BONN, Germany, and ARMONK, NY, Feb. 22 – Deutsche Telekom and IBM announced today a collaboration to provide an integrated solutions portfolio that enables cities to make smarter use of their services through intelligent data capture and analysis. The Smarter Cities solutions will build on IBM's expertise from thousands of smarter city engagements combined with Deutsche Telekom's global Machine-to-Machine (M2M) capabilities, which include M2M solutions integration and advanced network connectivity.

The M2M communication technology facilitates the automated exchange of information between terminal equipment such as machines, vehicles and containers or with a central control center – creating an interconnectivity often referred to as the "Internet of Things." By using sensors embedded in a wide array of systems serving the public – such as a traffic lights, public transport vehicles or parking spaces – M2M technology can report on the status of the system being monitored via the Internet in real-time. Combining this technology with IBM's Smarter Cities expertise will enable intelligent, real-time decision-making allowing for services such as intelligent traffic management, route optimization, bus or train arrival prediction, and parking space management.

The Smarter Cities solutions from Deutsche Telekom and IBM will notably benefit municipalities as they deliver significant cost efficiencies through better use of their existing infrastructure and improved planning of resources. This will help cities more quickly design and deploy next-generation intelligence systems that improve sustainability. It will also improve the quality of life for citizens, who will be able to anticipate traffic delays and bus or train arrivals when travelling, find public parking spots more easily, and gain improved access to a wide array of relevant city information and services, for example.

"M2M is a technology with enormous growth potential as it adds real value to our daily lives, both in business and privately," said Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Deutsche Telekom. "Our joint Smarter Cities initiative gives us the opportunity to work with cities across the globe and offer them valuable end-to-end solutions that help support public welfare as well as their economic growth in the future."

"Cities are asking their trusted providers to deliver new ways to help them become more innovative. This initiative demonstrates how IBM is working with clients and partners to find new and sustainable ways to solve pressing client challenges," said Dr. Michael J Dixon, general manager, IBM Global Smarter Cities.

The alliance is based on the two firms' strong common interest and complementary capabilities in growing the M2M end-to-end solutions market. As part of the collaboration, IBM will contribute its global smarter cities expertise, as well as deliver technology systems that gather real time data from various services, applications and device end points, enabling massive amounts of big data to be transformed into insight to help cities make the right operational decisions and drive long term plans. Deutsche Telekom, with a business presence in more than 50 countries worldwide and a well established global M2M ecosystem, will provide cities with pervasive M2M connectivity to these technologies and services, as well as SIM card access management and M2M solutions integration expertise.

To highlight the many potential ways this new technology can be applied, Deutsche Telekom and IBM will feature a variety of Smarter City demos in the GSMA Connected City Pavilion (Hall 3, Stand 3B) at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, February 25-28. The Intelligent Transport and Smarter Parking demos will showcase how data collected from roads, buses and parking spots can be leveraged to predict traffic and bus arrival, anticipate delays and proactively coordinate resources to operate cities' transportation systems more effectively. Additional Smarter Cities solutions will be available in a number of areas including transportation, energy, water and public safety.

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 131 million mobile customers, 33 million fixed-network lines and over 17 million broadband lines (as of September 30, 2012). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in some 50 countries and has over 230,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenue of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year – over half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).

About Deutsche Telekom M2M Competence Center

Machine-to-Machine communication – short M2M – is a strategic priority for Deutsche Telekom in the coming years. According to the OECD, the number of connected devices will rise tenfold from 5 billion today to 50 billion by 2020. Deutsche Telekom has positioned itself as a leading provider of cross-industry M2M solutions and offers its customers in cooperation with competent partners complete solutions from a single source.

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Source: Deutsche Telekom