Deutsche Bahn information https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/deutschland-ticket
Das Deutschlandticket vereinfacht dabei als „Flatrate für den Regionalverkehr“ die Nahverkehrstarife, da es Reisen über Landes- und Tarifgrenzen ermöglicht.
Es wird bundesweit gültig sein und ermöglicht deutschlandweite Fahrten im ÖPNV und SPNV aller teilnehmenden Verkehrsunternehmen, Landestarife und Verkehrsverbünde sowie im verbundfreien Raum.
As a “flat rate for regional transport”, the Deutschlandticket simplifies local transport fares by enabling travel across national and tariff borders.
It will be valid nationwide and will enable journeys throughout Germany on local public transport and regional rail transport of all participating transport companies, regional tariffs and transport associations, as well as in the non-associated area.
Travel on intercity trains and long-distance buses is not included.
Some of the transport companies allow a bicycle on, for free, and others require a separate cycle ticket costing about 6 Euros per day, although the exact price can vary regionally.
It will be a subscription ticket, but can be cancelled monthly.
There’s been quite a lot of contradictory info about this pass, called the Deutschland Ticket. Odly, it seems that sales were opened before all the terms and conditions had been set.
Happily, an American couple living in Bayern has made a great job of setting it all out, in a sightly wordy but chirpy, friendly and encouraging explanation, with helpful diagrams and photos, and advice on suitability, and how to buy and to cancel.
As I understand it, they are always recurring tickets, i.e. this is a subscription that rolls on month-by-month and is paid for by direct debit from the bank account with which the buyer registered.
However, one is not bound to a whole year, and can give a month's notice.
The article I linked to above explains how to buy a ticket for only one or two months and in such cases by which date to give notice (potentially giving notice even before the validity of the ticket commences).
Unlike Swiss tickets, which run from any chosen date, the Deutschland Ticket is for calendar months only.
FYI we were just able to order the Deutschlandticket via deutschlandticket.de with a German address and a German bank account IBAN of a third party. You make an account on the website and order the ticket, which comes in an email as a pdf.