End of call-by-call: This is how you can continue making cheap calls

Call-by-call will soon be history: Telekom landline customers and customers will only be able to use savings area codes for domestic and international calls until the end of 2024.

After that, you no longer have the option of changing providers from call to call in order to save on fees. Deutsche Telekom and the providers of telecommunications and value-added services had already decided this in the summer of 2023.

Use a landline flat rate or messenger apps

However, this does not mean that customers of Telekom or other providers now necessarily have to use the tariff conditions of their landline provider, which may be expensive, explains the telecommunications portal “Teltarif.de”.

Unlimited calls in the German landline are included in most current combination tariffs for telephone and Internet, regardless of whether it is a DSL, cable or fiber optic connection.

And if you want to call abroad or make calls to Germany from abroad, it’s best to simply use the free telephony feature of a messenger app on your smartphone for such conversations, the experts say.

Dialing through instead of pre-selecting…

However, older people who may not be used to making calls on their smartphones or using apps still have other ways to save even more on landline phone calls.

This includes the so-called callthrough procedure (direct dialing procedure), which works in a very similar way to the call-by-call area codes, explains “Teltarif.de”. You have to dial the 0180 number of the provider that is cheapest for the respective call destination, enter the actual telephone number and then make the call.

… or simply have someone call you

Of course, it is also possible to simply have someone call you, especially from abroad. Maybe the caller there has a flat rate option to Germany or can make cheap calls to the highest landline network via messenger apps.

With the abolition of the monopoly for voice telephone services in 1998, Telekom was obliged to offer its customers call-by-call in the interests of competition. This obligation expired in 2019.

Since then, Telekom has repeatedly extended Call-by-Call voluntarily after negotiations with the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Services Providers (VATM). The negotiating partners decided to finally end call-by-call in 2023 at the end of 2024.