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Deutsche Telekom to launch De-Mail throughout Germany on August 31

  • Send digital documents securely, confidentially and verifiably
  • Promotional offers for private, business and corporate customers
  • Targobank and Allianz are the first users

Deutsche Telekom is launching De-Mail in time for the IFA Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin. The secure e-mail service will be available to private customers and companies from August 31. Telekom CEO René Obermann said: "De-Mail brings us a step closer to the gigabit society. Combining the benefits of the Internet with those of written communication, De-Mail is convenient, secure and legally binding." Before the service was even launched, well over one million people had already reserved themselves a De-Mail address with the providers. The number of companies intending to use De-Mail is already in the tens of thousands, with Targobank and Allianz right at the forefront. "We intend to communicate securely with our customers via De-Mail, sending them documents for example that until now we have had to send by postal mail for security reasons. Regular e-mail is not secure enough for that. De-Mail closes that gap," said Jürgen Lieberknecht, Board Member for Marketing & Product Management at Targobank. Dr. Alexander Vollert, Member of the Board of Allianz Deutschland, added: "De-Mail is a significant new channel for legally binding electronic communication. De-Mail replaces the physical signature, which was often essential in the past, making it a genuine alternative to letters and faxes signed in person. That saves our customers time and money and speeds up our electronic processing considerably. We therefore see De-Mail as another important element in the digitization of our customer relationships." Promotional offers for the introductory phase. To launch the service, Deutsche Telekom is making promotional offers. Private customers will be able to send up to 50 De-Mails per month free of charge in the introductory phase until December 31, 2012. After that, three standard De-Mails per month will be free of charge and any additional De-Mails will cost 39 euro cents, gross. Small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to send 50 standard De-Mails per month free of charge for as long as six months if they book the De-Mail service by December 31, 2012. There are also special offers for corporate customers in the introductory phase. If they sign up during the introductory phase, their monthly fee will be waived for the first six months. Companies will also be able to use combined De-Mail and postal mail offerings. Telekom will print the De-Mail out and have it delivered by partners such as TNT.

How and where do customers get a De-Mail address? The law governing De-Mail requires customers to identify themselves unambiguously and to register before they can use the service. They can register using their ID card, for example, at any one of 750 Telekom Shops and at many Hermes parcel points. The user's personal De-Mail account is then activated. Deutsche Telekom offers registration, account set-up and receipt of De-Mails free of charge. A sample address for private individuals might be: first-name.family-name1@t-online.de-mail.de . For commercial accounts, the company name forms part of the address: first-name.family-name@company-name.de-mail.de . Companies can also set up mailboxes for departments, such as: procurement@company-name.de-mail.de .

De-Mail has great market potential - with benefits for all customers. Deutsche Telekom is entering a promising new growth market with De-Mail: By 2018, De-Mail may well replace 29 percent of the 17.5 billion letters and 39 percent of the 5.4 billion faxes sent every year. De-Mail offers benefits for private customers, companies and public administrations. Secure De-Mail messages can be sent at any time of day or night, from anywhere - even via smartphones. At the same time, De-Mail reduces postage, paper and printing costs. De-Mails are sent securely thanks to encrypted transmission channels. Communication also becomes verifiable with De-Mail. The sender can request confirmations of transmission and receipt. The De-Mail interface is also user-friendly and looks to the user like e-mail - and works like e-mail, too. Private users and commercial customers access their De-Mail box via their Internet browser. Deutsche Telekom will connect large companies and public administrations to De-Mail via central gateways within the space of a few days. De-Mail Act lays the foundation De-Mail was developed together with representatives of business, public administrations and associations on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The objective was to establish a secure e-mail infrastructure for citizens, companies and public authorities. The Act entered into force on May 3, 2011. De-Mail was successfully tested in the T-City Friedrichshafen in 2009/2010 with 40 subscribers from business and public administrations and over 1,000 private customers. To be allowed to offer De-Mail, providers have to fulfill stringent security standards set out by the German Federal Office for Information Security. Deutsche Telekom AG has been awarded accreditation as a De-Mail provider. Telekom Deutschland and T-Systems received their accreditations at CeBIT 2012.

About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with almost 130 million mobile customers, 33 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of June 30, 2012). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 233,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenue of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year - over half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).

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