Deutsche Telekom, our T-Mobile mothership announced out of Mobile World Congress today plans to roll out a mobile payment system using NFC technology in 2011-2012. Following up on its joint venture with Verizon and AT&T announced last November, T-Mobile will use ISIS mobile payment systems in a number of devices later this year and into next year.

While this announcement in and of itself is interesting, what was even more interesting was the name dropping the Deutsche Telekom execs did during their press conference. Name dropping Apple is sure to perk up the ears of everyone in attendance and combined with pre-existing rumors of Apple including NFC technology into the next generation iPhone, it’s likely we could see that come to pass with iPhone 5. Of course Deutsche Telekom already carries the iPhone in a number of international markets and the iPhone remains the white unicorn here for T-Mobile USA fans. We should note the press release that follows below makes no mention of Apple so we’ll chalk this up to an executive wanting to feel important and name dropping something we didn’t know and he did.

Samsung will jump on board during the second quarter of this year along with LG and RIM following up in the third quarter. Deutsche Telekom hopes that NFC technology can replace cash in such areas as public transportation and supermarkets. Those of you who might be skeptical of replacing cash with your mobile device can rest assured multiple security measures will be in place including protection against theft or loss. What exactly those measures are are unknown, however we imagine they’ll be closely reported as the actual rollout of NFC capable devices nears.

Phonescoop and Engadget

Deutsche Telekom at Mobile World Congress 2011

Feb 15, 2011

Growth field of mobile Internet: focus on customer experience

First EU-wide flat rate for data roaming

Networks as a basis for the 4G experience

Mobile payment and mobile advertising ensure growth

Deutsche Telekom continues to emphasize the growth field of mobile Internet. The company is presenting numerous new products and services for this area at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The focus here is on a great customer experience. From March, Deutsche Telekom will start its data roaming offer “Travel & Surf”, and will offer Internet access from EUR 1.95 per day in all European Union countries. Deutsche Telekom customers can, if they are travelling in the EU, benefit from the first real flat rate for data roaming. For EUR 14,95 a week, virtually unlimited surfing in the EU will be available as of this summer.

During 2011, the company will introduce new services in the fields of mobile payment and mobile advertising. In the hardware area, Deutsche Telekom will focus on smartphones which everyone can afford and, with the “move by T-Mobile”, is providing a competitively-priced Android smartphone which strengthens the trend towards mobile data traffic in the lower price segment.

“Key to all our innovations is to always provide our customers with a great experience. This will give us a strategic competitive advantage,” says Edward R. Kozel, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Deutsche Telekom. “In order to increase our speed of innovation, we will be working even more intensively with partners and streamlining in-house processes.”

Networks as a basis for 4G experience

The volumes of data transferred in the networks continue to grow because customers are using increasingly diverse and more complex applications in the telecommunications networks. Deutsche Telekom is well-equipped for this development. “The data traffic in our European networks has increased sevenfold in the last three years,” Kozel continues. “With our Telco plus strategy, we are getting Deutsche Telekom in shape for the gigabit society and ensuring future growth.”

A basis for the new customer experience is the extensive expansion of mobile communications networks. In the USA, large parts of the T-Mobile network have already been expanded with HSPA+ to speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s. The aim is to reach 42 Mbit/s during the course of the year. At the same time, the availability of HSPA+ to customers in Europe is being massively increased. Deutsche Telekom’s customers in Germany, Poland, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro can already get 21 Mbit/s mobile Internet access in most locations. In Germany and Austria, the available speed will be doubled to 42 Mbit/s in 2011. Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia and Macedonia will upgrade their networks to 21 Mbit/s later this year.

“For us, 4G primarily means a flawless user experience for our customers across various technologies,” says Kozel. “The key feature of the 4G experience is that our customers will always automatically be able to use the fastest connection currently available, on state-of-the-art, high-performance, intuitive devices. It won’t matter whether this connection is based on WiFi, LTE or HSPA+.”

Promising an even faster and more user-friendly mobile Internet experience for its customers, Deutsche Telekom is significantly expanding its offering of WiFi public access points for wireless Internet. Finally, new apps for the major smartphone platforms make using the hotspots vastly easier.

Strategic fields of mobile payment and mobile advertising ensure further growth

With the start of Deutsche Telekom’s “Mobile Wallet” in 2011, the cell phone will become a virtual wallet. Deutsche Telekom customers will in future only have to hold their cell phone to an appropriate reader in order to pay for goods, buy tickets for events or regional transport or take part in bonus programs. A new technology – Nearfield Communication (NFC) – is making this possible. As a result, no change at ticket machines and defective magnetic strips on cards will be a thing of the past. The area of payment systems is an important growth driver for Deutsche Telekom and the company will continue to expand it internationally.

Deutsche Telekom is already active in mobile advertising in more than ten European markets. In order to strengthen the international position even further, new formats and channels are set to be developed this year, while marketing will begin in additional countries. T-Mobile USA will also launch the first offerings on the North American market in 2011.

The technology behind these offerings is a new globally standardized platform that meets all core requirements while also allowing the integration of local features. To integrate additional advertisers and information providers, Deutsche Telekom is now working in partnership with mobile advertising specialists, Vienna based Out There Media. The goal is to be one of the leading providers of mobile advertising in every Deutsche Telekom market.