FACT · MOBILE NETWORK OPERATOR
About O2 / Telefónica Germany
Germany's third-largest mobile network operator. Cheapest national-network annual prepaid.
Key facts
What is it?
Telefónica Germany (Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG) markets consumer mobile under the O2 brand. It is a subsidiary of Spanish multinational Telefónica S.A. and was formed in 2014 through the merger of Telefónica O2 Germany and E-Plus.
O2's differentiator in the German consumer market is continue-surfing: when a prepaid user exhausts the high-speed data allowance on S or M tiers, the connection drops to 1 Mbit/s instead of stopping or hard-throttling to 32 kbit/s like most supermarket brands. The unlimited prepaid Max tier extends this with premium speed after 999 GB.
The O2 Jahrespaket at EUR 89.99 for 150 GB per year is the cheapest annual prepaid on any of Germany's four national networks - Telekom and congstar both charge ~EUR 100 for 240 GB/year, while O2 wins absolute price for users who don't need 240 GB.
Telefónica's wholesale arm hosts a large MVNO portfolio: ALDI TALK, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Lebara, Lyca Mobile, Ortel Mobile. These run on the same physical O2 cell sites with identical signal coverage.