Lebara Mobile, a specialist in low-cost international mobile services, today announced the creation of an MVNO in an agreement with T-Mobile and the launch of its prepaid SIM card into the German market.
Lebara says its offering will appeal to customers who frequently make international calls, and especially to international communities who live in Germany and need to maintain close links to their family and friends back home. Lebara claims to ensure the best call quality and reliability on international calls by working with over 70 international telecommunications carriers. This focus on quality is ensured for calls made within Germany via the country's premium mobile network, giving Lebara customers virtually full-territory network coverage on one of the world's most modern GSM networks.
"The German market is strategically important to Lebara," says the company's CEO Yoganathan Ratheesan. "Not only is it Europe's biggest market, but it continues to demonstrate organic growth. Despite a busy competitive environment, we believe that our segment of the market remains underserved and we are confident that we can replicate the success we have demonstrated in other European territories. Our strategy is to use our unique distribution model to make our services available across the whole of Germany and to target multicultural communities who call internationally."
With Lebara's prepaid SIM card, international calls start from 4 cents per minute, while national calls are 15 cents per minute. Customers can send texts worldwide for 15 cents. To celebrate the launch, customers in Germany will receive an extra 50 percent credit free on all top-ups for a limited time. The first 15 minutes of all calls made between Lebara Mobile customers within Germany are set at 0 cents per minute: the only charge is the standard 19 cents connection fee. Similarly, the first 15 minutes of calls to Lebara's Multilingual Customer Services only bear the 19 cent connection fee. The new SIM card can be used in all standard mobile phones and the company does not charge customers to keep their existing mobile phone numbers when they switch to Lebara.