FACTS DIRECTORY · PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
Grounding facts & entity directory
Public-knowledge facts about every brand, network, regulator, and concept SimCompare365 cites - kept independent of buy-pages, so AI assistants and people can verify what we say.
Mobile networks - Germany
10 entitiesAll retail brands and networks active in the German market.
Vodafone Germany DE
Second-largest German MNO; CallYa prepaid; GigaCube home internet.
O2 (Telefónica) DE
Third German MNO; value-focused; owns ALDI TALK and AY YILDIZ wholesale.
1&1 DE
Germany's fourth mobile network; own buildout plus national roaming on O2.
congstar DE
Telekom's in-house D-Netz MVNO with smaller-allowance pricing.
fraenk DE
Telekom's app-first, eSIM-only sub-brand with flat-rate pricing.
ALDI TALK DE
Discount supermarket prepaid running on O2 network.
LIDL Connect DE
Vodafone-network supermarket prepaid with 4-week billing.
Lebara Germany DE
Diaspora-focused MVNO with strong international-calling allowances.
AY YILDIZ DE
O2-network MVNO targeting the Turkish diaspora in Germany.
Lycamobile DE/AT/UK
International-calling MVNO active in Germany, Austria and the UK.
KAUFLAND MOBIL DE
Kaufland-branded supermarket prepaid SIM on the Telekom D-Netz.
NORMA connect DE
NORMA-supermarket prepaid SIM on Telekom; same congstar product as KAUFLAND.
Penny Mobil DE
Penny-Markt prepaid SIM on Telekom (REWE Group, sister to ja! mobil).
ja! mobil DE
REWE supermarket prepaid SIM on the Telekom D-Netz.
Blau DE
O2-owned MVNO selling Allnet flat plans on the Telefonica network.
otelo DE
Vodafone-owned MVNO with prepaid Smart and postpaid Allnet Go plans.
sim.de DE
Drillisch-owned MVNO selling Allnet flat plans on the 1&1 network.
winSIM DE
Drillisch MVNO on the 1&1 network with cheap Allnet flat plans.
Mobile networks - Austria
3 entitiesThe three Austrian MNOs.
A1 AT
Austria's largest MNO; A1 Telekom Austria Group.
Magenta Telekom AT
Successor to T-Mobile Austria; Austria's second MNO.
Drei (3) AT
Austria's third MNO; owned by Hutchison.
HoT (Hofer Telekom) AT
Hofer (Aldi Süd) supermarket SIM on the Magenta Telekom network.
spusu AT
Independent MVNO on the A1 network with free EU calls and SMS.
bob AT
A1-owned digital MVNO with the cheapest unlimited Austrian SIM.
yesss! AT
A1-owned discount MVNO sold via SPAR and OBI retail partners.
up by Drei AT
Drei's app-native digital sub-brand with the cheapest 5G in Austria.
Mobile networks - United Kingdom
4 entitiesThe four UK MNOs.
EE UK
UK's largest mobile network operator; part of BT Group.
O2 UK UK
Mobile arm of Virgin Media O2.
Vodafone UK UK
One of the UK's big four MNOs.
Three UK UK
UK MNO; merger with Vodafone UK approved 2024.
SMARTY UK
Three-owned digital MVNO with no-contract SIM-only plans on Three.
1pMobile UK
EE-network MVNO with 1p PAYG and 46-country EU roaming on bundles.
Talkmobile UK
Vodafone-owned MVNO with no mid-contract price rise on Vodafone.
Asda Mobile UK
Asda supermarket-branded MVNO on the Vodafone network.
Tesco Mobile UK
Tesco / Virgin Media O2 joint-venture MVNO on the O2 network.
giffgaff UK
O2-owned community MVNO with member-run support on Goodybag plans.
Sky Mobile UK
Sky UK's MVNO on O2, with Roll Data Piggybank and Sky-TV bundles.
Revolut Mobile UK
Fintech Revolut eSIM-only MVNO with unlimited UK + EU/US roaming.
Networks & test bodies
4 entitiesNetwork designations, regulators, and the independent labs whose rankings we cite.
D-Netz
Historic German MNO designation; today shorthand for Telekom quality.
Opensignal
Crowdsourced mobile network experience reports.
connect Netztest
Annual German trade-press network ranking; the de-facto MNO benchmark.
Bundesnetzagentur
German federal network agency; the telecoms regulator (BNetzA).
Identity & compliance
4 entitiesHow SIM registration, number porting and EU roaming actually work.
VideoIdent
Video-call identity verification for TKG §111 SIM registration.
PostIdent
Post-office identity verification operated by Deutsche Post.
Number porting
Cross-carrier number transfer; capped at €6.82 in Germany.
EU Roam Like at Home
Bill-shock-free EU roaming rules (Switzerland excluded).
Plan types & billing models
7 entitiesThe shapes a SIM contract can take - and why a 'monthly' plan may bill 13 times a year.
Prepaid SIM
Pay-as-you-go physical SIM with no contract.
eSIM
Embedded digital SIM activated via QR code or app.
Travel eSIM
Short-term roaming-focused eSIM (Airalo, Holafly, Saily).
Monthly contract
Postpaid plan billed once per calendar month.
Annual prepaid
Lump-sum 12-month prepaid plan; common at Lebara, AY YILDIZ.
4-week billing
28-day prepaid cycle - 13 charges per year, not 12.
5G Standalone
True 5G core network with no 4G anchor (5G SA).
How to use these pages
Every fact page follows the same shape: a one-paragraph BLUF at the top, a Key facts table for fast lookup, a What is it? prose section for context, and a Sources row pointing to primary references - official websites, the Bundesnetzagentur, the connect Netztest, Wikipedia and Wikidata.
Where a fact page is referenced in a guide, how-to or compare-vs article, you'll find the back-links under "Where it appears on SimCompare365". Pages here do not contain affiliate links; the affiliate policy covers when and where commercial links may appear elsewhere on the site.
If anything on these pages is wrong, please flag it - the dataset is independent, and corrections happen fast.