Vodafone customers know the drama – now millions of 1&1 users are trembling

From Flensburg to Freiburg, pretty much all mobile phone users have had this painful experience. Regardless of whether you are using the Vodafone, Telekom or O2/Telefonica network, there are always dead spots. Driving by car or train, on holiday in rural areas – suddenly there is no network!

+++ Vodafone with major change – unsuspecting customers fall into the trap +++

Against this backdrop, millions of mobile phone customers in Germany are now having to worry. Some will probably breathe a sigh of relief, but many others will throw their hands up in relief. Because one player is now going to make a lot of noise on the mobile phone network market: 1&1. They are seeking a new cooperation with the ailing communications giant Vodafone (>>> more here). But first things first.

Is everything better in the Vodafone network? Millions of 1&1 customers are worried

The telecommunications company 1&1 is going to shake up the German mobile communications market. In addition to the well-known networks of Telekom (D1), Vodafone (D2) and O2 (formerly E+), 1&1 is building its own infrastructure with transmission towers. But so far there are only a few. Far too few for customers to have decent coverage. So far 1&1 has therefore let all customers who could not use its own network use the O2/Telefonica network. However, this has numerous gaps, which is why it usually comes third in tests behind its two competitors.

+++ Vodafone customer just can’t understand it – “It’s really f***ing bad” +++

Now 1&1 has ended its cooperation with O2/Telefonica on so-called “national roaming” and instead agreed to work with Vodafone. Where none of 1&1's 200 or so transmitter masts are in place, users are automatically on the D2 network. But Vodafone customers know the drama: this network still has numerous weak points. It's no wonder that Telekom usually wins the tests mentioned.

Twelve million users face forced switch

All new customers who have joined 1&1 since the end of August are already being switched to the new national roaming via Vodafone. By autumn 2025, all twelve million existing 1&1 mobile phone customers are expected to follow suit. Many of them are trembling and have the anxious question: will everything get better now – or worse? The specialist portal “teltarif” has tried it out. The result: sometimes one way, sometimes the other.

There are users who live in regions with good O2 network coverage and who, after switching to Vodafone, suddenly find themselves – to put it bluntly – in a dead zone. Others are currently only poorly covered by O2 and benefit from switching to the D2 network. The testers from “teltarif” took the ICE from Frankfurt to Berlin: sometimes one network worked, sometimes the other. However, Telekom had the best and most reliable coverage overall.

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As a 1&1 customer, we have not seen any improvement since switching from O2 to Vodafone, or even experienced a test that may have to be completely reoriented. 12 million mobile phone customers have some very exciting months ahead of them.