German Mobile Number Prefixes: 015, 016, 017 Explained

The number your landlord gave you starts with 0172. Your new colleague’s starts with 01556. Your bank texts you from something else entirely. All three are German mobile numbers, and the first few digits tell you a little about their history but less than you might expect.

The three mobile ranges

German numbers for mobile services sit in three ranges, from 015 to 017. The Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s telecoms regulator, hands them out in blocks to network operators and mobile providers. Blocks come in different sizes. Some are three digits, like 0170. Others are five digits, like 01555.

The regulator’s current allocation list contains 80 blocks. These are the ones you will meet most often:

Criterion	Assigned to	Notes
0151, 0160, 0170, 0171, 0175	Telekom Deutschland	plus blocks 01511 to 01518x
0152, 0162, 0172, 0173, 0174	Vodafone	except 01521
0157, 0159, 0163, 0176 to 0179	Telefónica Germany (O2)	01579 shared with Sipgate Wireless
01555, 01556	1&1 Mobilfunk	blocks 015550 to 015569
01521	Lycamobile	own block inside 0152
015510, 015511	Lebara	own blocks
0164, 0168, 0169	e*Message	paging, not phones

Source: Bundesnetzagentur, list of allocated mobile number blocks (October 2026)

Smaller blocks belong to providers such as spusu or Argon Networks. Telefónica’s list is long partly because it took over E-Plus, which brought prefixes like 0157 and 0177 with it. The complete list is published as a CSV file on the regulator’s page for mobile services.

Some 016x prefixes are not assigned at all. According to the numbering plan, 0161 and 0165 to 0167 are held in reserve. Calls showing one of those are a reason to be suspicious.

Why the prefix no longer tells you the network

German law lets you keep your mobile number when you change provider. Section 59 of the Telecommunications Act sets the rules: the new provider runs the switch, the old one has to cooperate, and your service may not be interrupted for more than one working day. If it is, the old provider owes you compensation for each additional working day, €10 or 20 percent of your monthly fee, whichever is higher.

The result is that a 0171 number may now run on Vodafone and a 0176 on Telekom. Our number checker therefore only says “mobile” and does not guess a network. Anything more would be speculation.

For everyday calls the network barely matters any more. It does matter if you want to know who owns a number. The regulator will tell you which company holds the block, but German law gives you no right to get the customer’s name from that company. There is more on that in our guide to missed calls from German numbers.

Getting your own German mobile number

When you sign up for a German SIM, the provider has to record your name and address plus your date of birth before activating the number. Section 172 of the Telecommunications Act requires this for every number it hands out, and prepaid providers must also verify the details. That is why buying a SIM in Germany involves an ID check, for example by video identification, and why an anonymous German mobile number is harder to get than in some other countries.

Writing and saving German mobile numbers

This is the part expats get wrong most often, usually because their home country uses a different convention.

Domestically, a German mobile number is written with the 0: 0176 12345678. Internationally, the 0 is dropped and +49 added: +49 176 12345678. Never keep both. “+49 0176…” will not connect.

Save every number in your contacts in the +49 format. It works when you dial from inside Germany, it works when you are travelling, and your phone matches incoming calls to the right contact even if the network delivers the number in international form. If someone back home wants to call you, give them the +49 version. From the US that would be dialled as 011 49 176 12345678; from most of Europe, 00 49 176 12345678.

Mobile numbers vary in length. According to the numbering plan they have ten or eleven digits after the 0: the older ranges 0160, 0162, 0163 and 017x use both lengths, the 015x blocks use eleven. Numbers that look a digit short or long are not automatically fake. Our article on the +49 country code has more on formatting.

What calling a German mobile costs

There is no legal price cap for calls to mobile numbers, unlike the caps on 0180 or 0900 numbers. The price comes from your own tariff. Most German all-net flat rates include calls to all German mobile networks. If you are calling from abroad, your home provider’s international rates apply, and many providers charge more for foreign mobiles than for landlines. Check before a long call.

One legal difference concerns hold queues. Under section 115 of the Telecommunications Act, unrestricted hold queues are only allowed on freephone numbers, geographic numbers and mobile numbers (015/016/017). Businesses that run a hotline on a mobile number may keep you waiting just as it could on a landline.

German mobile numbers and scams

Seeing a German mobile number on your screen does not guarantee the caller is in Germany. Since December 2022, calls arriving from foreign networks may not display a German number; the network has to suppress it. There is one exception: German mobile customers roaming abroad may still show their number. That exception is why mobile numbers remain attractive to fraudsters, especially in text messages.

The Bundesnetzagentur says that in 2024 about 60 percent of all complaints about number misuse concerned unwanted SMS and messenger messages. It had about 6,500 numbers switched off that year, mainly in text-message cases such as fraudsters posing as relatives with a “new number”.

If a family member texts from an unknown German mobile number and soon asks for money, confirm through their old number or another channel you already trust. Back in February 2026 the regulator also warned about texts sent in the name of trading platforms, claiming a withdrawal or an identity check and asking you to call a number back. You can report such numbers; our guide on reporting scam calls in Germany walks through the forms.

Mobile numbers are also used for machine-to-machine communication, as the regulator points out. Not every 017x number has a person behind it.

If you are building an app that verifies users by SMS or calls them back, normalise every number to E.164 format and never treat the prefix as a network identifier. Studios with experience in app development can set that up correctly from the start.

Open your contacts now and convert any German numbers saved with a leading 0 to the +49 format. Then, if an unknown mobile number has called you, read our guide to German area codes to understand the rest of the numbering plan before you call back.

Classify a number: Uses the prefix to tell whether a number is landline, mobile, a special-rate range or foreign, and roughly what calling back costs.

Questions people ask

How do I write a German mobile number in international format?

Drop the leading 0 and add +49. So 0176 12345678 becomes +49 176 12345678. Save numbers this way in your phone and they will work whether you are in Germany or abroad.

Is a number starting with 0164 or 0169 a mobile phone?

No. The blocks 0164, 0168 and 0169 are paging numbers assigned to e*Message. They are part of the 016 range but are not used for ordinary mobile phones.

Can I tell if a German mobile number is on WhatsApp or a real person?

Not from the prefix. Mobile numbers are also used for machine-to-machine services, and any prefix can belong to a person, a business or a device. Only the context of the call or message tells you more.

Does calling a German mobile cost more than a landline?

With most German all-net flat rates there is no difference. From abroad, your own provider's international tariff applies, and many charge more for calls to foreign mobiles than to landlines.