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Comment by lonesword | Hacker News Reader

I recently moved to Germany. I used to work as a software dev in India before this. I was horrified to learn that (urban) India has way better internet than Germany. When it comes to mobile data it's even more depressing - back in India I used to get 1.5GB _daily_ 4G mobile data for 200 rupees (around 2.5 euros) a _month_. Even after adjusting for purchasing power, 2.5 euros a month for virtually unlimited mobile data is super cheap. In comparison, I pay 10 euros a month for a _monthly_ quota of 1.5 GB with O2 here in Germany. Not to mention that it's slower, and yes, there are a lot of patches with no data reception. Considering that Germany has otherwise superb infrastructure, the internet was a let down.

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Are you aware of https://freenet-funk.de/ ? That's basically one GB per day for 99ct, no contract, only available per app, though no roaming, and no tethering, only for mobile devices, and using Telefonica/O². They got some bad press recently for kicking some users which overused it, and accusations of retroactively changing their terms of use. https://www.golem.de/news/funk-unlimited-freenet-kuendigt-ku... https://www.computerbase.de/2019-07/freenet-funk-datenverbra... https://www.computerbase.de/2019-07/freenet-funk-datenverbra... Anyways, maybe it fits your use case?

Sorry, mispaste. The fourth link should have been https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missbraeuchliche-Nut...

actually they do not prohibit tethering just using the simcard in a 4G router for home wifi (to prevent users from using it as a replacement for crappy DSL). Tethering from the phone should be fine.

Why would you prevent sharing it when you're already double dipping by introducing a datacap?

For what it's worth, on O2 there are a ton of better deals than that. Just checked winsim.de for example, 3GB for 8€, 6GB for 13€ a month with no minimum runtime. If you're a power user, Freenet Funk offers unlimited data at 1€/day used (so around 30€/month tops). Don't get me wrong, the situation here is still embarrassing, I just wanted to provide some pointers.

Post Jio, India has one of the cheapest data rates in the world. Sometimes when you go elsewhere, one tends to accidentally turn on data and use it the same way as in India, and I have been bitten like this once. Luckily it was prepaid, so the damage was contained.

I also roam in Germany. I would like to point out that this. situation with speed depends on the city where you are at. Munich has much better coverage than Berlin for some reason. Pricing is the same obviously.

If you have friends in EU countries consider getting a foreign phone contract through them. I'm in DE with an FR contract, 4 euros for 40gb a months and I can connect to any carriers. It's still slow as hell though.

You're getting ripped off on O2 or Vodafone. Get an Ay Yildiz Prepaid card, 25 Euros for 12GB and there's an option to top up of you run out. It's an EPlus MVNO, speeds are pretty good on 3G (~8Mbps).

Coverage is pretty bad on anything that isn't D1 or Vodafone. O2 has okay coverage in cities, but anywhere else it's mediocre to bad.

I used it in Recklinghausen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Koln, so yeah, within the cities. You're right, on the motorways the speed was sometimes atrocious, less than 1Mbps

E-Plus does not exist anymore, it was bought by o2.

Oh damn, didn't know that!

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