Are there any shops in Germany which offer the Fairphone in a bundle with a contract?
I couldn’t find any so far.
I’d really like to get a Fairphone now, as my old phone just broke down.
But as it seems, it’s too expensive.
And I’m not talking about the 310€ versus 200 € of another smartphone with similar features from
another brand. I’d readily pay the 100-120€ extra because I like the concept, the good cause, the size and the repairability etc…
I had a non-smartphone with non-contract (prepaid) so far, but getting a smartphone makes only sense with a contract to get some Internet-Flatrat included. I can a smartphoen whjic plays roughly in the same league as the Fairphone like a Moto G or a Nokia 630, whcih would both cost around 200€ alone together with a contract for 1€ and 10€ monthly. That makes 241 total for the phone and 2 years conctact with I-net flat and almost enough free minutes/SMS for me.
If I order a contract alone, I will get a similar contract for 8€ /month.
So altogether for a Fairphone + 2 y contract it would be 310 + 24x8= 502 € total
So you see my problem?
It’s not 310 vs 200, it’s 502 vs 241, so that is paying nit hust 110 but 260 € more for the Fairphone than for a Motorola or Nokia Handy with similar features.
And right now hat’s too much for me, as I won’t have a proper job before May next year.
In your situation, I suggest you continue using the prepaid card, and for data you rely on WiFi. Maybe you’ve got one at home, if not, there are plenty of fred WiFi hotspots around, eg at McDonald’s.
One great thing about the Fairphone is that it’s dual SIM. So you could use one prepaid card for your phone, and a second one for occasional data connections (at different rates, and also in a different network if network coverage in you old prepaid network is shitty).
Just FYI, someone told me about a advertisement-based thing called “Netzclub” which apparently is using the Telefonicá (O2 in Germany) network. You can get a free SIM with a limited amount of free data from them, and receive promotional SMS every now and then. I guess there will be more models like that. Would not be a option for me, though.
On the whole, I would agree with @Stefan. However, he is based in Austria according to his profile page, and Austria (especially Vienna) has a lot more free WiFis than any German city. Whenever I travel through Germany I am deeply annoyed about the very marginal number indeed of free WiFis available. It’s a shame, really.
Some notes on open WiFi:
If you’ve got a notebook/laptop/tablet, you could do some wardriving to check the situation near you before buying a smartphone with a contract.
If you happen to be a student living in an University town, you
should look if they are part of Eduroam. If it’s not a campus uni, it
might have WiFi routers in many buildings, which you could use.
Also, some ISPs started to roll out hotspots all over Germany which
you can use for a certain amount of time a day free of charge. They
are often situated in active serving area interfaces (the German
technical term would be “Kabelverzweiger”), which you can
recognise by the air vents on top and/or bottom.
As you are based in Germany, you should also check Freifunk.net,
of course.
There are several android apps which claim to find/map open WiFis for you. (Disclaimer: I did not try any, and would be suspicious. Android is a security mess, and I would not want a third party to the information of my whereabouts - which you would inadvertently would give them if SSIDs are sent to the server. Google, Nokia/Microsoft and others have large databases with geocoded SSIDs, that’s how AGPS works.).
As far as I remember, a lot of open WiFis are in OSM. (But I can’t currently confirm, sorry)