Deutsche Telekom AG is taking a positive stock of this year's CeBIT computer trade fair. With around 390,000 visitors, Europe's largest telecommunications provider has been able to reach its peak again at CeBIT and, as in the previous year, has shown a clear increase in visitors of around 13 percent. "We are really pleased with how the trade fair is going," said Walter Raizner, CEO of Deutsche Telekom's Broadband/Fixed-network business unit. "Our expectations have been exceeded and we have been able to increase the number of visitors to our booth for the second year in a row. This is an indication of how attractive our offers are." In particular, Raizner was happy about the popularity of the T-Online and T-Com presentations with the customers. "With T-Home, our broadband offer which will enable television to be received via DSL in future, the "Speedline" in which guests can experience a virtual flight and the 3D Center, which enables three-dimensional video conferencing, we have succeeded in making the opportunities provided by our innovative broadband networks a reality and arousing enthusiasm for our innovative solutions."
Convergence products such as T-One and T-Mobile@Home, as well as the new, even faster options for data communication in the fixed and mobile networks, were at the center of visitors' interests at the Telekom booth in hall 26. At CeBIT, T-Com announced the imminent market launch of T-DSL 16,000 and T-Mobile kicked off speeds of 1.8 Mbit/s in the UMTS network with the mobile data turbo HSDPA.
The main highlight for T-Com at CeBIT was "T-One," the convergence product for the fixed and mobile network. With a single unit - the TC300 by T-Com - the service enables access to integrated fixed-network and mobile communications. The device - the size of a cell phone - enables customers to make calls or send SMS and MMS at home, on the move or at a T-Com and T-Mobile hotspot. That means they can always be reached on their fixed-network number, even while on the move. To combine the advantages of fixed-network and mobile communications, the T-One TC300 supports both W-LAN and GSM connections.
The highlight at T-Online was the IPTV Showcase, which demonstrated what opportunities the television of the future would offer via the upstream channel of the Internet and fast VDSL networks. The entertainment offers of video on demand, Musicload and Gamesload, like the latest trends in DSL and video telephony, were really popular, particularly with the younger visitors to the trade fair. T-Online representatives were very pleased to see the continually growing interest of users in security in the network, as well as the increasing sensitivity towards dangers. Protection against viruses, worms and spam has generally become more important, as the experts at the booth, who took pleasure in answering the frequent questions on the issue, have learned.
With web'n'walk, T-Mobile is consistently focusing on free access to the Internet whilst on the move and thus on the diverse opportunities offered by the World Wide Web via cell phone. The device portfolio for web'n'walk will be dramatically extended once again and the introduction of mobile broadband technologies HSDPA and EDGE will also increase the attractiveness of the mobile open Internet.
Mobile TV is another key topic: At CeBIT, T-Mobile announced it would be transmitting 20 World Cup matches live to cell phones. Cell phone owners with UMTS capability can use this service for a flat rate of EUR 7.50 per month. The mobile offer for entertainment and information round the clock will be continually expanded.
Mobile TV, RFID technology and cell phones which no longer differentiate between the fixed-network and mobile communications were the crowd-pullers for T-Systems . The business customer arm of Deutsche Telekom supplied Hanover with mobile television during CeBIT. In the city area and several halls at the trade fair, a total of nineteen TV and nine radio programs could be received with terminals for the standards DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) and DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting). RFID technology was also all the rage. T-Systems provided t-shirts with modern radio tags at the trade fair and showed how textile retailers are making supply paths more secure and thus confronting the issue of loss of merchandise. "Seamless communication" solutions, which combine the fixed and mobile communications networks, were also of great interest. In future, company employees need no longer think about whether they are making calls in a fixed or mobile network. In both cases this will be wireless: in the fixed-network via wireless LAN with Voice over IP and in the mobile network via GSM or UMTS.
There was also a hive of activity at the T-Punkt shop at the Deutsche Telekom booth in hall 26. It was nearly impossible to manage the abundance of orders for business solutions with the existing capacities.