Deutsche Telekom this week 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.
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 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.
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.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet
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. 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 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. 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.
