E-Plus, a carrier in Germany entered into a partnership with WhatsApp back in February. The company has launched WhatsApp SIM, a pre-paid SIM card for their users with free WhatsApp access priced at 10 Euros that also comes with 10 Euro balance. It offers an optional WhatsAll plan at 10 Euros with 600 units (1 unit = 1 MB = 1 minute = 1 SMS) for mobile data usage, calls and SMS with 30 days validity.
WhatsApp works even without prepaid credit and offers up to 1GB of WhatsApp usage for 30 days, after that speed would be throttled to 56 kbit/s, making WhatsApp use unlimited. It also offers iOS and Android apps to manage SIM, view WhatsApp SIM tariff and also recharge. The E-Plus WhatsApp SIM is available online too from Amazon and MeinPaket.
About 90% of smartphone users in Germany use WhatsApp with user base of 30 million users notes AndroidNext.The carrier is also encouraging users to recommend other friends to use it; for every two friends who use your reference code, you get an extra 10 Euro credit. This will definitely increase WhatsApp use in the country.
WhatsApp had already partnered with several carriers in India to launch custom WhatsApp plans. Facebook Messenger already has free voice calling option, but WhatsApp is yet to release voice calling feature.