Deutsche Telekom develops app for patients to receive Covid-19 test results quicker

German operator Deutsche Telekom said that its Healthcare Solutions division has developed an app, in cooperation with BS Software Development, to speed up the results of Covid-19 tests. The companies offer the app to all laboratories and patients in Germany free of charge. It is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. 

After a Covid-19 test is administered, a barcode is scanned on the label of the test that is sent to a laboratory. When available, the result is saved anonymously in the Telekom Healthcare Cloud, and the patient receives it in real time in the app. Patients can open the app and scan the code on the label with their smartphone or enter an ID number that is also on the label. The app can only be used if the corresponding ID number or the code is available. 

Tens of thousands of tests are carried out every day nationwide in Germany, including 5,000 at the Dr. Wisplinghoff lab in Cologne, which is already using the app alongside a further 10 laboratories. The app may help to bring relief for patients, doctors and health authorities, DT said.

Amid the global coronavirus crisis, availability of testing is proving to be one of the greatest challenges. Even those who are able to be tested often have to wait for overly long period of time to receive the results. Patients and doctors alike benefit whenever communication of results can be expedited.

Deutsche Telekom is showing how a major mobile operator can help the testing process by leveraging its network and a partnership with a technology developer. By making the app available free of charge to all, DT is performing a public service that not only helps individuals but ultimately could reduce the overall incidence of Covid-19 in Germany, given that the fullest possible awareness of the extent of infection is key for the prevention of spread.

Of course, we applaud any efforts made by private companies, especially mobile operators, for the public good, most especially in this time of crisis. But we cannot help observing, at the same time, that by making this app available under its own name, DT is subtly advertising itself, its network, its ingenuity, and the very public-spiritedness that caused this initiative to be realized. 

 Tarifica is a global SaaS company that is the market leader in the real-time collection, analysis and delivery of telecom plan and pricing data worldwide. Through a mix of AI, modeling and market expertise, Tarifica tracks hundreds of thousands of plan and pricing data points daily. No other company tracks more. Tarifica's mission is to continuously convert data into the dynamic intelligence that fuels opportunities for its clients, the world's leading operators, regulators and consultants. Learn more about Tarifica atwww.tarifica.com.

Orange and Deutsche Telekom to Introduce Smart Speaker

France-based operator Orange and Germany-based Deutsche Telekom will introduce their own jointly developed smart speaker in December, according to Orange CEO Stephane Richard. Speaking at the GSMA’s Mobile360 event in Brussels, Richard said the companies aim to offer a European alternative to a market currently dominated by the U.S.-based technology and retail giants Google and Amazon.
 
DT previewed the smart speaker earlier in September at the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin. Originally the device was slated to launch in the summer, and then the date was pushed back to September; the new date of December suggests that the partners intend for the speaker to enter the market in time for the Christmas holiday season.
 
Richard said he and DT CEO Tim Hoettges will present the speaker with a voice-controlled digital assistant. The companies are focusing on language recognition, in order to make the device suitable for multiple markets within Europe. The speaker will be called Magenta in DT’s markets and Djingo in Orange’s.
 
The Orange CEO made the announcement in a speech on the development of artificial intelligence, of which smart speakers are one of the best-known and fastest-growing applications on the market today, he said. Richard called for a greater role for Europe in the burgeoning AI market, saying that it is an area in which “we need more Europe, not less.” The EU, he said, is “not especially advanced” in the industry and is currently investing six times less than the U.S. and three times less than Asia on AI development.
 
Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker system, which operates by connecting to Google’s search engine, dominates a market that is growing rapidly in developed markets. While it is not a mobile device strictly speaking, depending for the most part on home-based routers, the smart speaker market represents yet another area in which traditional operators are being marginalized by new technological developments developed and monetized by outside entities—the same entities that are challenging the MNOs on other playing fields, such as virtual mobile service including messaging and VoIP.
 
While Google and Amazon are giants so large that it is daunting to contemplate competing with them on their home turf, so to speak, it is noteworthy that two major international operators based in Europe are making the attempt. They may well be able to market this system effectively to their pre-existing customers, by leveraging their brand loyalty advantage, as well as by pricing it lower than Alexa.
 
The Magenta/Djingo system, which is the culmination of a longstanding cooperation between the German and French groups on procurement, R&D and network services, represents a way in which operators can wrest back control over customers’ use of internet-based services, keeping them within their ecosystems and strengthening their brands in the process.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.  

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

Deutsche Telekom Launches Zero-Rated Gaming Option, Special Youth Rates

German operator Deutsche Telekom has released StreamOn Gaming, which enables customers to play online and multiplayer games on their smartphones without consuming data in their mobile tariff. At the same time, it has also revised its MagentaMobil Young tariff portfolio for customers under the age of 27, allowing them to add StreamOn Gaming to their mobile plans at no extra charge. For customers over 27 who subscribe to MagentaMobil and FamilyCard plans, the charge for StreamOn Gaming will be €2.95 (US $3.40) per month.
 
StreamOn Gaming features 17 games, including such popular ones as Pokemon Go and Fortnite, and the service can be added to all of the operator’s MagentaMobil Young tariffs.
 
DT is also increasing the data volume in its MagentaMobil Young XS and M tariffs for new and existing customers as of 31 August. The MagentaMobil XS will offer 2 GB instead of 1 GB of data per month, while the MagentaMobil M will contain 8 GB instead of 6 GB of data.
 
As mobile data consumption grows exponentially, among the market factors driving this growth is gaming. Gaming, both mobile and online, tends to require very large amounts of data to support its rich interactive features. In developed markets such as Germany, gaming is popular and relatively affordable. Therefore, for an operator such as Deutsche Telekom to create a value-added package of it is a good move.
 
Considering the large volume of data these games consume, charging a flat rate for a zero-rated package is a smart way of realizing revenue. Collecting €2.95 each month from subscribers is likely to bring in more revenue than charging for the data consumed on a per-megabyte basis, which may be prohibitive for many users. Zero-rating the data should have the effect of stimulating data consumption and thereby promoting higher-consumption habits among gamers, which could be monetized in various ways in the future.
 
Since gaming is particularly popular among youth, targeting that demographic makes a great deal of sense. By exempting those under 27 from the per-month charge for StreamOn Gaming, DT is not only responding to this group’s budget-mindedness but is also promoting loyalty at an impressionable time in a consumer’s financial life. And when those users age out of the group, they will be more inclined to start paying for the service, having already grown accustomed to enjoying its benefits.
 
And on that note, we may observe that increasing general-purpose data volumes for youths without raising prices has a similar effect in cultivating data-consumption habits that will yield future benefits in terms of revenue for the operator.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.  

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

FreenetMobile Launches Entry-Level Smartphone Plans

FreenetMobile, part of German MVNO Freenet’s brand Klarmobil, launched three new entry-level smartphone plans starting at €3.95 (US $4.60) per month with a 24-month contract.

The FreeSmart 400 plan, which runs on Deutsche Telekom’s network, includes 400 MB of mobile data at speeds of up to 21 Mbps as well as 100 minutes, and costs €3.95 (US $4.60) with a contract or €5.95 (US $6.93) without a contract. FreeSmart 1000, on Vodafone’s network, includes 1 GB of mobile data at up to 21.6 Mbps as well as 100 minutes and 100 texts, and costs €5.95 (US $6.93) with a contract or €7.95 (US $9.26) without a contract, including a discount.

Finally, FreeSmart 2000, also on the Vodafone network, offers 2 GB of mobile data at speeds of up to 42.2 Mbps as well as 100 minutes and 100 texts, and costs €7.95 (US $9.26) with or €9.95 (US $11.60) without a contract, including a discount.

The connection charge is a one-off fee of €9.95 (US $11.60) under the 24-month contracts, or €19.95 (US $23.24) if the plans are taken out on a rolling monthly basis. Roaming is blocked for the first six weeks, and then activated automatically.


FreenetMobile, which runs on two different MNOs’ networks, is offering some boldly priced packages in an aggressive grab for German MVNO market share. The prices are about as low as they go, which should prove attractive to members of the heavily-courted youth demographic. And given the preference of young users for data over voice, the various plans all offer relatively large amounts of data and quite small amounts of included voice minutes. The rather meager texting offerings should pose little problem to customers, considering that most of them are likely to prefer messaging services, such as WhatsApp, that use data instead.

The operator is wise, also, to offer lowered rates if customers subscribe to 24-month contracts and higher data speed in the higher-end FreeSmart 2000 options. Since many of FreenetMobile's competitors publish much higher advertised speeds, the questions for users, though, will have to be whether the real-world data speeds are fast enough for their needs, which will certainly include data-hungry streaming services, and whether the coverage is good enough. If the answer is yes on both scores, FreenetMobile will doubtless be able to garner a sizable number of new budget-minded customers with its FreeSmart plans.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. 

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

KPN Adds Thermostat to Smart Home Range

Dutch operator KPN is launching its own smart thermostat, under the name KPN SmartLife Comfort. It allows users to control their home heating systems, regardless of their energy supplier. Using an app on a smartphone or tablet they can program heating times, monitor their usage and manage the heating system. The device is produced by Plugwise and is available online for purchase for €6.00 (US $6.70) per month on a two-year contract. The package comes with the thermostat, app and a module to link the device to the heating system and works with any internet connection. Customers already using KPN’s SmartLife security system can integrate the thermostat with the system. KPN said it plans to add more services to the smart home platform. The operator is using the Qivicon platform developed by Deutsche Telekom for its smart home services. As consumer IoT applications, such as smart home controls, become more popular, operators can take a piece of this business by creating their own platforms and apps, instead of leaving it to other entities to do so. We think KPN’s move is a savvy one, not only because home thermostat control is a desirable service for many consumers, but because offering this service can help make the operator relevant beyond the role of simply providing connectivity, and can also help customer acquisition.

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com

Magyar Telekom Partners with Fon on Free Wi-Fi Service

Hungarian operator Magyar Telekom has partnered with international Wi-Fi solutions company Fon to launch a free Wi-Fi service for customers called Telekom Wi-Fi Fon. Customers will be able to use the internet outside their homes without any data limits or excess charges, in nearly 2,000 locations in Hungary and some 20 countries worldwide over Fon’s Wi-Fi network. Magyar Telekom is establishing what it describes Hungary's largest Wi-Fi network with the help of its home gateways, which will be opened up for shared access by subscribers. After the launch of the Telekom Fon service, subscribers of the operator’s Next XL, Next S, M, Music S, M and XS tariff packages will be granted automatic access to the national Wi-Fi network, free of charge. In addition, with the Telekom Fon Premium Service, subscribers of Travel & Surf S, M and L roaming data packages, as well as EU 100 and EU Plusz roaming options will be able to connect free of charge to nearly 20 million Fon hotspots worldwide in 20 countries. Publicly available Wi-Fi networks are proliferating in many markets worldwide, filling various functions. In some cases, Wi-Fi offloads traffic from overtaxed cellular networks; in others, it helps make up for gaps in coverage. In the case of Magyar Telekom, it is being advertised by the operator as an alternative to cellular service, a way for customers to use data on the go without worrying about allowances and overages. While this offer of free access to data outside the home or office could be construed as cannibalizing cellular service, it could also be an incentive for potential new subscribers to sign on to the operator’s plans in order to gain the Wi-Fi Fon advantage. Furthermore, some existing customers may currently not use much data due to concerns about cost, so enabling them to access data via Wi-Fi would not be cutting into their cellular data consumption. In fact, use of Wi-Fi data could very well cause them to get accustomed to a higher level of data usage, which could lead them to eventually consume more data on the cellular network, as well, thus increasing revenue for the operator. Therefore, we consider this partnership to be a good strategy for Magyar Telekom.    Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile, fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance. To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com