T-Mobile tests UMTS successfully - IFA introduces the mobile communications of tomorrow -T-Online expands content portfolio with new joint venture - T-Vision is a central building block of the broadband strategy - T-Online introduces new software version 4.0 Online and mobile communications will each drive the growth of the other in the next few years, in the words of Deutsche Telekom Board Member Kai-Uwe Ricke. With approximately 60 million mobile communications customers and more than nine million online customers, Europe's largest telecommunications company is in an excellent position to profit from this trend. "We intend to make good use of this advantage as an opportunity to develop and successfully market new services". This is how Kai-Uwe Ricke, responsible for the T-Mobile and T-Online pillars in Deutsche Telekom's Board of Management, explained the strategic orientation of the Group at the Internationale Funkausstellung. First applications have already been successful on the market, e.g., the mobile online service T-Motion, account-balance checks and notification of incoming e-mail by text message.
IFA introduces the mobile communications of tomorrow
At the trade fair, T-Mobile International will present the many different ways of using mobile communications services. In addition, innovative applications based on GPRS and UMTS, as well as the terminal equipment of the next generation will be at the center of attention. By introducing a newly developed Web portal, T-Motion is showcasing innovative applications for PDAs in combination with a GPRS-enabled mobile phone, which allow mobile access to information and video clips. Those who want to keep up to date with the latest movies and TV films can in future watch the corresponding video sequences via the new portal. Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile are also presenting TeleHome, an application that enables remote monitoring and remote control of all household technology via a mobile terminal. At the Forum of Science and Technology (TWF), T-Mobile will set up the first UMTS voice connections in public.
UMTS successfully tested T-Mobil International is pursuing a group-wide strategy in the establishment of UMTS networks. Test networks were set up in the city centers in Munich and Vienna and the first tests have been carried out successfully. The UMTS test network node set up at IFA is linked to the test network in Munich. A UMTS test network is currently being established in Hanover to test the mobile communications standard of the future. "In Germany, we will start commercial marketing of UMTS in 2003. We plan to reach the 50 percent coverage, which, as stipulated by the regulator, must be achieved by 2005, one year earlier", said René Obermann, Member of T-Mobile International's Board of Management, responsible for European Operations and Group Synergies, and Managing Director at T-Mobile Deutschland, with regard to the build-out strategy.
The joint venture with Motor-Presse Stuttgart expands content expertise
In the process of making T-Online a leading European Internet media network, content expertise has a top priority for the company. "With the joint venture with Motor-Presse Stuttgart, which was announced today, the DaimlerChrysler portal launched last week, bild.de and the heute news portal, we are consistently adding one building block to another," states Burkhard Graßmann, Chief Marketing Officer at T-Online International AG. With Motor-Presse Stuttgart entering into this joint venture, a leading player in the media business has once again opted for T-Online as its partner. The joint aim is to turn the "auto.t-online.de" service into the leading portal on the German Internet for "Cars and Mobility". T-Online will own a 51 percent stake in the joint venture, with Motor-Presse Stuttgart holding 49 percent.
T-Vision is a central building block of the broadband strategy The setting up of the T-Online broadband portal T-Vision is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year. And T-Online is developing the multimedia world in tandem with well-known partners: films and music tracks with CD-like quality, online games or live streams with standard TV quality will round off today's content offering. Customers are already taking advantage of the first services offered, as the success, for example, of Online Caroline, the web soap "90sechzig90" or the demand for our live recordings of select pop concerts shows.
Going online with the new T-Online software version 4.0 Right in time for IFA, T-Online starts the roll-out of the new software version 4.0. Besides the new design of the user interface, all key features and applications were revised and new elements integrated: the new T-Online browser is included on CD-Rom for the first time. It allows users to play video streamings while surfing on the Internet, and to call up innovative broadband content. In addition, the new T-Online browser informs users of incoming e-mails. The new eMail Client 4.0 signifies a quantum leap with regard to functionality. The greatly expanded range of services includes among other things the facility to write and receive e-mails in HTML. In addition to the new graphics, the new version of the OnlineBanking program also allows users to set up transfers for a specific date and standing orders from now on.