The original idea of 0700 numbers: a lifetime “follow me” number that you can redirect anywhere. To the office during the week, to the cell phone in the evening, to home on the weekend.
This service was launched by Deutsche Telekom in 1998, the year the telecommunications market was liberalized in Germany. However, several reasons prevented this number range from being a success:
- High call costs up to 12ct/minute from fixed networks, up to 69ct/minute from mobile networks, every 60s
- Call costs not uniformly defined, callers were unclear about exact costs
- Reachability from abroad not guaranteed
- Calls to 0700 were never included in the flat rates of the fixed network/mobile tariffs
The biggest problem was probably that the call charges were not regulated by the Federal Network Agency as they were for 0180 numbers, so that each subscriber network operator could set the prices differently – the caller usually never knew exactly what price would be charged by the cell phone or fixed network.
Deutsche Telekom is now discontinuing the operation of 0700 numbers as of November 30, 2020 due to a lack of economic viability.
We recommend switching to a local network number. The advantages:
- Additional phone number in your local network can be booked separately from your existing line
- Low monthly basic fee
- Call forwarding to any destination possible
- Securely reachable from abroad
- local reference for the caller
- normal fixed network costs for the caller or mostly already included in flat rates
- set up is possible in only a few days
You also have the “right” to the number for local network numbers and can port it at any time.
If you have any questions about switching a phone number, please contact us.
