The best mobile phone contracts at a glance: top tariffs in January 2023

It is not easy to find the best one among the countless mobile phone contracts – GIGA will help you with your search. From all available offers we have filtered the tariffs with the best value for money. The highlight tariffs can be found in this article.

In addition to the offers from the network operators Telekom, Vodafone and o2, there are a number of third-party providers who use the existing networks but offer their own tariffs under their own brand – often at significantly lower prices. In addition, there are discounter brands from the network providers themselves, each with their own offers – it is almost impossible to keep track of them all. That’s why GIGA takes on this task: Week after week we look at a large part of all tariffs available on the market and determine which of these offers offer the best value for money. The five highlight tariffs of the current week are in the first table, you can find a number of other good offers further down in the article.

These are the current highlight tariffs

What distinguishes a good mobile phone contract?

There are a number of factors that characterize a good cell phone contract:

• Network: Depending on where you live, the network is the most important criterion when choosing a contract – because the cheapest offer is useless if the signal doesn’t reach your own home. Outside the cities, the Telekom network is often the strongest, followed by Vodafone and Telefónica (o2). But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, in some areas another network operator has the edge. Find out from neighbors, friends and relatives who live nearby which networks they have had the best experiences with.
• Data volume: The more, the better – the rule of thumb applies especially if you are tied to one provider for a long time. If the data volume is used up in a month, almost all providers reduce the Internet speed to an almost unusable speed.
• Speed: In megabits per second (MBit/s), the providers indicate how fast downloads and uploads are possible in the best case. Here, too, a higher value is better, but unlimited maximum speeds are almost only available in the contracts of the network operators themselves. The good news: LTE speeds from 21.6 Mbit/s are also sufficient for almost all applications, from WhatsApp to videos -Streaming.
• Contract term: Classically, there are mobile phone tariffs in the contract with a minimum term of two years, after which you can cancel monthly. However, more and more providers are now also offering monthly or even daily terminable tariffs, which offer much more flexibility. Often the only disadvantage is a higher (one-time) connection price.
• Data automatic: The data automatic expands the monthly data volume according to consumption by a few hundred megabytes – albeit at very expensive prices. Better: Book more data volume right away and deactivate a data automatic included in the contract immediately after signing the contract
• LTE & 5G: Fortunately, tariffs without LTE are now the exception and should not be booked under any circumstances. The situation is different with 5G, which is currently only available in tariffs from the network operators themselves. Anyone who already owns a 5G smartphone and lives in a place where 5G is already available must sign a contract directly with Telekom, Vodafone or o2. However, 5G is currently not necessary.

Overview: Other top tariffs under 30 euros

In addition to the above-mentioned highlight tariffs, the following offers are currently also worth a look. All mobile phone contracts shown are Allnet flat rates, which allow unlimited calling and sending of SMS in all networks. Also LTE is standard in all tariffs. Data volume, download speed and contract period can be found directly in the table.

Keep phone number when changing contract: Here’s how

Every mobile phone provider is obliged to release the phone number of its customers upon termination and to transfer it to a new provider – the costs for this are on 6.82 euros capped. The new provider often offers a bonus for the number you bring with you, which covers this sum. You can see how taking the number works in the video.

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