Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange will explore potential areas of cooperation in a defined set of technology fields.
The two groups share the common view that cooperation is becoming increasingly important in today’s telecom industry. Both have agreed to define a set of cooperation fields in which exploratory talks will be engaged with the aim of identifying potential value creation for both companies and that will benefit their respective mobile and fixed line customers in terms of quality of service and easy to use service offerings.
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange have agreed upon the following set of potential cooperation fields:
- Radio access network sharing in Europe
- Improving WiFi user experience while roaming
- Equipment standardization
- Machine-to-Machine (M2M) standards and quality of service for cross-border services
- A set of new growth business development domains: technical cooperation on home media servers, development of cross border e-Health services, connected cars technology and in-car infotainment services, content and technical enablers for TV and video servicesAs of today, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange have announced the first examples of this joint work by the creation of a machine-to-machine cooperation agreement and a joint project on the improvement of the WiFi user experience while roaming.
The specific cooperation agreement for M2M is aimed at increasing the quality of service and standards for cross-border machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. The agreement, which initially covers France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, aims to include all mobile network operators affiliated to the two groups, and to expand globally through partnerships with other mobile network operators. It will be the foundation for a seamless network that can offer reliable cross-border services anywhere in the world and incubate new innovations. M2M communication is an enabling technology that will facilitate the development of e-Energy, e-Health, connected home and connected car services and will bring about the internet of things.
On WiFi, both groups are jointly exploring solutions for improving their customers’ experience and roaming conditions on each others WiFi network. Both groups share the conviction that the international traveller of tomorrow will want to be able to download large amounts of data, for private or business reasons, without having to be burdened with the choice between WiFi access and 3G mobile access.
“Operators are expected to increase quality of service and to eliminate barriers and borders when using services,” said Ed Kozel, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Telekom. “We are confident that the cooperation with France Telecom-Orange in dedicated areas will enable both of us to bring sustained benefits to our customers.”
“With this collaboration, our two groups will be able to address new growth opportunities as well as operational efficiency issues in a limited and targeted set of business domains for the benefits of our respective customers, while maintaining our individual strategies,” said Elie Girard, Executive Vice President Strategy and Development of France Telecom-Orange.