At the opening of this year’s CeBIT in Germany, Deutsche Telekom launched a nationwide contest intented to spur a new level of “networked thinking” across the country. The “T-City” initiative is meant to be a contest between German cities over the next few weeks to see which applications based on widespread fixed-line and mobile telecommunications can drive overall economic growth and improve quality of life. As part of the project, Deutsche Telekom’s three strategic business areas – Mobile Communications, Broadband/Fixed-Network and Business Customers – will support the “telecommunicative” ideas of one city’s citizens with their expertise.
“We want to launch a competition in which cities with 50,000 to 100,000 residents will take part. Together with the city that has the best ideas, we hope to bring home how innovative applications based on widespread fixed-line and mobile telecommunications can drive overall economic growth in Germany,” said company CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke in a press conference.
At CeBIT, Deutsche Telekom is showcasing the following new services:
T-Mobile launches HSDPA — The company deployed 3,300 new radio base stations in Germany last year: 2,100 for UMTS and 1,200 for GSM, as well as 6,300 WLAN HotSpots together with T-Com. The new HSDPA will support rates of almost 2 Mbps in Germany. In later stages, this will expand to 7 Mbps and upwards. Meanwhile, T-Mobile’s EDGE technology offer bandwidth of over 200 kbps. In 2006, network coverage will be improved by stepping up expansion with 2,400 new UMTS locations and 1,200 new GSM locations.
T-Mobile and the World Cup over 20 World Cup matches will be carried live on cell phones this summer. The company holds exclusive rights for this.
T-Systems and the Automobile cockpit of the future — T-Systems and the VW Group are showing IT and communications services for cars. The car cockpit of the future allows drivers to hear e-mails read aloud to them by the in-car computer, or dictate an e-mail and send it via voice command.
T-Com introduces “T-One” Dual-Phone — the “T-One” Dual-Phone handset is no bigger than any other handset available on the market but combines the advantages of fixed network and mobile communications. It support both VoIP/WLAN and GSM connections.
T-Com and 16 Mbps DSL — T-Com will invest another EUR 200 million this year in expanding its DSL coverage areas. A new T-DSL 16000 service tier supports maximum speeds of 16 Mbps downstream and 1024 kbps upstream and costs EUR 29.99 a month.
T-Com and Broadband Satellite there is now a flat rate for regions that T-Com cannot supply with fixed line DSL. For €79.95 a month, unlimited Internet surfing is possible at up to 1024 Kbps. In addition there are also two hourly packages: EUR 29.95 offers 30 hours a month, and 90 hours will be offered for EUR 49.95 a month.
T-Com and WiMAXIn the future, T-Com will be using WiMAX and has already applied to the German Federal Network Agency for the necessary frequencies.
http://www.telekom.de
