Dear Community,
On another Forum Post regarding “Fair operators” it was mentioned that there are already a couple of SIM card providers / phone operators that are or are becoming “ethical / sustainable / fair” (as hard as it is to describe) e.g. a sustainable member owned co-operative I.e. The Phone Co-op in the UK.
I am wondering about the feasibility of setting something up like this in Germany (eingetragen Gennossenschaft oder e.G). I would be willing to help set up one, if there isn’t something already similar in Germany.
This is not an advert, but for background information, the following might be useful to give you an idea.
https://www.thephone.coop/about-us/who-we-are/
Although English is my Mother Language, I can speak / understand German well (writing is not so good), and I have some experience of setting up / running a “GbR” with two others in Hamburg, a member owned phone co-operative is something very new.
For German speakers the following might be useful.
http://www.genossenschaften.de/tipps-f-r-die-gr-ndung
I thinking funding opportunities/ support / customer base is out there (e.g. The co-operative society / GLS Bank / Triodos) it just needs people to help set it up. They would need to have a practical grasp of the German telecommunications market / identitfying viable business niches / working with authorities / existing "Mobilfunk Anbieters/Network providers, but also who want to be part of a social enterprise.
Whilst there might be some vision thinking, my experience of this area is that "nuts and bolts / hands-on " people are initially needed, the membership / marketing / administrative part piggy back onto the initial work.
Naturally we would probably want to promote / supply a few Fairphones.
I am based in Hamburg and work 4 days per week in Berlin, so would also be willing to meet up and have a face-to-face meeting (auf deutsch od. englisch) with anyone if based in this area.
Just putting an idea out there (if no-one is already doing it).
Regards / Viele Grüße
Christopher
Hamburg / Berlin