Before you start

Passport or national ID for the mandatory identity verification
A German address, for postpaid contracts and broadband
A German bank account, for direct debit on a contract
An unlocked handset or one supporting eSIM

Step-by-step

1
Buy prepaid on arrival and complete the identity check
Prepaid SIMs and eSIMs are sold in supermarkets, phone shops and online. Activation requires verification against a passport or ID — in store, by video call, or through the Post's service. Quick, and legally unavoidable under the Telekommunikationsgesetz.
In personWho: YouWeek 1
2
Leave the postpaid contract until you have a credit history
A Vertrag requires a German bank account, a registered address and a Schufa check. A brand-new file yields a refusal or a deposit demand. Prepaid sidesteps all three at modest cost.
OnlineWho: You
3
Order broadband on the day you sign the lease
German provisioning routinely takes three to six weeks and can require an engineer plus cabling in a shared stairwell. Place the order against the future address with a start date. Waiting for the keys costs you a month of tethering.
OnlineWho: YouAt lease signing
4
Ask what is wired into the building, not what the postcode allows
Dresden's fibre coverage is good in newer developments and in parts of the north, and uneven in the older Neustadt and Striesen stock where it depends on the renovation history. Availability checkers report what is sellable to the address rather than what terminates in your flat.
OnlineWho: You
5
Check coverage for the weekends, not just the commute
Saxon Switzerland's gorges, the Erzgebirge and the Czech border area have real gaps, and this is where the whole city goes at weekends. If you climb, hike or ski, compare the three operators on the regulator's map for those areas rather than for the city.
OnlineWho: You
6
Read the cancellation terms
German contracts historically rolled over for a full further year if the cancellation window was missed. Since the Telekommunikationsgesetz was overhauled on 1 December 2021 a contract continuing past its minimum term can be cancelled with one month's notice, but older contracts and older advice still reflect the previous rules.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport or national ID for SIM registration
Meldebescheinigung, for postpaid contracts
German bank details for direct debit
Rental contract, to order broadband against a future address

Things most newcomers don’t know

Coverage in the Elbe sandstone gorges is genuinely poor, and that is where Dresden spends its weekends.

Saxon Switzerland is forty minutes away on the S1 and is the reason many people choose this city, but the narrow sandstone ravines block signal comprehensively and the Czech border adds accidental roaming on top. Climbers and hikers here carry paper maps and tell someone their route as a matter of routine. Compare operators on the regulator's coverage map for the national park, not for the city centre.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur — mobile coverage map

Order broadband at lease signing — the gap is weeks, not days.

German fixed-line provisioning is slow by the standards of almost every comparable country, routinely three to six weeks and longer where an engineer must run cable through a shared stairwell in an older building. The order can be placed against a future address at no cost. Waiting until you have keys means a month of tethering, which for anyone working remotely is real money.

Source: community-reported

There is no anonymous prepaid SIM, and video verification rejects some passports.

Since a 2017 change to the Telekommunikationsgesetz every SIM must be registered against a verified identity document before activation. Automated video identification supports only certain nationalities and people are bounced mid-call routinely. The post office route accepts any valid passport and is the reliable fallback — worth knowing before you plan a day around a SIM that will not turn on.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur

What is in the building beats what is in the postcode, especially in the Neustadt.

Connectivity in Dresden's nineteenth-century stock tracks the renovation history rather than the address: a modernised block may have fibre to the flat while the identical house next door still runs copper from a cellar junction. The Neustadt in particular is a patchwork. Ask the landlord or the outgoing tenant which technology actually terminates in the flat, at the viewing.

Source: Breitbandatlas (Gigabitgrundbuch des Bundes)

Common mistakes to avoid

Ordering broadband on moving day rather than at lease signing.
Choosing a network on price when your weekends are spent in a sandstone gorge with no signal.
Expecting to buy an unregistered prepaid SIM off a shelf.
Applying for a postpaid contract in your first weeks with no Schufa record.
Trusting a postcode availability checker for a nineteenth-century Neustadt building.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.