Contents
Digital inclusion

Creating
access

  • Being a part of it is everything. This also applies to our digital future. Digitization impacts all areas of life as well as human interaction. Those who have access to a high-performance network and are able to use digital media with confidence will benefit from growth and prosperity. Those who don’t run the risk of becoming obsolete. But we as a society cannot afford to exclude people.

Creating access

We want as many people as possible to benefit from digital advance­ment — whether they live in a metropolis with millions of people or in a remote rural area. Every year in Germany alone, we invest about four billion euros in expand­ing our network infra­structure, more than any of our competitors. However, technical access does not suffice to allow all people to participate equally in the knowledge and information society. It is also important for people to know how to use these digital media securely, competently and responsibly. This is why we strive to increase media competency — and employ the highest security and data protection standards.

Full Speed Ahead
in Network Build-Out

  • We are rolling up our sleeves and getting to work on network expansion. We already operate the largest fiber-optic network in Europe with more than 400,000 kilometers. And we will be adding around another 30,000 kilometers year by year. This would be enough to span the distance from Germany to Australia — and back. In the mobile network, some 84 percent of the
  • population in our European markets is already using the fast LTE standard. In Germany this figure was even higher in 2016, at 92 percent, and will climb to 95 percent by the end of 2018.

More Performance in the
Pan-European Network

  • Our network is evolving quickly — and it’s continuing to converge into a pan-European infrastructure. That’s good for our national companies in Europe: in the past they operated their own network infrastructures and independently developed services for their customers. As a result, our customers in one country were already able to use a Deutsche
  • Telekom service that was not yet available in a neighboring country. Thanks to our pan- European network, we can now provide new services to all European countries at the same time, with our national companies adapting them perfectly to their customers’ needs. This allows us to create innovative offers for our entire European footprint.

Media Skills for
Young and Old

  • Media literacy is the key to our knowledge and information society. Our “Teachtoday — Media, sure! But secure.” initiative is aimed at promoting secure and competent media usage by children and young people. The www.teachtoday.de Internet portal provides concrete, tailored offers for many everyday situations for young and old alike. We developed the children’s media magazine SCROLLER especially for children aged nine to twelve. “Teachtoday — Media, sure! But secure.” illustrates our responsibility even beyond national borders, as the portal is available in English, Romanian, Polish and Croatian. We promote media literacy in other projects as well. For example, we support the Digital Neighborhood project organized by the German “Deutschland sicher im Netz” association. Anyone can register with the association to receive free training to become a volunteer se- curity and Internet trainer and help their neighbors or friends browse the net safely and securely. What’s more, we are a partner of the Golden Internet Prize, which commends people over 60 years of age who are skilled Internet users and support others who are only just com- mencing their journey in the online world.

Short Distances for Data Protection

  • We don’t merely want to offer our customers technical access to the Internet; rather we do everything possible to ensure that their personal data are safe. This is why we have called for an “Internet of short distances” for some
  • time now, ensuring a direct path from the sender to the recipient when transferring data, without any detours through other jurisdictions. For this reason, many services for our customers come directly from our own House of Clouds at our data center in Biere in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. This data center sets the bar in terms of security, reliability and sustainability. We also provide information and education so that everyone can protect themselves effectively from the dangers on the net, for example, with our www.sicherdigital.de information portal in Germany or the Connected Kids school project in Austria.

New Paths in Healthcare

  • New social challenges require new answers. Digitization can help us find these answers. In patient care, for example, we offer hospital and clinic operators the comprehensive hospital information system iMedOne. This system helps physicians and nursing staff improve patient care and make processes more efficient — including mobile services. Certain model projects even allow chronically ill people to measure and record their vital data such as their blood glucose level and blood pressure themselves. The data are then directly transmitted to the physician via smartphone or tablet. This saves patients many visits to the doctor’s office, which is a great advantage especially if they live far away from the doctor or are not mobile due to their illness.