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 some history
A Vertrag requires a German bank account, a registered address and a Schufa check. A brand-new file produces a refusal or a deposit demand. Prepaid avoids all three and current allowances are perfectly adequate.
OnlineWho: You
3
Order broadband on the day you sign the lease
German provisioning routinely takes three to six weeks and can need an engineer plus cabling work 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 rather than what the postcode allows
Nuremberg's fibre rollout is reasonable in newer developments and patchier in the older stock around the Altstadt and Gostenhof, where it depends on the building's renovation history. Availability checkers report what is sellable to the address, not what terminates in your flat.
OnlineWho: You
5
Check coverage on the regional lines you will actually use
The Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen corridor is well served. The regional lines north into Upper Franconia and east into Franconian Switzerland are noticeably weaker, and that is where the region spends its weekends. Compare the three operators on the regulator's map for those routes.
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

Order broadband at lease signing — the gap is weeks, and it is entirely predictable.

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. People who wait for the keys spend their first month tethering, and for remote workers that 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 it activates. 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 build a day around a SIM that will not switch on.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur

Franconia's rural coverage is a real gap, and it is where the weekends happen.

The three-city corridor is well covered, but the regional lines into Upper Franconia, the Franconian Switzerland gorges and the brewery villages beyond them still drop calls. Given that the region's main weekend activity is getting on a regional train to a brewery tap in a village, this is not a theoretical concern. Compare operators on the regulator's map for those routes rather than on the headline city coverage.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur — mobile coverage map

What is physically in the building beats what the postcode checker says.

In the Gründerzeit and post-war stock around the Altstadt, Gostenhof and St. Johannis, connectivity tracks the renovation history rather than the address, and neighbouring buildings can be a decade apart. Availability tools report what could be sold to the address, not what terminates in your rooms. Ask the landlord or the outgoing tenant at the viewing, especially if you work from home.

Source: Breitbandatlas (Gigabitgrundbuch des Bundes)