I’m very happy about this conversation regarding “fair” telecommunication providers. For my Bachelor Thesis I have been investigating that issue and the current situation in Germany. Short conclusion: there is no such provider that strives to be or become a fully “green/fair/ethical” provider.
Nevertheless there has been a project between the NGO NABU (environment NGO) and E-PLUS to set up a green and sustainable cellphone tarif. It mainly consists of a SIM card made from “compostable plastic” (different discussion if that is really a better solution), carbon-neutral shipping and a 15% donation to the NGO of the monthly earning from E-PLUS. As already mentioned, this prepaid offer provides relatively little value for a relatively high price.
Besides that, surprisingly the Deutsche Telekom (biggest operator) takes the most serious approach onto more sustainable business practices, not only in the company, but across the enetire industry. This includes international certification for sustainable electronics, increasing the use of renewable energies for powering the telecommunication infrstructure (server farms, towers etc.), recycling and reuse scenarios for old mobile phones, transparency within the supply chain etc.
The telecommunication industry is still far away from being fair or green in Germany. It’s a very complex topic and the big network operators (Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, E-PLUS, O2) are very influential in changing the whole industry. I would love to see a small and competitive green/fair/ethical network provider.
This does sound very interesting. Do you care to share your thesis (or a link to it) here? I think quite lot of people (at least I would) would be interested.
I second @dubiosos, I’d be interested in reading it if you wouldn’t mind / are able to share it.
Also I’m surprised to read that Deutsche Telekom is the most serious about a sustainable business model! Guess I’m not that bad off with this operator as I first thought
Impressed by Limesco, proper hackers and good ethics it seems. A bit pricey compared to other providers but I am sure this is a ‘scale’ issue. More users and they might be able to negotiate better prices with their network provider.
Thanks, I’ll sign up and drop it in as a second SIM card!
In Ireland, the only meaningful option I had with choosing an operator with any ethical concerns is whether the company recognises the unions representing their staff. I contacted the main union for that sector. At the time, there were two companies: Meteor and Vodafone. I think they have now been joined by e-mobile.
I live in Belgium an I use “Ello Mobile”. Robin already introduced it: it’s fair and ethical, it donates to charity and supports micro-economic projects. Or at least, they try to be fair and ethical. You can argue a lot about this of course, but in this world, i think, a company that tries to be fair is better than most companies
But no, it’s not the cheapest, definitely not if you use the internet a lot. If you don’t use much data though (like me), their prices are okay. Not cheap, but you serve the economy! Not the banks, the “real” economy! I pay nine euros/month, and i get enough messages, minutes and data.
So if you live in Belgium and you don’t use your phone a lot, check their website. Also, they’re “easy” in their service. I don’t know how to put this, I mean, you can just send them an email you know They answer friendly and quickly and to the point and stuff.
I’m sorry, Robin, I had to defend Ello Mobile a little. But don’t feel too sad, or hypocrite. You can’t change everything on your own. You’re trying to be fair ftw. And I guess Mobile Vikings is a quite a good option too.
I too live in France. I had never even thought that fair mobile phone operators could exist. If anyone as a name to suggest, I’d be interested. As I’m one of those persons who don’t really like Mobile Phones and use them as little as I can, I’ve been using Virgin because thet sell prepaid cards at a low price.
I’m from Austria. We only have 3 mobile operators and they are all bad.
The EU-Parliament decided to abolish roaming at the end of the year, so that means we can choose any mobile operator anywhere in the EU then, no matter where we live, right?
But I think as giffgaff has grown, it has developed and changed as a company - I’ve been with them almost 4 years, so have seen things change. Having met some of the staff at various events I can say that they are genuinely nice people, but with a much bigger user base and growing demands things have shifted, and priorities do change. So for example one of the founding ideas was no TV advertising, and another was not selling phone handsets. Both these things have changed.
@Rob I’ve been with gg for less time, but both changes have happened since I’ve been a member. I’m one of the “approved helpers” but after getting involved with Fairphone I decided I didn’t have enough time to split between the two and I’d much rather spend time here
I don’t think giffgaff is as fair as it used to be, but it’s still an advance on the likes of the big 3
I am pretty sure it does make a difference, to me it feels comparable to electricity. For my new flat, i choose a renewable power plan. The power i actually use is the same. It is the same electricity grid. But it does not matter because i change what energy gets “inserted” into that grid.
I am a a member of The Phone Co-op in the UK and have a Pay-as-you-go SIM card as I am in the UK about 3-4 weeks per year with family.
If there are enough of us in Germany interested in setting up our our phone co-op ( Mobil e.G. Gennossenschaft" ) then we should organise one. I am currently with D-Telekom but would be willing to help set up a e.G. However, my written German / German co-operative law is not so good. I tried to set up a co-op in 2010 however we we only 3 people and that wasn’t enough.
We would need to piggy-back onto an established service provider though.
I am based in Hamburg / working in Berlin for next few months. I am a member of Greenpeace energy e.G. as my electricity provider when I charge my fairphone and pay my phone bills bank with GLS Gemeinschaftsbank… So anyone up for shaking up the German phone market (if not already been done / in process of being set-up).
One option we have in Germany is talking / writing with / to our customer services, Last week I had to ring of Deutsche Telekom, and they always ask at the end is there anyway they can improve their service. I mentioned I would like to see more transparency in their tariffs, but forgot to ask how sustainable are they in sourcing their electrical components. Next time I will / or in fact will organise something tomorrow.
I’m considering switching to The People’s Operator (TPO) - 10% of the money you pay in your contract goes to a charity of your choice, 1/4 of their total profits goes to charity and their pay-as-you-go tariffs are insanely cheap: something like 1p a megabyte, 3p per text and 5p a minute, which is perfect for people who don’t use their phone that often. And their bundles are cheap too. They piggyback EE’s network so it should be pretty reliable.
Nachhaltigkeit bei Telekommunikationsdienstleistern schließt vor allem
den Gebrauch von erneuerbaren Energien sowie Energieeffizienz ein. Die
Rücknahme sowie das Recycling alter Geräte (z.B. Router) sind, ebenso
wie faire Arbeitsbedingungen bei den Zulieferern, weitere wichtige
Themen
No fair phone companies in Spain. Horrible market. One try of a coop for a small town ended in bankrupcy. I operante with EUSKALTEL (regional, bask country) subsidiary of ORANGE but they both are as bad as any other here. I would like to have at least one fairphone company for the whole Europe now that roamming fees are going to be supresed.
