Deutsche Telekom intends to adopt more of a regional focus in future with greater emphasis on integration. "The Supervisory Board and the Board of Management have today taken a significant step towards a new Deutsche Telekom. The concept presented by René Obermann fully prepares the Group for the opportunities of the future," said Chairman of the Supervisory Board Ulrich Lehner on Thursday.

"The distinction between our fixed-line and mobile operations will be abolished. We intend to bundle product development, IT and technology across Europe in future," stressed CEO René Obermann. "We have already proved with integrated mobile and fixed-network sales in Germany that we are capable of increasing our market share by working more closely together." At the same time, René Obermann made clear that this was not a staff reduction program. Agreement had been reached with the employee representatives on the key points for implementation on a cooperative basis.

A project manager is responsible for preparing an overall concept for the measures. Thomas Dannenfeldt, Member of the T-Home Board of Management responsible for Market and Quality Management, was appointed as special representative of the Board of Management for this project.

Building on the results of this project, the sales, marketing and customer service functions for German mobile and fixed-network business will be consolidated in one Board of Management department in future. Products and innovation, IT and technology will be managed at a pan-European level, procurement globally. This function is to be bundled in the new Board of Management department for Operations (COO).

As one of the first measures, a Board department was created on Thursday for South Eastern Europe. Guido Kerkhoff (41), previously Head of Group Accounting and Controlling, will immediately start setting up this new Board department as a member of the Board of Management. He will manage the subsidiaries in this region starting July 1.

The Supervisory Board also approved on Thursday another executive appointment proposed by Mr. Obermann, and appointed Timotheus Höttges (46) as the new CFO with effect from March 1. In his two years as member of the Board of Management responsible for T-Home, Sales & Service, Mr. Höttges made Deutsche Telekom’s broadband business a success and introduced Entertain (IPTV) on the mass market. Prior to this, he was responsible for Sales and Service in Europe at T-Mobile International.

At the same time, he will be succeeded at T-Home by Niek Jan van Damme (47), who has been Managing Director of T-Mobile Netherlands since 2004. Mr. van Damme will take on responsibility for the sales, marketing and service activities of the fixed-network and mobile operations in Germany from mid-2009. As of the same date, Hamid Akhavan will take on his additional role of COO. He will maintain his position as the Board member responsible for mobile communications in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

"We have found strong candidates to head the Board departments," underlined Chairman of the Supervisory Board Ulrich Lehner. "In the past two years, Tim Höttges not only turned broadband business in Germany around, but also improved customer service. Niek Jan van Damme and Guido Kerkhoff also bring a high level of expertise with them from their previous roles. The expansion of Hamid Akhavan's cross-divisional tasks will enable the Group to further boost its competitiveness."

The management structure new approved is a continuation of our strategy that has proven successful to date. Deutsche Telekom has already had success with integrated mobile and fixed-network sales in Germany and Hungary. The coordination of product development, networks and IT systems has also been successfully implemented at T-Mobile International. In the future, other functions will also be managed on an integrated basis – such as marketing, human resources and finance.

"These measures will enable us to implement our strategy even better to become a global leader for products in the field of connected life and work,” said Mr. Obermann. “We will carefully work out the next steps under the project management of Thomas Dannenfeldt and with the involvement of our executive bodies. We will also keep our employees informed." Mr. Obermann continued.

Ovum recently completed a study into the socio-economic impact of European FTTH deployments undertaken with the FTTH Council Europe. The study is the first of its kind to closely investigate how FTTH enables socio-economic growth in European communities and municipalities, and the results were presented at the FTTH European conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 11, 2009.

The study was conducted in the underserved rural areas of Sweden which had a number of small communities with very high penetration of FTTH and FTTB. Carried out using a wide range of metrics that determine relative ‘prosperity’ and its correlation to FTTH deployments at the local/regional level, the study concluded that FTTH positively contributes to improvements in socio-economic metrics such as quality of life, improved productivity, better public services and increased employment.

 “The study is the first of its kind to show a correlation between a large percentage of businesses and homes connected with fiber and a link to benefits and cost savings for education, health and public administration,” said Lynn Hutcheson Vice-President Communication Components, Ovum. “The study itself included extensive consumer survey’s, regional case studies and interviews with representatives from government agencies, municipalities, network associations and network operators.”

The findings demonstrate clear social and economic improvements in areas with higher FTTH and FTTB penetration. Benefits included better e-learning and health services, significant reductions in telecoms costs and a closer collaboration between municipalities and public-service providers. Thomas Kallstenius from the FTTH Council Europe’s Market Intelligence Committee, explains:
 “The study has successfully demonstrated that fiber to the building or home at a municipal level has significant positive impact on local economies from both a social and economic perspective. The clear network superiority of fiber provides a platform for improving employment levels; attracting small businesses, encouraging remote workers and ultimately helping to raise the regional knowledge economy. Couple this with the benefits to public services such as enhanced e-learning opportunities and improved health and home care by enabling services such as remote diagnostics and it becomes clear that improved communications can provide significant socio-economic benefits to European communities.”

Joeri Van Bogaert, President of the FTTH Council Europe, concludes, “This study provides even further depth to the business case for FTTH. FTTH’s ability to enhance social inclusion and create a positive impact on social and economic welfare for consumers is a key consideration for today’s telecommunication and investment communities and the results of this study provide a clear message. Furthermore, and most interestingly, the section of society which was afforded most socio-economic benefit from FTTH was that with the lowest income. In a time of financial downturn where concerns grow daily regarding the next economic stimulus package, these results indicate that where limited resource and distance remain barriers to quality of life, next generation broadband can provide the social and economic stimulus needed today.”

More homes and residences throughout the U.S. are adopting networking solutions, good news for the multiple service and CE companies looking for means to improve customer support and satisfaction, which can use network connections to deploy a variety of advanced services and solutions.

 

These market trends have awoken the slumbering giant that is home systems. Parks Associates has tracked the slow but steady growth in this market for over two decades, and one major shift we anticipate in 2009 is the entry of new players into this market from other service domains, from security monitoring firms to service providers.

 

Home monitoring will be a lucrative opportunity for control and security system companies, who will want to diversify into the $9 billion security/monitoring industry, especially given the slowdown in their overall business.

 

To do so, system manufacturers are targeting MSO partners interested in delivering low-cost, mass-market friendly, self-monitoring packages to subscribers. At the same time, home systems integrators are seeking retrofit and remodeling projects in existing homes to compensate for the decline in new home construction. New home construction dropped to less than one million starts in 2008, down 50% from the 2005 peak of 2.1 million.

 

In addition, the national green initiative, coupled with the push for major infrastructure projects in the U.S., will bring even more players into this domain. These factors will fuel the growth of smart grids in the U.S. The term "Smart Grid" describes the infrastructure required and the resulting benefits when adding network communication and computer processing capabilities to electricity generation, distribution, and management systems.
 

Key Smart Grid benefits:
- Overall energy efficiency and accommodation of alternative energy
- Service reliability that ensures consistent delivery as population density increases
- Repair and maintenance capabilities to pinpoint issues and outages
- Peak-load and demand-response management

PacketVideo, who like to be referred to as PV, recently updated their multimedia sub-system for Android. For those not in the loop, PV is a multimedia software company founded in 1998 and carry with them a broad range of expertise. They are also one of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). In a rather technical press release, it eventually becomes clear that their latest software release is entitled OpenCORE 2.0, and the main benefit afforded by this latest release is the inclusion of a video telephony engine.

 

The new video telephony feature incorporates a two-way engine for circuit switched video telephony, enabling video telephony applications based on the 3G-324M protocol. Furthermore, OpenCORE 2.0 also enhances the ability to take advantage of available multimedia hardware acceleration to achieve the best possible performance.

 

“The real pivot in the industry that accelerated with the introduction of Android is the move toward openness - in networks, in platforms and in services,” said Osama Alshaykh, chief technology officer, PV. “Android represents a big leap forward towards a rich media world, where access to desired applications and services is much more intuitive and far more enjoyable. PV will continue to make a significant investment into open platforms for the benefit of the industry, and for virtually anyone to innovate with.”

 

Is this relevant for CAT-iq. Yes, maybe not on the short term, but if CAT-iq products become available in the coming years they might be able to use video, and this platform might be interesting.

SiTel Semiconductor has announced that the company will launch a new ultra-low-power ‘Green CAT-iq’ IC concept. Green CAT-iq will enable chip solutions that greatly reduce the power consumption of residential DECT systems. They will also open up the possibility of exciting new applications, such as wireless sensors and smoke alarms capable of running for up to ten years on a single set of batteries, or even solarpowered cordless phones.

 

The recent upsurge in CAT-iq applications for the home has brought a wealth of consumer possibilities. Devices such as smoke alarms, motion / temperature sensors, security cameras, display widgets, streaming audio terminals and remote controls can all be connected to a residential IAD alongside more familiar DECT handsets. But as the number of cordless devices increases, the power consumption of each one must be tightly controlled to keep energy bills, disturbance for the user and environmental impact as low as possible.

 

In response, SiTel is developing a range of ultra-low-power CAT-iq single-chip baseband solutions. Based on the company’s proven SC1448x single-ship architecture, the ICs will offer special SC1448x ultra-low-power modes. The reduced power consumption could potentially extend standby times by a factor of ten, and allow battery-powered terminals to operate for up to ten years on a single set of (non-rechargeable) batteries. So consumers get the peace of mind of ‘fix and forget it’ applications, while the environment benefits from lower carbon emissions and waste levels.

 

Thanks to its open-ended design and a thriving user community, Twitter is fast outgrowing its roots as a simple, easy-to-use messaging service. Enterprising hackers are creating apps for sharing music and videos, to help you quit smoking and lose weight -- spontaneously extending the text-based service into one of the web's most fertile (and least likely) application platforms.

 

This is a part of an article in Wired, about the possibilities of Twitter. This opens new opportunities even for DECT products.

 

Read the complete article