Deutsche Telekom today announced an expanded partnership with Google in three key areas: enhanced mobile messaging services for businesses through Telekom RCS Business Messaging powered by Google and Jibe Cloud; the new Sovereign Cloud for Germany will be available to German cloud customers ahead of schedule; and Telekom’s premium TV experience, MagentaTV One, powered by Android TV OS available now in Germany and expanding to additional European markets. CEO Tim Höttges and Google CEO Sundar Pichai discussed this expanded partnership as part of Telekom's internal digital kick-off event attended by around 1,000 top managers.
"Deutsche Telekom is a longstanding and important partner for us, going back to the launch of the G1, the first smartphone powered by Android, in 2008,” says Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “Today’s announcements will expand the range of helpful and trusted products and services that we can provide to businesses and consumers across business messaging, cloud computing, and TV experiences.”
Telekom and Google currently offer enhanced mobile messaging services for millions of Android users across Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. This new expanded partnership extends this to customers of Telekom in Germany. All Telekom users of Messages by Google, powered by Google’s Jibe Cloud, will receive an interactive modern messaging experience by supporting the Rich Communication Service (RCS) standard which works on all Android smartphones, regardless of model or mobile network. This includes supporting high quality photos and videos, read receipts, enhanced group messaging and encryption for one-to-one chats - all at the highest level for data privacy and security. The RCS service is provided to users according to Telekom's terms of use.
As part of Telekom’s adoption of RCS, the company announces for its entire European footprint the availability of Telekom RCS Business Messaging, provided by Google. The service enables secure, efficient and highly engaging exchanges between customers and companies via messaging. Consumers can order products, make reservations, purchase tickets and more through a seamless digital experience within their messaging app, while companies can create and manage messages to reach target groups more effectively and increase brand loyalty.
In addition, companies can adapt the design of the service to their own brand image. And spam messages don't stand a chance because Telekom verifies all companies that send messages to Telekom customers.
"Protecting personal information is of the utmost importance to us," says Telekom CEO Tim Höttges. "With our new service, we are making fast messaging from people to people, and especially between companies and their clients, secure and convenient."
The launch of the new Sovereign Cloud for Germany will take place ahead of schedule: Telekom's business customer arm T-Systems and Google Cloud are launching their new sovereign cloud service in spring 2022. It will be available for all clients, initially out of the Frankfurt Google Cloud Region. Telekom and Google confirmed that they will jointly drive innovation for the cloud, closely aligned with the new German government's digital plans which aims to build a public administration cloud based on a multi-cloud strategy and open interfaces, as well as meeting strict sovereignty and transparency requirements. To this end, the partners are setting up a Co-Innovation Center in Munich as announced in November 2021. In addition, executive briefing facilities in Munich and one in Berlin will be established for close collaboration with customers.
"Many companies in Germany state that sovereignty matters to them when choosing their Cloud provider. This is particularly important for key sectors such as public, healthcare and automotive," Höttges said. "That's why we're delighted to offer a Sovereign Cloud that addresses additional European compliance requirements."
In this new joint offering, T-Systems will manage a set of sovereignty controls and measures, including encryption and identity management. In addition, T-Systems will exercise a control function over relevant parts of the German Google Cloud infrastructure. Any physical or virtual access to facilities in Germany (such as routine maintenance and upgrades) will be under the supervision of T-Systems and Google Cloud.
The MagentaTV One powered by Android TV OS is now available in Germany. MagentaTV One combines classic TV with a wide variety of streaming services, media libraries, and numerous apps via the Google Play Store. All services are conveniently integrated into the modern MagentaTV main menu. MagentaTV One can be connected particularly conveniently with a Deutsche Telekom fixed network connection, but can also be used in combination with any Internet provider - via WLAN or LAN. And customers can cast photos, videos and music from smart devices to the TV with Chromecast already built-in. MagentaTV One is Deutsche Telekom’s second device powered by Android TV OS in Germany, following the successful launch of the MagentaTV Stick in 2020.