Berlin currently has a 29 € ticket which is much more interesting if you don't travel the rest of Germany often. Hopefully it gets extended beyond April.
Very unlikely, it was explicitly meant to only be a transition ticket until the thing which now became the 49€ ticket is ready. In a certain way it was a (expensive) publicity stunt of the local government.
Through for very low income people there is a separate even cheaper ticket, through only Berlin AB.
There is no way they will permanently reduce the price of the VBB Ticket below that of the 49€ ticket AFIK.
Ironically the reason the 49€ ticket is a thing and cost 49€ and not more is because they assume most people don't travel Germany too much and will buy the ticket from their local transportation provider and in turn the "use where vs. bought where" ratio will somewhat average out to a point where with a bit sampling when checking for tickets you can fairly handle the resource allocation (through then it not being a free market but a state subvention-ed one plays a big role, too).
I got my card in February and I only have a 29 euro transaction in my bank statement for February, and then another for March. It is also possible to cancel at any time.
The 29 eur price is only currently offered a month at a time, extended a month at a time, and the ticket is only offered a year at a time. Technically you are on the hook for a 63 eur contract on sale for 29 eur for a limited time. (It is a mess.)
