‘T-City’ of the future chosen     

Deutsche Telekom’s innovative T-City competition has a winner: Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Announcing the selection, CEO René Obermann launched the cooperative development phase in this unique private public partnership to create the city of the future.

As Obermann announced the winner at a press conference, Friedrichshafen Mayor Josef Büchelmeier and his T-City Project leader Andreas Roth were elated. “I am overjoyed that we were selected. I can hear the cheering of Friedrichtshafen’s citizens all the way here to Bonn,” said Büchelmeier. “Being selected is reward for our hard and dedicated work. But I know that all the other contestants also had superb project ideas. Whoever wins in such a competition also has a necessary bit of luck.”

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René Obermann hands over the selection award to Andreas Roth (center) and Mayor Josef Büchelmeier of Friedrichshafen.

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René Obermann hands over the selection award to Andreas Roth (center) and Mayor Josef Büchelmeier of Friedrichshafen.

Obermann congratulated the winners and thanked all the finalists. “Your commitment, ideas and time made the success of the T-City project possible,” he said. “That is why we are not following the ‘winner takes all’ principle. Instead, all nine second-place finalists will receive support worth 50,000 euros in financial, supply and personnel costs in order to implement some of their ideas.” Besides Friedrichshafen, the finalists were Arnsberg, Coburg, Frankfurt an der Oder, Görlitz, Kaiserslautern, Kamp-Lintfort, Neuruppin, Osterholz-Scharmbeck and Schwäbsich-Hall.

Ready to invest up to 115 million euros

Deutsche Telekom will be investing up to 35 million euros in financial, supply and personnel costs in the T-City project to outfit the winning city with a modern broadband fixed-network and mobile technology infrastructure. In addition to this, another 80 million euros in financial, supply and personnel costs will be made available to implement selected project ideas.

“This is a lot of money,” said Obermann. “That is why I want to make this clear: T-City is not a sponsoring project, a goodwill action and most definitely not a marketing initiative. T-City is a public ‘future laboratory,’ a light house beacon project which emits a special light.”

The small city with a population of about 50,000, which lies on the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in southern Germany, can expect to have the best broadband infrastructure in Germany for the next five years and high-tech services from IP television to mobile Internet - such as T-Mobile’s web’n’walk. Beyond this, citizens of the T-City can expect customized solutions to simplify administrative processes, better network health institutions or e-learning measures. “And we expect something from the T-City,” said Obermann. “An openness for new things and, more importantly, honest feedback.”

Web 2.0 for cities of the future

Obermann also announced that DT Board member Timotheus Höttges would be responsible for the project. “I personally cannot think of anyone better suited to lead this project of the future to success.” Moreover, the CEO revealed an initiative in which all 52 original contestant cities would be networked with DT and each other to come up with further project ideas that can be implemented. “A sort of Web 2.0 for cities of the future,” said Obermann.