Mobile Carriers in Germany

Germany runs on three networks: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and O2 (Telefónica). Every prepaid card and discount brand you'll find in a supermarket or kiosk is one of those three wearing a different label. Once you know which network a brand sits on, picking one gets a lot simpler.

Telekom (sold abroad as T-Mobile) has the best-regarded network here, especially outside cities and along the country's notoriously patchy rail corridors. Vodafone sits a close second. O2 has improved a lot and is fine in urban areas, but historically lagged on rural and motorway coverage — worth checking if you drive long distances or live in the countryside.

The interesting part is the discounters. congstar runs on Telekom. Aldi Talk and the various supermarket SIMs run on O2. Vodafone has its own value brands too. These are real MVNOs — same towers as the parent network, a fraction of the price, with the trade-off usually being slower data priority when a cell is busy and less hand-holding when something breaks.

Prepaid is the German default

Unlike the UK or US, a huge share of Germans use prepaid, and the discounter SIMs are genuinely good value. You can walk into an Aldi, buy a SIM for a few euros, and be online the same day — though you'll need to verify your identity by passport or video call before activation, a legal requirement here. Budget for that step if you're a newcomer; it trips people up.

Which network to pick

If coverage matters more than price — you commute by train, you live rurally, you travel for work — go Telekom or a Telekom-based discounter like congstar. If you're mostly in a city and want the lowest bill, an O2-based discounter like Aldi Talk is hard to beat. That's the whole decision for most people.

eSIM and the rules

The three networks and most discounters support eSIM on recent phones. Germany's identity-verification law applies to eSIMs exactly as it does to physical SIMs, so you'll do the passport check during setup either way. Number porting is free and now must complete quickly under EU rules, so switching for a better deal carries little friction.

Each carrier page below has verified APN settings, MMS values, and eSIM activation steps for that brand.