Research & innovation.

T-Labs researchers granted renowned scientific awards.
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Telekom hosts the seventh BarCamp for people who are keen to know more.
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Innovation and the consistent enhancement of products and services are key elements for Telekom in becoming a global leader in connected life and work. We are not content with just being state-of-the-art; we want to anticipate new developments and help shape the future. That is why we invest in wide-ranging research and development activities, in particular in the work of Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs , formerly known as Deutsche Telekom Laboratories). We are also committed to financing professorships and creating pioneering ideas in cooperation with universities.

Telekom tapped new business areas by developing smart network solutions in the fields of energy, automobiles and health during the reporting period. Together, these three new business areas are expected to generate around one billion euros in revenue by the year 2015. We intend to become the number one partner of the health industry by providing innovative health services.

Video: Video networking is the future

Expenditure in research and development.

Research and development expenditure in the narrower sense relates to pre-production research and development, such as the search for alternative products, processes, systems, and services. By contrast, we do not class as research and development expenditure the costs of developing system and user software with the aim of increasing productivity.

In 2011, research and development expenditure of the Group amounted to EUR 121 million, which is less than in the previous year. As the parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG bears part of the Group's research and development expenditure. At EUR 48 million, its expenditure was again lower than in the previous year (down EUR 17 million). Deutsche Telekom's investments in internally generated intangible assets to be capitalized decreased by EUR 39.8 million compared with the previous year. These investments predominantly relate to internally developed software, mainly for our Germany operating segment. As in the previous year, over 2,200 employees were involved in projects and activities to create new products and market them more efficiently to customers. The majority of employees working for T-Labs , the unit responsible for results-oriented research and innovation, are researchers from a wide variety of disciplines.

Awards for T-Labs researchers.

During the reporting period, Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs ) were reorganized into five areas, the innovation areas:

Internet & Services
Cross-domain Middleware
IT & Cloud
Convergent Networks & Infrastructure
Emerging Ecosystems

Two of our researchers were presented an award for their exceptional work during the reporting period.
In March 2011, Professor Anja Feldmann, head of the "Internet Network Architectures" T-Labs endowed professorship received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award. The award includes prize money of EUR 2.5 million, which is sponsored by the German research organization Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and is one of the most renowned research awards. In February 2012, she received the Berliner Wissenschaftspreis 2011, which includes prize money of EUR 40,000, for her excellent achievements in science and research. The awards honor her pioneering achievements in the area of Internet architecture.

In 2011, Professor Alexander Raake, head of the Assessment of IP-based Applications area at T-Labs , received the Johann Philipp Reis Award, which included prize money of EUR 10,000, for his outstanding achievements in communications engineering.

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Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs ) is the central research and innovation unit of Deutsche Telekom. T-Labs works closely with Deutsche Telekom's operating units to deliver new ideas and support when it comes to developing and rolling out innovative products, services and infrastructures in our growth areas. With sites in Berlin, Darmstadt, Bonn (Germany), Tel Aviv (Israel), and Silicon Valley (USA), T-Labs ' focus is on medium-term projects and on technologies that produce unique selling propositions and new business for Deutsche Telekom.

Around 360 experts, researchers in a variety of disciplines from more than 25 countries, and young entrepreneurs work at T-Labs side by side. The results of the T-Labs ' research and innovation activities are the basis for a large number of Deutsche Telekom's existing and future products and services. They include solutions for payment with mobile devices (the mobile wallet), new features for our Internet TV service Entertain, and processes that more effectively utilize fiber-optic cables and radio bands. With the help of a start-up company network in Germany, Silicon Valley and Israel, T-Labs have successfully outsourced a number of venture companies.

Since its foundation in 2005, T-Labs have already filed 350 patents and put out more than 2,000 publications. As a private research institution affiliated with Technische Universität Berlin, it is recognized worldwide.

Key research areas of T-Labs.

The T-Labs research and development work is focused on seven main fields based on Deutsche Telekom's strategic areas:

Interactive High-end Media: developing personalized and global media services, including 3D TV and integrated value-added services in the areas of consumer electronics, applications, service platforms and network components.
Future Communication: developing convergent, secure and easy-to-use communication services that provide seamless access to all communications and messaging services with any device.
Information Relevance: improving personalized services and customer recommendations through intelligent data management.
Cross-domain Middleware: developing open communication platforms for different areas, including home, health, energy and traffic, as a basis for new services from third-party providers.
Global Cloud: designing and developing basic IT tools that open up new business opportunities for network operators. This includes a cloud-based service architecture that contains IT infrastructure virtualization and the provision of network-centric applications and services.
Large-scale Infrastructure Optimization: Large-scale infrastructure improvements that include developing convergent networks for global, high-quality broadband communication.
Broadband Access Evolution: providing cost-effective, high-capacity wireless mobile Internet access for integrated service solutions.

Seventh Telekom BarCamp.

Telekom hosted the seventh BarCamp on May 18, 2011. Bar camps are organized by employees for employees who are interested in discussing current issues and projects in groups and workshops. Discussions again revolved around the wide-ranging possibilities of Web 2.0, including open processes, Twitter and blogs. As a rule, five sessions focus on five different topics, which means that a total of 25 topics are presented and discussed.

CR Report from the previous year

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For around two years, Telekom Deutschland has been giving its employees the chance to participate in bar camps where they can talk about and develop current topics and company projects. A bar camp is a kind of workshop with the structure and content being determined by participants in the course of the workshop.