Ortel Germany SIM card

Ortel Mobile offers a cheap prepaid service for travellers visiting Germany.

Recent changes to German law mean that you must activate your SIM card yourself. You can do this prior to leaving Australia, however you do need to supply a German address and are required to show your passport over a video chat with Ortel's representatives in Germany. This means that you need a good internet connection and a computer or tablet with a webcam to activate your mobile service. Your German phone number is printed on the SIM card package.

Note: the Ortel activation system only accepts Australian passports issued after 2014 and you will need a data connection fast enough to support a two-way video chat.

Call charges

The Ortel Mobile SIM card offers:

• Prepaid SIM card with a German mobile phone number. It's a prepaid SIM so there is no contract or credit check required.
• Call within Germany for only €0.09 per minute (plus a €0.09 flagfall/connection fee)
• Cheap international calls (€0.05 to landlines in Australia and €0.19 to mobile phones in Australia plus a €0.15 flagfall/connection fee)
• Free incoming calls regardless of where the call originates (even when roaming in most European countries)
• SIM will be activated for you and ready to go when you add credit

Does not include credit, but you can now top up easily online

Call charges

Calls to phones in Germany cost €0.09 per minute (landline and mobile phones) plus a €0.09 flagfall/call connection fee.

It costs €0.15 to send a text message within Germany.

Monthly packages

Ortel offers several monthly packages that give you a 30-day bundle of calls and data (while using your phone in Germany). This is an optional extra as it is not necessary to choose a monthly package and many people find the best option option is to simply stay on the standard pay as you go tariff and add a data bundle. However these packages are a good deal if you have friends of family in Germany (or other European countries) that you need to make frequent calls to.

These monthly packages are:

Smart World S

• 180 minutes of calls to phones in Germany and 50 other countries (does not include calls to Australia)
• 750MB high speed data access (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are not available with this option), you can add an additional 750MB for €3

The Smart World S package costs €9.99 for 28 days service. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTWORLDS to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 750MB data for €3 by texting STARTSPEEDWORLDS to 55300.

Smart World L

• 300 minutes of calls to phones in Germany and 50 other countries (does not include calls to Australia)
• 3GB high speed data access (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are not available with this option), you can add an additional 3GB for €9

The Smart World S package costs €19.99 for 28 days service. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTWORLDL to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 3GB data for €9 by texting STARTSPEEDWORLDL to 55300.

Smart World XL

• 1000 minutes of calls to phones in Germany and 50 other countries (does not include calls to Australia)
• 5GB high speed data access (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are not available with this option), you can add an additional 5GB for €15

The Smart World S package costs €29.99 for 28 days service. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTWORLDXL to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 5GB data for €15 by texting STARTSPEEDWORLDXL to 55300.

International call charges

Ortel Mobile has very cheap international calls (in many cases international calls are even cheaper than calls within Germany) when using your SIM card in Germany. Please note: international calls to countries outside the European Union are more expensive when using this SIM card outside Germany.

The above calls are subject to a €0.15 call connection fee (flagfall).

It costs €0.15 to send a text message to a mobile phone outside Germany.

Topping up your Ortel Mobile German SIM card

You can buy top-up vouchers in denominations of €5, €10 and €20 at thousands of convenience stores, service stations and newstands throughout Germany. You may also top up using top up vouchers for either the e-plus or Ortel network.

You can also top up online at www.prelado.de and www.ding.com. If you choose to register your SIM online at the Ortelmobile.de website, you may also top up directly with Ortel using PayPal. Most people find that using ding.com is the easiest option.

Is data available with this SIM card?

Data is available with this SIM card. You will need to either activate a monthly package with inclusive data or add one of the following Internet Flat packages to your mobile service:

Internet Flat 1 GB

1GB data access on the German e-plus and O2 networks (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are available with this option). After you have used your 1GB high-speed data allowance you will have unlimited data at much slower GPRS speeds. You can use this data allowance when roaming in other European Union countries provided you first use it in Germany.

The Ortel Internet Flat 1GB package costs €9.90 for 30 days. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTDATA1000 to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 1GB data for €6 by texting STARTSPEED1GB to 55300.

Internet Flat 3 GB

3GB data access on the German e-plus and O2 networks (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are available with this option). You can use this data allowance when roaming in other European Union countries provided you first use it in Germany.

The Ortel Internet Flat 3GB package costs €14.90 for 30 days. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTDATA3000 to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 3GB data for €9 by texting STARTSPEED3GB to 55300.

Internet Flat 5 GB

5GB data access on the German e-plus and O2 networks (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are available with this option). You can use this data allowance when roaming in other European Union countries provided you first use it in Germany.

The Ortel Internet Flat 5GB package costs €19.90 for 30 days. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTDATA5000 to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 5GB data for €15 by texting STARTSPEED5GB to 55300.

To cancel any of these features simply call 1155.

Internet Flat 10 GB

10GB data access on the German e-plus and O2 networks (VoIP services including Skype and Viber are available with this option). You can use this data allowance when roaming in other European Union countries provided you first use it in Germany.

The Ortel Internet Flat 10GB package costs €29.99 for 30 days. Payment for this is taken from your prepaid account balance. Add this feature by texting STARTDATA10000 to 55300. If you have this package, you can add an additional 10GB data for €25 by texting STARTSPEED10GB to 55300.

To cancel any of these features simply call 1155.

Roaming in other European countries with the Ortel German SIM card

Like other European SIM cards, you can roam in other European Union countries relatively cheaply. However other European SIM cards offer better European roaming deals than Ortel so this SIM card is best if you are primarily visiting Germany and only making short side trips to neighbouring countries.

When visiting other countries in the European Union, it is free to receive a call and you are able to use the call/data allowance of any of the Smart World call/data packages and the Internet Flat data packages.

Update about recent changes to the Ortel service

There have been a few issues with Ortel's service during 2015 and 2016 that prompted us to stop selling this SIM card, however it appears that these issues have been mostly resolved.

Ortel used to offer an EU roaming package (called the Cross package), which included a bundle of calls and data for use when travelling in Europe. We have had very mixed feedback from customers regarding this package and it was somewhat unreliable, particularly when it came time to add additional data. At the time Ortel's European roaming rates were much higher, but now Ortel have dropped their standard European roaming rates and no longer offer the Cross package. At this stage feedback about roaming on Ortel (without the Cross package) has been pretty good, however there are cheaper options available on other European networks for extended use outside Germany.

Ortel is part of the e-plus network. E-plus used to be the smallest of Germany's four big networks, but recently has merged with O2 making it the largest network. However the merger between the two networks has not been particularly smooth and during this process Ortel's billing and customer support systems moved from e-plus to O2 and during the transition period there were some inconsistencies with customer service and some credit top ups were not processed properly. Although the worst upsets are over, the e-plus/O2 networks are still in a transition period. At this stage you still top up with e-plus top up vouchers, although at some stage you will need to buy O2 top up vouchers instead. Also to get full data coverage on both the e-plus and O2 networks you will need to switch on data roaming on your phone.