(1 September 2007 2:30 pm)

MUMBAI: The Berlin IFA consumer electronics trade show Deutsche Telekom is presenting television and mobile telephony in a new way.

From next month T-Mobile customers will be able to communicate with their five best friends across networks for as little as 5 cents per minute over an innovative user interface with the new mobile communications offer MyFaves.

T-Mobile is also making the mobile Internet service web-n-walk even simpler and faster. With Entertain Comfort, T-Home’s new Internet TV product customers will not only have unlimited internet access and be able to make calls into Germany’s fixed network from EUR 59.95 per month but will also be able to create their own television program from more than 140 channels.

Through the rapid expansion of the broadband network, 17 million households in Germany will be able to avail of this attractive IPTV experience by the end of the year. Soccer fans will get the stadium atmosphere in their living room with the 'Bundesliga on Premiere powered by T-Home' option.

VDSL customers will be able to enjoy entertainment in pin-sharp image quality.

Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann says, "We are already more than telecommunications. We offer our customers fast and easy access to communications, information and entertainment, and thus support personal social networking. We want to continue being a pioneer for broadband communication and entertainment in the future."

Obermann notes that the German broadband market is one of the most dynamic markets in Europe making reference to the EU’s most recent study on the development of broadband in Europe.

The Bonn-based Group has now achieved a market share of well over 40 per cent in new DSL lines. Deutsche Telekom’s strategy is proving successful, Obermann said.

With the innovative broadband networks VDSL and ADSL2+, Deutsche Telekom has the power to add value in this market, he added.

When presenting the new T-Home products, Deutsche Telekom member of board of management responsible for sales and service Timotheus Höttges said, "With our IPTV offer we are launching a new era in television entertainment, 40 years after color TV came out – personalized, interactive and with a new quality dimension. With our entertain services we offer everything from a single source: one bill, one contact, one technology and therefore one clear, transparent price and product portfolio for our customers."

With the entertain all-inclusive packages, Deutsche Telekom is consistently opening up the mass market for IPTV. As a basis for this, the group is installing ADSL2+ broadband technology in 750 towns and cities all over Germany and providing 27 cities with a VDSL high-speed network. With VDSL, Deutsche Telekom offers super-fast broadband connections with a transmission rate of up to 50 MB/s.

T-Mobile is latching onto a social trend – growing individualisation – with its new mobile communications service MyFaves. MyFaves enables simple, affordable mobile communications with up to five friends or family members. The service has been successfully introduced by T-Mobile in the United States, with Germany and other European countries to follow.

Personalized and community-oriented services will increasingly enhance traditional voice and messaging services and give the sector a new look the firm states. Under the motto 'Your world' Deutsche Telekom will be exhibiting its new products and services at the 47th IFA.

Deutsche Telekom Laboratories will provide a glimpse of 'Your world of tomorrow' as part of the TWF Science and Technology Forum. Visitors can touch and try out a large number of Deutsche Telekom’s research and development projects.

One example is the Virtual City Guide, which retrieves up-to-the-minute information from the internet on an object photographed with a cell phone camera and puts it on your display.

Visitors can also test early ideas for interactive television such as direct access to product information or actively intervene in the television programme using the remote control.