OK, that was an hour productively spent on VF’s phone hotline to get my new “business” cable internet (300 Mbits down, 30 up) and mobile contract package (“Gigakombi Business”). Including a fixed IP, priority problem resolution service, and unlimited mobile data - for nearly the same price that I paid previously for a residential account package (also “Gigakombi”) with 250 Mbit and 10 GB mobile. ARC here I come.
You don’t actually need a business to do that.
(For the price, you’d usually get a 10 GB capped mobile plan, but there were some issues during my phone call with VF and I was nice to the sales person, so they threw in an unlimited mobile plan. Even with the 10 GB plan, though, the whole thing is a no-brainer)
EDIT: I wrote a more detailed version of this in a PM to @Connor. This might be helpful to others, so here goes:
It seems that Vodafone Germany customers afflicted with DS Lite are best off by just switching to a business account, which I just did. This is also a frequent recommendation on the Vodafone Forum by the VF mods, to have a right to a public IP and not be subject to goodwill (which may or may not be available or last). It turned out to be quite painless and not expensive at all.
- Owning an actual business is not necessary to open a business account
- URL for the business accounts: Internet & Festnetz für Geschäftskunden | Vodafone
- A public (fixed) IP is included in all business accounts. Either as an option in the accounts with lower bandwidth (5 euros per month w/o VAT), or included in the faster accounts.
- Just like for residential, they also offer rebates for internet and mobile contracts as a package.
- The overall price for such a package is very close to the price of residential accounts with comparable speeds and mobile download caps. Maybe 5 euros more compared to current residential prices, but depending on the existing accounts it might also come cheaper.
- When comparing, note that the residential website shows the price to-customer, i.e. with VAT (19%) included. The business website shows prices without VAT.
- In the faster accounts, the first 6 months are rebated down to 0 euros. They also forfeit the setup fees, so the switchover is also free.
I didn’t do it via the website but on the phone, which took an hour with a sales person who was not very well-versed with business accounts, and they made some amends by throwing in an unlimited data plan for mobile. Meaning that for essentially the same price, I have switched from 250 mbps with DS Lite to 300 mbps with a fixed IP, and from a 10 GB mobile limit to an unlimited data plan, plus the added priority problem resolution for business accounts (very handy with Roon 2.0 online requirements!)
Vodafone Germany could avoid much of the unhappiness about DS Lite by simply offering an account type with fixed IP under a different name for residential accounts rather than just in “business” accounts.
EDIT 2: According to investigation by @Thomas_Forster and others, people who have their own Fritzbox (not rented from VF) seem to get an IPv4 assigned. Not sure if always or if there are additional factors. Worth a try maybe.