1&1 network in a reality check: What is Germany's fourth mobile network really worth?

For more than twenty years, Germany had exactly three mobile networks. Telekom, Vodafone, O2 – that was it, no matter which name was printed on your SIM card. For some time now, that's no longer true: 1&1 is building its own network as a fourth provider. Looked at soberly, this is the most ambitious infrastructure project in German mobile communications in decades.

And yet, at bars and in forums, you hear the same suspicion:

"The 1&1 network isn't even a real network. They're just piggybacking on Vodafone anyway."

Is that true? Sort of. And it's worth understanding this "sort of" before you sign up for a 1&1 plan – or write it off too quickly.

What 1&1 has actually built

1&1 won its own spectrum at the 2019 frequency auction and has been building its own antenna sites ever since. Technically, the company is taking an approach no one in Europe had previously attempted on this scale: Open RAN. Instead of buying the entire technology from a single equipment vendor, standardised components from various manufacturers are linked together via software. This makes the network more modern and flexible than the competition's long-established networks – a real advantage on paper, but in practice it also means: new, young, still under construction.

And that's exactly where Vodafone comes in. Wherever there's no 1&1 antenna yet, your phone automatically switches to the Vodafone network. This is called national roaming – the same principle your phone uses abroad, just within Germany. As a customer, this happens invisibly to you. No restart, no fiddling with settings – the device simply finds the available network on its own.

So the bar-room suspicion is half right: yes, a large share of 1&1 traffic still runs over Vodafone masts today. But the trend is right – the share carried by 1&1's own network grows month by month, first in the cities, where its own sites are concentrated.

What does this feel like in everyday life?

Honestly: mostly unspectacular. And that's meant as a compliment. If you drive across Germany with a 1&1 SIM, making calls and browsing without noticing which network is currently serving you, that's a good sign. Coverage quality across the country largely matches Vodafone's – so solid, with the well-known weak spots in certain rural areas and along train routes. Where Vodafone is good, 1&1 is good. Where Vodafone struggles, 1&1 struggles too. We've broken down how the three established networks perform nationwide in our comprehensive network comparison – the map there applies to 1&1 customers in much the same way.

In the first months after launch there were teething problems, that's part of the truth too: handovers between the provider's own network and the roaming network didn't always run smoothly, and connections occasionally dropped. Much of that has since been ironed out. What remains is a network in transition – functional, but not yet what it's meant to become.

What do the network tests say?

The major network tests run by the trade press now regularly include 1&1 as the fourth network – and the results tell an honest story. In the first rounds, the young network unsurprisingly ranked behind Telekom, Vodafone and O2, mainly because the test vehicles naturally cover a lot of roaming territory. Since then, though, the trend has been clearly upward: in cities where 1&1's own sites are active, testers sometimes measure quite decent 5G values, and the gap to the established competition narrows with each test round.

Context matters here: "last place out of four" sounds more dramatic than it feels. The gap between third and fourth place in everyday use is smaller than the difference between a good and a bad spot in your living room. If you live in a big city, you'll notice next to nothing of that fourth place; if you travel a lot by rail and through rural areas, you'll effectively get Vodafone quality – including its familiar dead zones. A look at the Federal Network Agency's dead-zone atlas for your own everyday routes tells you more than any overall score.

Who is it worth it for – and who should steer clear?

The real argument for 1&1 isn't the technology, it's the price. The All-Net Flat Basic with 10 GB costs €9.99 a month – you won't get a comparable plan directly from Telekom or Vodafone for that. On top of that, there are regular promotions offering more data allowance at the same price. In terms of price, 1&1 plays in the discounter league, but delivers Vodafone coverage as a safety net. The newcomer doesn't disappoint on the side issues either: eSIM is supported, 5G is included in the plans, and after the minimum term, no minimum term applies, as everywhere else.

What speaks in its favour:

• Solid value for money, especially compared to network operators' own plans
• Vodafone coverage as a fallback – you're never worse off than a Vodafone customer
• Modern 5G network wherever the provider's own sites are located
• A fourth network operator boosts competition – ultimately benefiting all plan prices

What speaks against it:

• If you want maximum network quality, the Telekom network is still your best bet – even with discounter plans like Congstar from €10
• The network is still being built out; occasional handover glitches between the provider's own network and roaming can't be ruled out
• Pure O2 discount providers sometimes undercut the price significantly – in our budget plan check you'll find unlimited calls plans from €4.99

In short: 1&1 is the right choice for pragmatists who want a fair price with solid nationwide coverage and don't care whose antenna the bits travel over. It's the wrong choice for anyone seeking either the last bit of network quality or the absolute lowest price.

Looking ahead

You can think what you like about the marketing – "Germany's most modern network" is a bold claim for a network that still relies on a competitor. That's marketing, not maths. But the strategic bet behind it deserves to be taken seriously: if the rollout continues at the planned pace, 1&1 customers will mostly be on their own network within a few years, and Germany will then genuinely have four full-fledged infrastructures. For market prices, that would be the best news in a long time.

Until then: comparing pays off, as always. In our mobile plan comparison you can see where 1&1 currently stands price-wise – and whether a discount provider on the Telekom, Vodafone or O2 network might actually cover your usage profile more cheaply. The most interesting question isn't really whether the fourth network is good enough for you anyway. It's what its mere existence does to the other three's prices.