Contents
Innovation

Shaping
the future

  • We are living in exciting, fast-moving ti­mes. Digitization is fundamentally chan­ging our everyday lives, and its devel­op­ment is only in its infancy. Rapid tech­nological advancement is con­tinu­ously opening new fields of application which yesterday still sounded like science fiction. Take the “baby monitor” for bees, for example. It uses state-of-the-art technology to let beekeepers know how their bee colonies are doing. However, with the high rate of change it’s important not to lose sight of the possible conse­quences of digitiza­tion. But if we coop­erate closely — civil society, politics, business and academia — we will be properly armed for the future.

Shaping the future

Polite restraint is a thing of the past. It’s time to take a stand and shape the future together. That is why we are launching many future projects, for example, in medical technology or urban development. As experts in digi­tal communication, we are bringing various players on board with whom we are working together on the solu­tions of tomorrow. As a sign of this approach, we have turned our Group website www.telekom.com into a platform for open dialog.

Discussing Digital
Responsibility

  • Digitization is not a question of fate for us. It is a task in which we are called on to take an active, shaping role. Opportuni­ties and risks must be openly addressed. To promote dialog within society, we set up the Digital Responsibility platform on our website www.telekom.com. The offer
  • was awarded the German PR prize in 2017. But neither a company, nor an institution nor a government can mandate digital re­spon­sibility by itself. We can only work on this together. That’s why we are commit­ted to the Charter of Digital Networking as well as to other alliances and partner­ships. Our CR Report not only describes our ecological and social commitment but also seeks out dialog with our readers. You can give feedback directly in the on­line report. Deutsche Telekom experts are available to respond to your questions and comments.

Playing Against
Dementia

  • Every 3.2 seconds, someone in the world becomes ill with dementia. The disease adversely affects not only the memory but spatial orientation as well. This is where our cell phone game “Sea Hero Quest” comes in. It collects anonymous data about the players’ orientation patterns, which are analyzed by scientists. More than 2.5 million players have already participated in the game. This is the first time that comprehensive baseline data on spatial orientation are available for men and women of all age groups from different regions across the globe. The initial results suggest that the regions of the brain that support spatial orientation processes might be more susceptible to dementia than areas that are responsible for memory. It could hence be possible to diagnose de­mentia in patients long before memory problems occur — and to develop new processes for timely detection and treatment of early-stage dementia. The initiative is considered as the most comprehensive dementia research study in the world.

Welcome to
the Smart City

  • Almost 60 percent of the entire world’s population lives in cities today. And this figure is climbing. Every week, some 1.3 million people are moving from rural areas to cities across the globe. But more people means more traffic, more garbage and a higher demand for energy and
  • potable water. It is therefore crucial for urban living to become more sustainable. We work to support cities with innovative, digital solutions. To this end, we are im­plementing numerous Smart City pro­jects. In Hamburg, for example, we are involved in the “my SMARTLife” EU pro­ject. Core issues include the mobility of the future and smart parking systems, as well as public safety. In­telligent street lighting is another element of the project. The Macedonian capital of Skopje is a shining exam­ple of this application. There energy-saving LED lamps react to the intensity of the ambient light. The street lamps automatically become brighter when a pedes­trian nears. This has resulted in up to 60 percent savings in energy costs.

5G: the Network
Revolution

  • Our industry is already thinking about applications that aren’t even possible yet according to the current state of technol­ogy. Another network revolution is immi­nent. That’s why our industry is currently debating a new standard: 5G. All in all, 5G will provide up to 1,000 times high­er capacity, ten times better speeds, ten times faster response time and 1.5 times better mobility compared to conven­tional technologies. This is giving rise to entirely new prospects: for new applica­tion areas, for new business models and, last but not least, for new jobs. We have already taken the first steps on the road to 5G: at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in spring 2016, we presented the first fully functional model of a 5G network worldwide.

Intelligent Machines Assist
with Climate Protection

  • Our machines are becoming increasingly intelligent, which saves time and resources and even helps protect the climate. In the agricultural industry alone, it will be possible to save around two billion metric tons of CO₂ emissions by the year 2030 thanks to the use of ICT.
  • The SMARTer2030 study by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) confirms these numbers. With the help of intelligent agricultural machinery, farmers can op­timize the use of fertilizer, seeds or machines, thereby conserving valuable resources. Direct machine-to-ma­chine (M2M) communication has great potential in other industries as well. At the Port of Hamburg, for example, traffic is running smoothly thanks to M2M, which saves time and emissions. Development is advancing in giant strides. The new Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) wireless technology will play a major role in the future. This technology consumes very little energy. We were a leading participant in the development of a uniform standard for this technology.

Combating Bee Mortality
with the Internet
of Things

  • The new NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology can even help protect bees. Without bees, fruits and vegetables would become luxury items because bees pollinate about 80 percent of our crops and wild plants. But these all-important insects are endangered. According to figures from the German Beekeepers’ Association, the number of bee colonies in Germany alone has fallen from 2.5 million in 1952 to less than one million today. The Internet of Things can help here as well. Much like a baby moni­tor for bees, the NB-IoT technology trans­mits the temperature, relative humidity, weight of the beehives and background noise. These data permit beekeepers to find out how the bees are doing and to intervene in a timely manner should there be illnesses.