ 2.50/day) now with price cap of € 25/month
 

Fonic, who are perhaps the most recommended provider (especially for visitors) due to their low international tariffs and widespread availability through retailers (details: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/euro...-visitors.html), have now introduced a price cap of € 25/month for their data dayflat, which has been costing € 2.50/calendar day (00:00-23:59 h). So now after using data for ten days within a month, there won't be any additional charges to your credit for during that certain month.
After exceeding 500MB per day or 5GB per month, bandwidth will be throttled to 64 KBit/s.

Remember that volume-based billing (€ 0.024/100 KB) is activated by default. To switch from volume-based billing to the dayflat tariff call customer care at 80000 (14 ct/min) or send an eMail through their web form (via this web page). Since eMails are not answered earlier than 24 hours, it might be preferable to request tariff switch by phone, which is carried out immdiately. An SMS will confirm activation of the new tariff option.

For more details on Fonic check out http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...ermany+-+Fonic

Thanks for spotting that inquisitor. Still the offer from Tchibo is 5€ cheaper but given their billing increments of 400KB and their higher call rates, now Fonic seems to be a better deal overall.

Also a small notice/amendment about the very useful guide about the activation of the SIM card.

http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...ermany+-+Fonic

I activated a Fonic two weeks ago and on the Step 5, a Passport Number and the Nationality are not needed anymore. They ask only for the date of birth and an email address.

Sure Tchibo is cheaper if you go online for more than 8 days per month, but Fonic is cheaper if you use data for 7 days or less. Nevertheless some people may prefer Fonic even when used for more than 8 days due to the more widespread availability through retailers, the low voice and SMS rates (especially the international ones) and the fact you need to maintain only one SIM during your stay in Germany and so less unused credit is likely to remain after leaving Germany.

As of the registration procedure, I amended step 5. Btw anyone can edit that page, as all the others on the "prepaid wireless internet access wiki".

Yes, Fonic seems to be more favorable option for short stays in Germany.

And thanks for the info about the wiki page :)

Two recent developments on Fonic mobile:

1. They've introduced a third data tariff, particularly suitable for mobile handsets, the "mobile internet pack" with included data volume of 200MB for 9.95€/month.

To activate the data plan send an SMS with the text START HANDYINTERNET to 36642. To deactivate it, send the text STOP HANDYINTERNET again to 36642. With both activation/deactivation you will receive an SMS confirmation.

The 9.95€ are taken automatically off your remaining credit in the beginning of each calendar month (except if there is insufficient credit). Also, after exceeding the 200MB per month, bandwidth will be throttled to GPRS speed.


2. They have started offering number portability. On top of that, all new subscribers that will port their numbers from their old provider to Fonic, they will get 1 month free calls to all German networks.

More info (in German) here:

FONIC -- Das ist die Wahrheit.

FONIC -- Fragen zu "Mein Fonic Vertrag"

The other thing about Fonic is that their advertised cheap calling rates to most of the Europes landlines does not seem to work everywhere.

They promised to fix this, but already over a month it does not work as it should...

Internet seems to be working fine, except some areas and evenings, when I believe due to the number of users it gets slower....

And the remark I am not used to that refilling if You have run empty, after the working hours takes a lot of time to activate...

I wonder why does that is not happening automatically....

Do you know for which countries it doesn't work? I'm calling landlines in many countries (UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Italy to name a few) and it always charges the advertised rate, i.e., 9c/min.

That's a common effect on a shared medium. Anyway, from my experience bandwidth has improved on the German O2 network on average during the past year, as O2 have intensively optimized their network by installing and upgrading 8000 base stations from Huawei.

I don't understand what your problem is exactly. Do you mean it takes some time after redeeming a top up voucher until it's credited?

My particular concern is Latvia, however I tried neighbouring countries and it worked as it should.

When You dial the landline the operator says that: Die von Ihnen gewaelte Laendervorwahl is aus dem Automobilfunknetz nicht erreichbar.

And the reply from the operator help desk was the following:
-------------------------------------------------------
From: FONIC Kundenbetreuung [mailto:Serxx@xxnic.de]
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 12:46 AM
To: jxxxxxxxxxxom
Subject: Re: Produkt #1004- 341958#

Sehr geehrter Herr xxxxx,

vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage bei FONIC.

Es gibt zur Zeit Probleme aus dem O2-Netz in das ausländische Festnetz zu telefonieren, diese betrifft mehrere Länder. Die Techniker von O2 arbeiten daran den Fehler schnellstmöglich zu beheben.
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So there has been no changes yet, and it affects the whole O2 network as the same thing is happening when I am calling out on my postpaid mobile connected to O2.

NO doubt about the improvement as the shop assistants tried to convince to choose other providers, however I have not experienced any problems with the connection so far.


The problem about the refilling is that my time for next internet charge usually ends about 1900 in the evening. One time I forgot to refill it timely and it just ran out. I went to shop to buy a credit and using the sticks built in mobile partner option made a recharge slightly later. But I could not connect to the internet that day anymore by no means.
This makes my assumption that it does not happen automatically.

I never experienced that with Fonic. The money made it to my account right after I entered the top-up code(s).

That's strange since Fonic charges internet access by calendar day (from 00:00-23:59h) no matter when you actually start using data. But they throttle bandwidth after exceeding 1GB per day - perhaps they have an issue with this, which resulted in total disruption of data service. Did you generate a lot of traffic when you experienced this problem?

No, I generate around 500mb a day.

It's not 1GB anymore, it is reduced to 500MB/day after they introduced their new data plan with the price cap of 25€/month.

Perhaps this is where your issue comes from. You generate 500MB/day, i.e., close to their data cap, and they probably have a problem throttling that to GPRS speeds.

May be, but anyway as I said I ran out of credit and when the new day starts, the traffic flow - defaults. The cutoff came right after the time I usually get the SMS that my credit falls below 3 EUR.
The idea was that I was not able to connect for quite a time after refilling.

hi, I'm an oversea visitor to Germany and have bought a FONIC SIM card from Media Market. I followed the instructions in your site to activate the SIM card (very helpful page btw since I can't read german) and it appears the SIM card is now activated.

I've put the micro-SIM into my iPad and while the iPad detects it, it can't use it. I went online to FONIC site, log in and saw that my current balance is EU0? I thought I've EU10 or EU9 to start with? I bought the FONIC smartphone SIM for EU9.90.

Also when I log into FONIC site, I can't seem to see the button to switch from a per-MB Tariff Rate to the Handy Daily Rate?

does the FONIC card come with some starting balance or do I have to top it up from day one in order to use it? Help much appreciated.