From April this year, zero-rating offers such as Deutsche Telekom's StreamOn or Vodafone passes will finally come to an end in Germany. However, both providers want to give their customers more data volume from April, albeit only once. The Federal Network Agency banned zero rating last year.
Zero rating describes the non-accounting of certain services in the mobile network, which therefore do not reduce the included data volume. At Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, there have been various StreamOn and Pass variants for this, which included music and/or video streaming, gaming and social media. Especially with intensive streaming of music and video, the zero-rating offers could be of great advantage, since several hundred gigabytes can be reached quickly.
No remarketing since July 1, 2022
The final ban on such offers came from the Federal Network Agency last year. Since July 1, 2022, zero-rating offers have no longer been allowed to be remarketed. Existing customers are also affected by the decision, but have been given a longer deadline of March 31 of this year. The Federal Network Agency explained the longer period by saying that this was necessary in view of the large number of existing customers, also to enable a consumer-friendly transition to other tariffs. It can also be expected that the trend towards tariffs with higher data volumes and cheaper mobile flat rates will accelerate, according to the Federal Network Agency in April 2022.
In the summer of 2022, both providers did in fact offer new mobile phone tariffs with more data volume, but for existing customers in the previous tariffs, the providers are only now providing updates on the subject, as explained in the new FAQ.
One-off 90-day flat rate at Telekom
According to this, Telekom is giving its existing StreamOn customers the option of booking a one-time free “data gift” from April 1 to May 31, 2023, which unlocks 90 days of unlimited surfing. The package for unlimited data volume can be booked via the MeinMagenta app or, if WiFi is deactivated, at pass.telekom.de (only there for business customers). The data gift can be activated for all affected phone numbers, including the Family Card. In this case, the data gift must then be activated via the main contractual partner.
Vodafone every month with more data volume
Vodafone says that as a replacement for the passports, additional data volume will be made available every month from April. Further details are to be sent to customers by March 31. “We will inform you by SMS as soon as your pass is no longer valid and your new data volume is available,” explains the provider. The increases depending on the tariff or a potentially limited duration of the campaign are still unknown.
Telefónica and O2 are not affected by the measures because there are no comparable zero-rating packages.