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South Africans in Germany

Internet, mobile and television packages are usually sold as a bundle. 
Fibre is available in most big cities but not in remote towns. 

Legal

After registering at the Bürgerampt you will receive a reminder to pay for your TV licence.
Please make sure you know the rules regarding VPN’s, streaming services, and downloading music.

The TKMoG (Telecommunications Modernisation Act), came into force on December 1, 2021. If the provider does not provide the contractually agreed transmission rate, the customer can now reduce the monthly fee based on the newly introduced proportional reduction right. A special right of termination can also be used under certain circumstances. If a technician does not come on the agreed date or if there is a fault that has not been rectified, this can lead to compensation claims against the provider.

Another change is that providers have to offer a 12-month contract and not only 24-month contracts. If the contract has expired you can now cancel it with a one month notice period. Previously your contract was automatically extended for another year if you did not cancel it in time. The new regulation will also apply to existing contracts.

Comparative Sites

Websites like Check24 and Verivox makes a comparison of products, services and prices.
Make sure you understand the terms and conditions before signing up.

Service providers

Most service providers offer packages that include Home internet, mobile phone, landline and television packages.
Please confirm that the service is available where you live before signing up. This is called Internet Verfügbarkeitsprüfung

German television

  • You can find a list of German state-operated television stations here.
  • Your bouquet will depend on your internet service provider for example this list from Vodafone
In Germany for cable tv, the tv standard “DVB-C” is used: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-C
For “normal TV” via antenna, the standard DVB-T is used.
S
o if you TV cannot handle DVB-T or DVB-C, then you will not be able to receive German TV channels.
If your TV doesn’t support these broadcasting standards, you can buy a set top box (receiver) which will receive these channels and then shows the channels via an HDMI cable on your tv (like an “mnet decoder” basically). 
Search for “DVB-C receiver” on amazon and you will find many, starting at circa 30€ all the way up to 200€, depending on whether you want additional things like recording.

Pay TV channels

  • Sky
  • Sony, can also be added to your Amazon prime account
  • Disney

Streaming services

Streaming is legal in Germany as long as the service provider follows the correct copyright rules.  Torrenting is illegal in Germany. 

  • Netflix
  • Joyn – Joyn GmbH (previously 7TV Joint Venture GmbH) is a German joint venture of the media groups ProSiebenSat.1 Media and Discovery, which deals with streaming media products. Among other things, it operates the Joyn streaming platform of the same name, the Maxdome Store pay-per-view service and the Eurosport Player sports streaming service. 
  • Amazon Prime
  • Magenta TV
  • Showmax – South African content

You can read more about streaming on the European Consumer Centre Germany  – you can download their English Pdf here Safer-Streaming-EN

Vocabulary

  • Mobile phone
  • Landline
  • Fiber optic
  • Contract
  • DSL line
  • Connection
  • Contract term
  • Tariff/Rate
  • Pre Paid
  • International rate
  • das Handy
  • das Festnetz
  • die Glasfaser / die  Faseroptik
  • der Vertrag
  • das DSL-Leitung
  • der Anschluss
  • die Vertragslaufzeit
  • der Tarief
  • Ohne Vertrag
  • Ausland Tarif

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Watching sports

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Television Licenses

Television Licence (der Rundfunkbeitrag/GEZ-Gebühr) The first thing you are likely to get in your new mailbox after registering at the Bürgeramt is a reminder to

Streaming South African content

Your best option to legally watch South African products is to get a subscription to Showmax or Netflix.  Showmax Unfortunately Showmax will only be available