Phone Providers

To stay connected with your family and friends back home after arriving in Germany (from outside the EU roaming area), you might be interested in getting a German mobile phone contract. As in other areas, there are multiple providers where you can find a suitable contract. Most of your colleagues opt for either O2 or AldiTalk.

💭 Some of the providers require you to have a residence permit before signing a phone contract.

💭 Very easy to sign up, works with eSIM (no physical chip needed, no visit to the store, no waiting).

💭 I first got a Vodafone SIM card at the airport when I first landed in Germany which was fine. It was a very expensive plan (20 euros for 7 GB), but it was very quick to set up and they just needed a copy of the passport.

💭 I think I was able to register beforehand, but they still had to mail me the sim in Germany, so in practice you won't be able to use it from day one. But the whole process was relatively painless.

💭 Telekom prepaid phone works well within Germany and for international roaming