Free Advice about Berlin

Advice about Berlin

The former resources for a Berlin based Facebook group

A Facebook group I used to be an administrator for was run with a simple democratic approach. A rogue admin tricked us into allowing another admin to join our group, and just after we realised what had occurred, myself and the other elected admin were unexpectedly removed without any consultation with the rest of the administration/moderation team. All group moderators chose to leave within hours of this occurring.

This website is a collection of the resources we had created for the group. I am keeping them here in case they are useful to others. If the data becomes significantly out of date, then I will remove the website.

The original groups website content, used a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and it's website design used GPL license version 2.0.

Note: You may have been redirected here from the original groups domain name. I do not control that domain. The owner of that domain is also no longer involved with the original Facebook group.

Phone and internet

Last updated: 28th of March 2016

Home Internet

General rule of thumb: DSL can result in seriously long delays in connection (ie: many months), and you may have to pay during that time. You may also need to take time off work to get it connected. This problem is caused by a monopoly over DSL lines by a company called Telekom. Most of the internet providers in Berlin service over DSL.

Searching through the Free Advice Berlin archives will provide a lot of information and reviews on various internet service providers.

Cable providers are much more reliable when it comes to connecting people as they aren’t reliant on Telekom to do the connections. They typically have a faster download speed, but slower upload speed. They service less properties than the ADSL lines do. Kabel Deutschland and Telecolumbus are the two biggest cable providers in Berlin.

Other options are more expensive and/or slow. So you are mostly stuck with cable or DSL.

Sim cards – this section is under development

One of the scariest contract for me is the phone and internet contracts. It is like dealing with poision which you also inhale every day. Be careful before you take any contract, be sure how and when to cancel the contract. Often phone comapanies also over charge you specially when you took it in a offer and they are charing you a regular price. Be aware of that and upon immediate reaction you may get your money credited to your account for the next months. And for Wlan you will always have to wait for the telephone company to connect and send router for 3-4 weeks on avarage. so good luck!few popular names for budget planing areO2 Junge leute (for students)Kabel Deutschland (not available in every area- seller may try to provide you voda phone instead, dont take it!)Blauworld (good for international and roaming calls)

Alditalk (good for prepaid internet and calls) Ortel. 5 GB for 15 eurofor internet you can read the following text:http://www.settle-in-berlin.com/internet-in-germany-providers/ the following points you should keep in mind,

1. your location may not have good connection with every service provider

2. chack the student offers if you are a student

3. double cancellation policy and check which other companies your neighbors are using

4. don’t transfer or share your connection unless you understand the consequences. for example, router is give at times for free but end of the contract if you don’t return that the company can charge you a fortune!

5. donwnload related laws must be checked!

For phone contract/prepaid 

read this post might be helpful http://www.settle-in-berlin.com/mobile-phone-germany-providers/

you should keep in mind the following for contract

1. be 200% sure before getting a long term contract

2. there are often 30 days cancellation kind of contract too worth checking

3. check the policies very carefully before you sign

For prepaid you should keep in mind,

1. if you are a frequent traveller what are the ways to activate calls outside of Germany

2. how are the current rates

3. how steady the phone network is. might be the cheapest but not the best in need!

4. where to by the recharge cards close to your location

5. how to activate the sim

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