T-Mobile leads: Germany’s leading mobile communications provider won a clear majority in the network operators category of the “Digital Lifestyle Award 2006″ online survey. The “Digital Lifestyle Award” is the largest reader’s choice award in Europe in the area of digital entertainment, computers and electronic communications. The partners of the “Digital Lifestyle Award 2006″ are Internet media outlets CHIP Online, FOCUS Online, TOMORROW and Xonio.com, along with the IFA.

The winners of the vote received their recognition on the evening of September 1 at a function held at the Palais am Funkturm on the grounds of the IFA in Berlin. This year, six digital products and services were nominated in 22 categories dealing with Internet, mobile communications, entertainment and the world of IT.

2006 marks the second time in a row that T-Mobile has garnered the “Digital Lifestyle Award”. Last year as well, T-Mobile held its own against rivals for the favor of Web surfers. This spring, readers of special-interest magazine “connect” chose T-Mobile for the seventh time in a row as “Mobile Communications Network Operator of the Year”.

Less than seven months after the market launch, more than 700,000 customers are already enjoying the benefits of T-Mobile@home. This means that T-Mobile has exceeded its own targets for this service, which offers inexpensive mobile-phone calls at home and in a large area around it. In order to appeal to a wider clientele for T-Mobile@home, the mobile carrier is linking the offer with an attractive starter tariff called Basix. Furthermore, customers with the Max flat-rate tariff automatically receive a T-Mobile@home fixed-line phone number, so that they can be reached at cheap fixed-network rates within the T-Mobile@home area. The service is made even more convenient by the T-Mobile@home status display on the cell-phone screen and by two phone models that are especially suitable for use with T-Mobile@home.

Favorable option: T-Mobile@home
Mobile-phone calls to numbers in the German fixed network cost only four cents per minute for T-Mobile@home customers. This price applies for calls from their home and an area within a radius of two kilometers: their T-Mobile@home area. Within this area, users can be reached at a fixed-network number made available by T-Mobile – at fixed-network prices. One of the benefits for the customers is that T-Mobile@home gives them a lot more flexibility and freedom of movement compared to a cordless telephone. The T-Mobile@home option can be booked as an addition to the T-Mobile postpay contract. The Single version costs only EUR 4.95 a month. The T-Mobile@home Family & Friends version is tailored to the needs of families and other groups of people who live together. They can call each other within their joint T-Mobile@home area free of charge. Calls from the T-Mobile@home area to members who are outside this area cost only four cents per minute nationwide. An important component of T-Mobile@home Family & Friends is the HomePhone. This is a mobile phone that serves the Family & Friends group as “everyone’s phone” – it is also the control center, e.g. for call forwarding.

Basix – starter offer with T-Mobile@home
T-Mobile@home is already included in the Basix starter tariff at a monthly rental of only EUR 9.95. T-Mobile introduced this offer on August 1, 2006. Nationwide connections using Basix within the German fixed network outside the T-Mobile@home area cost nine cents per minute all day on national holidays and at weekends, and on weekdays from 20 hours to 7 hours. During the day on weekdays, the charge is 29 cents per minute. The charge for calls to the more than 30 million T-Mobile customers and to the Mobilbox is 29 cents per minute. Customers who sign a 24-month contract for Basix including T-Mobile@home can buy a new mobile phone from
EUR 1.

Max – flat rate with T-Mobile@home area
Max, the new flat-rate tariff, automatically includes a T-Mobile fixed-network phone number. Users in their T-Mobile@home area can thus be reached at fixed-network prices. For EUR 35 per month, the Max tariff includes unlimited mobile-phone calls to the German fixed network and the T-Mobile network (connections to special phone numbers are excluded). Thanks to T-Mobile@home, Max customers can be reached at fixed-line prices. This makes Max an interesting alternative to a fixed-network phone for T-Mobile customers.

Knowing when you’re “home”, convenient phones
Up to now, users have been able to tell whether their phone is inside the
T-Mobile@home area by means of an audio signal that can be heard while the connection is being made – or by inquiring using a key code. Now the status is immediately visible: a new program provided free-of-charge by
T-Mobile shows them when they are “home” – i.e. within the T-Mobile@home area – on the display. The software works with the latest generation of mobile cards and selected phone models – e.g. Motorola RAZR, Nokia 6230i and 6280 and Sony Ericsson W810i.

Two new models we recommend for T-Mobile@home – especially as the HomePhone – are the BenQ Siemens S68 and the Nokia 2610. A convenient battery-charging station is standard with both. In the case of the BenQ Siemens S68, both the charging station and the phone itself have an especially attractive design. The Nokia 2610, with its classical mobile-phone style, features MP3 ring tones and an integrated hands-free function.

Relax 1000, Max and Xtra Smart are the names of the new rates on offer at T-Mobile. For customers who wish to make inexpensive calls to all mobile networks, T-Mobile offers the new Relax 1000 package. People who spend a lot of time on the phone can now place calls to all German networks for as little as six cents per minute. Relax 1000 is available for a monthly fee starting at EUR 59 – with 1000 minutes’ worth of free mobile calls included. Max, the flat rate for calls to the German fixed-line network and to the T-Mobile network, now allows contract customers to make an unlimited number of calls and send an unlimited number of text messages to the T-Mobile network – for only EUR 35 a month. And T-Mobile prepaid customers can make calls to the German fixed-line network or to within their own network for nine cents per minute by selecting the new Xtra Smart rate and topping up their Xtra account by at least EUR 30.

“With our new rates, we are offering customers in all segments mobile telephony with relevant features for each of the groups for less than ten cents,” says Philipp Humm, Managing Director at T-Mobile Deutschland. “The aim of these �carefree packages’ is to increase mobile-phone use, which is why our offerings are excellent value for money.”

Relax 1000 – Mobile calls to all networks for as little as six cents per minute
Relax 1000 contains 1000 inclusive minutes of phone time per month. This new rate module within T-Mobile’s Relax portfolio is available for a price starting at EUR 59 – the price for the deal excluding the purchase of a subsidized handset. Assuming the Relax 1000 budget is made full use of, the mobile-call minute will now cost less than six cents. In conjunction with the purchase of a handset for a subsidized price, the monthly T-Mobile price for the Relax 1000 rate is EUR 68 – in which case subscribers who make full use of the Relax 1000 budget pay a mere 6.8 cents per minute. As with all Relax rates, subscribers can spend their time budget around the clock every weekday for calls to within the entire German fixed-line network and to all German mobile networks. This new rate replaces the Relax 600 package which T-Mobile previously offered for EUR 79 per month. For EUR 20 less, the Relax 1000 package now offers 400 minutes of additional phone time, so that the price for each minute included in the package has essentially been reduced by more than 50 percent. The price per minute of phone time once the budget has been exhausted is 29 cents, with text messages to domestic numbers costing only 19 cents. The price for the Relax 400 package has also been reduced. Containing 400 minutes of phone time, this package will be available as of September 1 at EUR 49 excluding the purchase of a sub-sidized handset and EUR 54 including the purchase of a subsidized hand-set. It will therefore be priced five euros less than the offering to date.

Max – The flat rate for calls to the German fixed-line network or the T-Mobile network
The monthly basic charge of only EUR 35 for the Max package covers mo-bile calls to the German fixed-line network and the T-Mobile network. This basic monthly charge also covers all text messages transmitted internally within the network. Calls to the T-Mobile and the German fixed-line networks and text messages to more than 30 million T-Mobile customers then cost zero cents. Access calls to mobile mailboxes and calls to the T-Mobile ser-vice center which the subscriber places domestically using his mobile phone, are free of charge, as well. The Max package also includes a T-Mobile@home fixed-line number. With this number, Max customers will be available to callers on their mobile phone at fixed-line prices within a two-kilometer T-Mobile@home radius. The basic monthly charge for the Max package of EUR 35 is valid for contracts not involving the purchase of a subsidized new handset. Customers who wish to use the option of purchasing a subsidized handset pay EUR 44 per month. Calls to other mobile networks cost 29 cents and text messages 19 cents.

Xtra Smart – Prepaid customers also pay less than ten cents
With the new Xtra Smart rate, T-Mobile prepaid customers now pay nine cents per minute for calls to the German fixed-line and the T-Mobile networks. Calls to other domestic mobile networks are also inexpensive in this package, priced at only 29 cents per minute. The condition is that customers top up their Xtra account by at least EUR 30, after which these attractive prices per minute will be valid for one month starting on the date the account was topped up. After that, the price per minute is 29 cents to internal net-work numbers and the German fixed-line network, and 49 cents to other mobile networks.

Save extra VAT charge
All customers who book the Max, Relax, or Basix (entry-level) rates or who choose the prepaid Xtra Smart, Xtra Friends or Xtra Classic rates will also profit from a special form of price stability as of January 1, 2007. For these customers, the package price, minute price, and price for a text message will remain stable in spite of the raised rate of VAT, since T-Mobile will not be adding the cost of extra VAT to its price. The new VAT rate will, of course, be set out on customer invoices, however. T-Mobile will specify a net price amount on invoices that will see the gross charges due in the new year unchanged from those in 2006.

All package and minute prices detailed above exclude the cost of calls to special and service numbers. The minimum subscription period for Max and Relax packages is 24 months. Relax 1000 will be available as of September 1, 2006, Max and Xtra Smart will be launched on October 4, 2006. Max and Relax rates are also available for business customers.