Companies like Vodafone, Telekom or O2 are so-called providers. They supply households with the Internet and maintain the cellular network. In this article we will explain what the term exactly means and what the tasks of a provider are.
What is a provider?
The English word "provider" means something like supplier, provider or supplier . This usually means internet and cell phone providers, but there are also e-mail and cloud providers, for example. Well-known providers in Germany are, for example, 1 & 1, O2, Vodafone, Simyo or Telekom.
All of these companies offer you their services. Mostly for money, sometimes also if they are allowed to show you advertising for it. In return, you get internet access, you can make mobile phone calls and use mobile data, write and receive e-mails or access your stored files from anywhere - depending on which provider you have signed a contract with. You can find out exactly what the various providers offer you in the following paragraphs.
Internet provider
Your Internet provider will provide you with a router. You have access to the Internet, you can access content there and even use a private WLAN. You can also get your landline telephone connection from an Internet provider..
Cellular provider
The German cellular network is operated by three large cellular providers : Telekom, Telefónica / O2 and Vodafone. These companies maintain the network infrastructure and offer their services to users for a specific tariff. Other mobile phone providers, such as Congstar or Aldi Talk, have to pay the major providers a fee in order to be able to use their network. Then the small providers can offer their customers their own tariffs. As a customer, you pay, for example, for a telephone and data flat rate and for SMS sent.
Email and cloud providers
In addition to internet and mobile communications, there are also cloud and e-mail providers . Cloud providers such as Google Drive or Dropbox provide servers that their customers can use for cloud services. You can, for example, save your own images or documents there and access them when you are out and about. In contrast, you can open an e-mail account with e-mail providers such as Web.de or GMX..