There will be a new tariff option for customers of network operator O2 Germany for low-cost international calls from Germany to other countries by cell phone soon. With the “O2 Global Friends” tariff option, O2 Germany customers with an O2o price plan can make mobile phone calls to five friends who are abroad for rates of € 0.15 per minute – that’s just as much as users of an O2o price plan pay for mobile phone calls within Germany. “O2 Global Friends” will be available from upcoming Monday and can be booked with an O2o prepaid or postpaid cell phone plan of O2 Germany. There is no monthly fee for this international calling service, but a one-time set-up fee of € 5.00.

O2 customers with “O2 Global Friends” tariff options can select five phone numbers of family members, friends or acquaintances from among 60 different countries (mainly European countries, but also Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Iraq, South Africa, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Macao and others). Two of these friends’ number may be mobile phone numbers, the others must be home phone numbers.

“O2 Global Friends” is an international calling service built on the IP communications platform of Telefonica O2 subsidiary Jajah. Calling friends over the Jajah service works differently than usual mobile phone calls: “O2 Global Friends” will send the user local numbers by SMS for all five of them, which he or she can call anytime. For example, instead of dialing +44 20 … when calling somebody in London, the “O2 Global Friends” user dials 1001 or the like.

Using “O2 Global Friends” with an O2o price plan

The O2 o price plan comes with rates of € 0.15 for every calling minute and text message sent within Germany and of € 0.09 for every on-line minute when accessing the Internet via GPRS or UMTS over the O2 Germany mobile network. This price plan also offers a monthly cost limit for standard calls and SMS within Germany of € 50.00. When the O2o subscriber has reached the € 50.00 cost limit, he or she can make mobile phone calls and send SMS without being charged any further for these services. The good thing about “O2 Global Friends for O2o”: Mobile phone calls from Germany to the five selected friends’ mobiles or landlines via the Jajah international calling service fall under this cost limit category, too.

There are prepaid price plans in the German market that offer international mobile phone calls from Germany to other countries at lower rates than O2o with “O2 Global Friends”. However, none of these other plans does offer such low rates for calls to exotic destinations or a monthly cost limit for certain international calls.

Overviews of current cell phone plans in Germany:
Prepaid Price Plans with Single Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls
Prepaid Price Plans with Community Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls
Prepaid Price Plans with Flat Rate Tariff for Mobile Phone Calls
Prepaid Price Plans for International Mobile Phone Calls