A guide to life after Telekom.
Beginning this month, Deutsche Telekom is cutting the cost of phoning - by up to 59 percent for domestic and international calls. So, should we give three cheers for the company that for so many years has been the quintessence of German inflexibility, poor customer service and exorbitant prices? Well, maybe half a cheer. Telekom has been forced to take such uncharacteristically dynamic action because of the arrival of competition on Germany's telecommunications market as of January 1, 1998. Customers may welcome Telekom's price cuts, but they are unlikely to be eternally grateful to the former monopoly, still 61 percent owned by the government. "If they can cut prices now, why didn't they do so before?" questioned a disgruntled customer. Until this year, the only private-consumer competition Telekom faced was for overseas calls: first from carriers such as AT&T, then from various callback services (which require you to call a number in the U.S., wait to be called back, and then dial the number you want), and from increased competition for international calls from companies such as First Telecom, which, at one stroke, halved my phone bill on calls to Britain. Now Germany's domestic telecommunications market has been blown wide open. Numerous companies have already set up in competition to Telekom, offering calls at rates that are often lower, with many more planning to enter the market later this year. As a result of the increased competition, phone customers face a new problem. Should they continue to useDeutsche Telekom or one of the new companies? The simple answer to this question is that there is no simple answer. Your best choice of phone services depends on your phoning habits: whether you make a lot of domestic long-distance or overseas calls, and when you call. Complicating things even further is the bewildering array of phone tariffs that are not easy to compare. Each company uses time zones, area zones and time units, which do not correspond to those of Telekom, either. (Charges per second are the most favorable, because you pay for precisely the time you phone.) Some companies require you to spend a minimum amount each month, or to transfer money to a phone account in advance. It is therefore essential to compare precise terms and conditions of the various companies, as well as their prices. Some of the major companies are listed in the table; call their information number for details and price structure. Amid all the confusion, you have 4 basic options: 1. Do nothing at all and continue to use Deutsche Telekom for all your calls. This is unlikely to be the cheapest option, although Telekom's most recent price cuts have been quite significant. 2. Continue to use Deutsche Telekom for your local calls, but decide on a call-by-call basis which phone company to use for other calls. You can use as many companies as you want. To use any particular company, you dial their access number (a five figure number beginning 010), before dialing the number of the person you want to speak to. Most phone companies require you to register with them first before you can use their call-by-call service. 3. "Pre-select" just one phone company for your long distance calls. Whenever you dial a number with an area code - e.g. if you live in Munich, that would be any number that does not have the (089) code -you will then automatically be connected with the company you have selected. You can still, however, use other carriers on a call-by-call basis; locals calls continue to go through Telekom. 4. Leave Deutsche Telekom completely and join another phone company as your main carrier. This is not yet practicable in Munich, as no other company offers local calls. A number of basic points are worth remembering. Whichever option you use, you can retain both your existing phone number and your existing telephone. You can also call, and be called by every other user in Germany, regardless of which company you or they use. In recent weeks, there has been much furor about Deutsche Telekom's plans to charge consumers for using other phone companies, either DM 95 for pre-selecting a phone company or DM 53 for allowing call-by-call service. These charges have not yet been approved by the regulatory authorities. Telekom also plans to charge other phone companies DM 28.80 a month, as it will continue to provide the phone hook up to your home. This cost will probably be passed on in part or in full to the customer. When it comes time to pay the bill for phone service, another choice awaits you. You can receive just one phone bill from your main carrier (normally Telekom), which will list all the calls you have made via other companies. Or, you can choose to have a separate bill from each company you use. The Bavarian Consumers' Association publication called "Telefonmarkt" (in German) outlines phone options. It is available for DM 7 from the Verbraucherzentrale Bayern e.V., Mozartstraße 9, 80336 München, tel. 539 87-0; fax 53 75 53.