Flat rate
Flat rates for telecommunication services such as telephony and internet connection are named as flat rate (from English flat rate for “ flat rate ” or “ flat rate ”, also flat fee for “flat rate” or “ basic fee ”) . Due to its high advertising effectiveness, the term has recently also been used for flat rates in other areas in which a flat rate is paid regardless of the extent to which an offer is used (see e.g. flat rate parties and flat rate tickets ).
Origin and meaning
The word is borrowed from the English language ; It expresses that a product or service is available at a flat rate regardless of the quantity purchased . "Flatrate" is not only used in German. The word is made up of flat (flat) and rate (tariff).
Economic background
In most cases, the providers of flat rate tariffs have to pay a time-dependent fee for the use of third-party networks. In this case, the flat rate tariff is based on a mixed calculation in which customers who use the offer little contribute to the financing of frequent users. They are therefore more profitable for large providers with high customer numbers than for smaller providers, for whom even a small number of frequent users can let this calculation tilt.
Some providers therefore have contractual provisions in which they reserve the right to terminate the contractual relationship if they are used frequently. These are then no longer flat rate tariffs in the original sense.
Voice telephony
landline
United States
In the USA it has long been customary for local calls to be billed at a flat monthly rate ( unmetered local calls ). This tariff model is used worldwide.
Germany
In Germany for a long time (in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1979, in the GDR and in West Berlin until after reunification ), flat rate-like billing for local calls with a connection fee without time intervals was common, regardless of the duration of the call.
In 2004 a flat rate for calls in the German fixed network was offered for the first time. The Arcor company started the offer for 20 euros a month. Since October 2005, the market leader, Deutsche Telekom , has also been offering a flat rate for landline calls, only for 24 euros a month, and from December 2005 for 20 euros a month. Many other providers have followed suit. Almost everyone today offers a landline flat rate. The costs for this are currently (2009) around 10 euros a month.
Some providers such as HFO telecom and HanseNet also bill calls to national subscriber numbers ( 032 ) as part of their landline flat rates.
A pan-European flat rate was first introduced by HanseNet with the Alice tariff .
Arcor has been offering a flat rate to the Vodafone network since October 2006, and to the other mobile networks since February 2007.
VoIP
Flat rates to the German fixed network via VoIP have been offered in Germany since the end of 2004, the first provider being Easyphone24. The fees were 19 euros a month. With the complete connection packages of many telecom competitors, the providers use VoIP to implement telephone flat rates in connection areas in which they do not operate their own fixed network switching technology or are no longer expanding it.
By implementing telephone flat rates via VoIP, the providers save investments in fixed network switching technology and, if necessary, in collocation and - contrary to the implementation using preselection - do not pay any feed IC fees , which is a decisive advantage for the calculation.
Cellular
Germany
- Since mid-2005 there have been flat rates in Germany for calls from mobile phones to the fixed network and to their own network. With its Base sub-brand, E-Plus has been offering the first German mobile phone flat rate since August 1, 2005 , which is independent of the time of day and day of the week and applies both within the network and to the fixed network. In March 2006, T-Mobile followed suit with the DoubleFlat, from August 2006 with the Max tariff. Also Vodafone offers the Superflat since October 16, 2006 officially on a flat rate into his own net. O₂ previously offered a flat rate within the home zone - since December 2006 you can also use (Genion L) to make free calls to the German landline network and the O₂ network outside of this home zone. With the addition of other providers, such as congstar and klarmobil.de, a reduction in monthly costs was achieved. In addition, the large number of variable flat rates could be expanded. In addition to the flat rates for calls, the SMS flat rate enjoyed greater popularity, so that these were available in the portfolio from many providers from 2008 onwards. It was only relatively late - since around 2010 - that flat rates with high-speed data volume could be booked separately. Starting with 50, 100, 300 and 500 MB high-speed data volume, surf flat rates in the double-digit GB range can now be ordered. It should be mentioned that the surf flat rate provides unlimited use. However, the data volume included illustrates the number of MBs or GBs with a higher transmission speed. After the contractual services have been consumed, the providers will set the surfing speed to a lower standard, e.g. B. GPRS throttled.
- Flat rates for calls from mobile phones to all German networks have been available in Germany since the beginning of 2007. With Free flat XL from Freenet and the Base 5 from E-Plus launched shortly afterwards, as well as Genion XL from O₂, there have also been mobile phone flat rates in all German mobile phone networks since spring 2007 . Due to the high termination rates in foreign mobile networks, these offers are significantly more expensive than the other offers. Within these tariffs, there were initially only flat rates for unlimited calls to the various mobile networks and the fixed network. SMS flat rates and data volumes had to be booked separately. It was not until 2010 that the first tariffs could be offered that were affordable and usually already included an Internet flat rate in addition to the telephony flat rates. Above all, 1 & 1 can be named here as a pioneer of the all-network flat rate . However, other providers such as klarmobil and congstar soon got into the business. Starting in 2012, the formerly pure prepaid providers will also be offering such total tariff packages at favorable conditions. The SMS flat rate is not included in many tariffs. Although a complete package of telephony, Internet and SMS can be booked more and more frequently by customers and currently represents the maximum tariff service in terms of covering the three communication options of a cell phone or smartphone.
Switzerland
In Switzerland , too, the mobile operator Orange has been offering a flat rate for the mobile communications sector since mid-2005 . The product is called "Orange-Maxima" and allows unlimited calls to the fixed and own Orange mobile network. Calls to mobile networks from other providers ( Swisscom , Sunrise Communications ) are still chargeable. Since the beginning of 2006, Sunrise has also been offering a tiered flat rate with the product relax super . With the introduction of new price plans in October 2007, relax super was replaced by the product max .
Internet access
Dial-up line
At the end of 1998, the provider Mobilcom offered a flat rate for narrowband Internet access via dial -up for a then sensational monthly price of DM 77.77 (in addition to the cost of the telephone connection). Mobilcom was thus taking a high risk because Deutsche Telekom, as an established operator, had to pay time-dependent termination charges for each connection . It turned out that the calculation didn't work out. Customers remained dialed in permanently, even if no data was being transferred. As a result, the dial-in nodes could often not be reached due to the overbooking that is customary in the industry . Due to the high costs, the offer was not economically viable for Mobilcom. In the following months there were a few more attempts by other Internet providers such as Sonnet or NGI to offer a dial-up flat rate. However, these offers were also not given a longer existence and were often suddenly given, with the advance of other reasons, such as B. technical problems at Telekom, discontinued. There was considerable pressure on the regulatory authority to force Deutsche Telekom to offer a wholesale product ( resale , advance payment ) without timing for the implementation of dial-up flat rates ( wholesale flat rate , GHF ).
The German Telekom offered from June 2000 through T-Online a dialup flat rate for its own end customers and ultimately offered the ISPs to, primary rate interfaces directly to the local exchanges to book, so that one's own switching network in the local exchanges even with widespread always-on Use of dial-up flat rate access should not have been expanded. However, an internet provider who would like to use this wholesale service ( online wholesale flat rate , OVF ) nationwide would have to maintain its own dial-in nodes or connections to its own narrowband concentrator network in 1600 switching centers by means of collocation and connect these switching centers to its own backbone . This hurdle was deliberately chosen so high that to this day no provider in competition with Telekom has asked for this advance service to any significant extent.
In most other major countries of Western Europe the established network operators means consistently been at this time ex-ante - market regulation to offer a narrowband Grosshandelsflatrate based on a much wider mesh network interconnection forced ( ST FRIACO or FRIACO II ), so there nationwide since relatively favorable Narrowband dial-up flat rates are available for consumers. However, the German, inadequate regulatory framework prescribed by the TKG version at the time only provided for lax ex-post regulation for the Internet access market , so that the German regulatory authority failed with this request in court. Knowing this legal framework that was favorable to it, Deutsche Telekom had previously decided in February 2001 to discontinue its own T-Online flat rate offer for end customers, which could not be calculated based on the wholesale wholesale offer it had submitted. Without its own end customer offer, Telekom could not be forced to offer an advance service on an ST-Friaco basis by means of mere ex-post regulation.
The increasing spread of DSL has greatly reduced the interest of providers and the majority of the population, which is increasingly being supplied with DSL, in a dial-up flat rate, even though the disadvantage in areas without the availability of DSL without an inexpensive dial-up narrowband flat rate due to the impossible always- on Internet use is greater and the digital divide is deeper than in other Western European countries.
Since the beginning of 2007, Deutsche Telekom has again been offering a flat rate for consumers under the name T-Online eco flat based on its own narrowband dial-up infrastructure (T-Interconnect-OC), which is three to four times more expensive than a standard DSL -Connection with DSL flat rate or a narrowband flat rate in countries with ST-Friaco wholesale flat rate.
Alternatively, there are regionally cheaper dial-up flat rate offers from providers (e.g. Versatel , Arcor ) if the customer can be connected to their own network via a main distributor that is accessed by collocation using an unbundled subscriber line. These providers reach around 60% of the population with their offers.
In June 2007, Arcor launched a dial-in flat rate that was also available nationwide on Telekom telephone connections, can be booked for a calendar month and billed via the Internet-by-Call platform at the price level of low-cost DSL flat rates, but had to offer this in view of the existing ones Modify narrowband wholesale billing on a minute basis at Telekom connections several times, so that in the following month users with above-average online time pay twice the price and power users are excluded from further use.
DSL
Classic DSL flat rate
The widespread use of DSL as a dedicated line technology revolutionized the Internet access market for end customers in the early 2000s . The dial-up technology used, similar to dial-up lines, via PPP over Ethernet or PPTP allows a wide range of billing options .
The German market gratefully rushed to DSL technology, and a price war quickly erupted. The catchphrase flat was misused in various forms. It is now used by many marketing departments as a synonym for “connection is not billed based on time”.
A flat rate within the meaning of this article is only a tariff that offers a real flat rate - completely independent of the duration of use and the amount of data transferred.
DSL flat rates are usually chosen as a tariff model by frequent users. In the current market situation, a flat rate is also interesting for users who do not want to worry about possible cost traps and want calculable costs.
While the prices for DSL flat rates were usually staggered according to the connection bandwidth until 2005, such tariffs have since become increasingly out of fashion and have been replaced by location-dependent prices. This enables providers to offer attractive prices in metropolitan areas, where internet connectivity and line capacity are more than sufficient and customer access is possible at low costs by means of collocation , and at the same time to cover costs in less competitive rural areas with less favorable wholesale costs due to the lower network density .
DSL flat rate on demand
A DSL flat rate on demand (so-called FlatbyCall) combines the advantages of DSLbyCall and flat rate. There are only costs for active use. The costs are capped at a maximum amount so that the tariff becomes a DSL flat rate from a certain data volume. The main advantage: There is no need to explicitly terminate the contract with the service provider. There are no additional costs for non-use.
Legal
The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that Internet providers have no legal basis for storing all connection data, including the IP, with volume-independent flat rate tariffs. Many providers implemented the verdict immediately, while others (such as T-Online) still save the data on the grounds that the software conversion would be too expensive and would take too much time.
A deletion of the data as well as a request to omit the storage can be achieved in a simple way by civil action at the competent local court . Since the Federal Court of Justice, as the highest instance, has already decided accordingly, other decisions are unlikely. Often a letter to the provider announcing the lawsuit is enough.
Between the introduction of data retention on January 1, 2008 and its abolition by the Federal Constitutional Court on March 2, 2010, providers were obliged to store the connection data for six months.
Dedicated line
Conventional leased lines do not have the option of time-based billing and are usually sold with volume tariffs . In this context, the term flat rate means that the connection is billed at a flat rate regardless of the data volume transferred . Billing is also carried out using MRTG . Here the required bandwidth is constantly measured and added up for billing, which then results in the price. Alternatively, a 95% measurement is carried out, which removes 5% of all traffic peaks and calculates the remaining value.
Cellular
In September 2003, O 2 was the first network operator to launch the Surf & Email Pack ( O2 Wap Flat in trendy jargon), a flat rate for Internet use with mobile phone web browsers based on GPRS . With older end devices / browsers with WAP 1.2, only simple WAP pages specially created or adapted for mobile phones could be viewed. However, in the course of the switch to WAP 2.0 at the turn of the year 2003/2004, this changed: WAP 2.0 uses the usual IP / HTTP / HTML protocols and if the mobile phone browser is able to display extensive HTML pages (which is the case with many smartphones and with native mobile phone browsers based on NetFront , Opera Mobile , Safari or Pocket-IE ), these can be called up as part of the booked Surf & Email Pack at a flat rate. On some cell phones or by means of patches , MIDlets such as Opera Mini , which use HTTP for data exchange, also run via the Surf & Email Pack. As of mid-April 2008, O2 will be discontinuing this pack and making a volume-based tariff limited to 200 MB available to existing customers.
Since November 2003, E-Plus has been offering an “Internet flat rate” in a fixed connection with the Hiptop . The normal Internet pages on the manufacturer's servers were specially prepared for these end devices. E-mails could be sent and instant messaging could be used. Downloads were not possible.
In September 2005, E-Plus started a flat rate for packet-switched Internet access via its UMTS or GSM / GPRS network. The network operator bundled the VoIP application Skype with the offer , but prohibited the use of SIP- enabled applications.
With their 5 GB volume tariffs and the respective fair use policies , Vodafone and T-Mobile have been offering package data tariffs with possible HSDPA usage since March 2006 , which are implemented every two months (Vodafone) or in two consecutive months (T -Mobile) can be used as a flat rate without volume restrictions.
Since 2011, the new LTE standard has been expanded across Germany as the fourth generation of mobile communications by Telekom Deutschland, Vodafone and o2. Users can now book Internet flat rates, mostly in connection with Allnet flat rates, with data rates of up to 100 Mbit / s. In order to be able to use this high transmission speed, however, an LTE-capable smartphone is required.
In August 2011, the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center obtained an interim order against several large German mobile phone providers, which forbids them from the flat-rate advertising on the Internet. In March 2013, there was another warning against two mobile phone providers for misleading advertising.
Demarcation
Tariffs are also advertised by providers as flat rates, which are only volume tariffs. At the beginning of April 2008, E-Plus made headlines by giving notice without notice to customers who allegedly used a “flat rate” for mobile Internet to an “excessive” extent. At the end of April 2008, Vodafone came under fire after it had advertised a mobile phone “flat rate”, but reserved the right to terminate the contract if it was used for more than 250 hours per month. In addition, Vodafone has subsequently limited the “flat rate” for SMS to 3000 SMS per month.
Tariffs are also advertised as flat rates in which a certain transfer volume (depending on the provider and period 50 MB, 100 MB, 200 MB, 250 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 5 GB) is available at high speed in a clearly defined period , unlimited further transfer volume at lower speed.
The North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center is currently taking legal action against both Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica Germany . As it became known at the end of May 2013, the consumer advocates want to clarify with their lawsuits when a flat rate may be called such.
Web links
- Service flop: If the flat rate is not - article in Focus , August 29, 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ Development of mobile radio: technology, tariffs and trends ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ BGH, judgment of October 26, 2006 , Az. III ZR 40/06, full text.
- ↑ http://www.allnetflatvergleich.net/informationen-zu-den-völker-varianten-von-allnet-flat-tarifen/ , information on the different variants of Allnet Flat tariffs
- ↑ Internet for mobile phones: Misleading advertising for flat-rate offers is not permitted: Article from the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center on media ( memento of the original from December 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Flat rates - limited packages instead of flat rates. Consumer center NRW warns telephone provider: Article of the consumer center North Rhine-Westphalia ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Lawsuits against Telekom and Telefónica due to flat rate offers ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 31, 2013
