Cell Phone Numbers In Germany

In Germany mobile numbers begin with 01 and with 05 for the land line numbers and there are four main phone standards D1, D2, E2, and e-plus (all are GSM). That’s easier for an US citizen to handle this, having in mind that in the US are so many different terms that refers to all wireless communication.

If you travel from US to Germany you can choose the following solutions for using a cell phone. Call an English speaking operator to activate your American phone card at the following numbers: Canada Direct: 0130-0014; MCI Direct: 0130-0012; US Sprint: 0130-0013; AT&T Direct: 0130-0010 (operator); 0130-0011 (phone cards); 0130-850 058 (customer assistance).

Another solution is to rent a GSM cell phone during your trip from the companies that offer this kind of service. The bad thing about this is that the charges per minute are higher. Then you should consider buying a multi band GSM cell phone that can function several GSM systems across Europe.  It is better to buy a GSM prepaid cell phone in Germany that include call time, you can find offers that include even international free call time.

In Germany you can pick from plans of the following GSM operators D1 Telekom (Germany, GSM 900), D2 Mannesmann (Germany), E plus (Germany, GSM 1800), T-Mobil (GSM900/1800, Germany), Viag Interkom (Germany, GSM 1800), T-Mobil (D1, www.t-mobile.de ): operated by the former state monopoly Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone (D2, www.vodafone.de ):Vodafone is trying to expand its market share by taking over its competitors, one of this was D2 network – Mannesmann.

E-Plus ( www.eplus.de ) it is targeted to people that use their telephone rarely offering lower prices than its competitors.  D-Net. O2 ( www.o2online.de ) has a better coverage than the E-Net. Who is offering a unique ‘home zone’ plan which allows you to call on fixed-line-tariffs when you’re in an area of about 500 meters around your home.  When you want a single phone number, not on a fixed line O2’s Genion has attractive options that are a slightly higher than the one of landlines phones.

Common phone operator messages and their translation in German:
Please try again later = Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal =
This number has been changed = Diese Rufnummer hat sich geändert
This number is temporarily unobtainable = Dieser Anschluss ist vorübergehend nicht erreichbar
Please wait, you will be connected shortly = Bitte warten Sie, sie werden in Kürze verbunden
This number is unavailable = Kein Anschluss unter dieser Nummeros

In Germany you may find the following styles for writing a number. Just replace all those 0 with real numbers if you find one: The important thing to remember is that this are some ways to write a phone number. Every person has its style, just remember to identify the country code, the area code and that phone numbers in Germany have 10 to 11 digits and older numbers can be shorter.
•    +49 – 00 – 000 00 – 00 •    +49 (00) 000 00 – 00 •    0049 (0) 00 000 00 – 00 •    (089) 000 00 – 00 •    089 / 000 00 – 00•    089 000 00 00