Product and technology

In the 2025 financial year, the Board department for Technology and Innovation was renamed to “Product and Technology.” This step underscores the growing importance of an integrated approach at Deutsche Telekom: Innovation does not happen in a vacuum, but rather through the interplay of technological excellence, data-driven value creation, and clear product focus. Our goal is unchanged: To use our powerful networks to deliver the best-possible customer experience, and to expand our technology leadership.

Our strategic pillars

Our technology strategy continues to pursue clear goals: We analyze trends, evaluate their relevance at an early stage and develop suitable applications, before scaling them Group-wide. Going forward, we will further strengthen integration of the four strategic pillars below.

• Global economies of scale: Using our international infrastructure, platforms, and scaling mechanisms
• Technological sovereignty: Safeguarding independence through our own competencies, open standards, and strong partnerships
• Data-driven artificial intelligence (AI): Fostering product and process innovations in a way that is responsible, secure, and efficient
• Autonomous networks: Self-optimizing, AI-powered networks that continually enhance performance and service quality

Our core competency consists in the development of technology and product platforms, which we offer on a global scale, as well as the end-to-end integration of hardware and software components in the fixed and mobile networks. We use resilient and future-proof technology in pursuit of our aim to deliver an outstanding customer experience at a sustainable price – using our own network and IT infrastructure and closely supported by strong partners.

Our activities in the product and technology field are systematically aligned with the goal of safeguarding and strengthening our network and technology leadership alongside enhanced customer experiences in the Germany, Europe, and United States operating segments. AI’s growing importance unlocks greater flexibility for us: By using AI responsibly, we can generate real added value, whether from being able to address customer needs more precisely, structuring processes more efficiently, or providing effective support for our employees in their daily work.

In-house developments, partnerships, and start-up funding

We develop innovations in three established ways – strategically strengthened by the use of AI expertise, powerful data platforms, and a consistent platform logic.

• In-house developments: T-Labs is the research and development unit of Deutsche Telekom, focusing on disruptive technologies, increasingly relating to AI-powered networks, autonomous systems, and new forms of contextual communication. Current research fields include the networks of the future, quantum communication, spatial computing, decentralized systems, and security, as well as the new field of AI-based analytics technology. T-Labs cooperates with multiple universities around the world.
• Partnerships and cooperations: We draw on the expertise and abilities of our partners in order to successfully implement the digital transformation. We rely on innovative energy from around the world, and cooperate with companies from Germany, the United States, Israel, Korea, India, and other innovation hotspots.
• Start-up funding, venture and growth capital: hubraum, our tech incubator, puts start-ups in touch with the relevant business units and R&D initiatives within the Group. It offers exclusive access to networks (via network APIs), product platforms, or test data to help the start-ups develop and test their products and services in a faster and better way. The global T Challenge, a joint initiative with T‑Mobile US, supports start-ups with the development of innovative solutions geared to the digital transformation and competitiveness of Deutsche Telekom. Venture and growth capital is provided both directly, by our strategic investment fund T.Capital, as well as via our investments in the investment management group DTCP. We support the Federal Government’s WIN Initiative and are committed to working together to strengthen Germany’s and Europe’s presence as a technology hub.

Group-wide innovation areas

Coordinating these activities are our Product and Technology as well as USA and Group Development Board of Management departments, which work in close collaboration with our operating segments. We pursue our innovation activities at an intragroup level and in alignment with our strategy. Our interconnected innovation areas provide a Group-wide framework for this:

• Home experience & TV: Broadband, smart home, entertainment, and MagentaTV
• Digital channels: Apps and other channels for customer loyalty and marketing, service, and troubleshooting (OneApp, Frag Magenta chatbot)
• AI Competence Center: Use and development of generative AI for internal and external processes (product-oriented AI, process automation)
• Telco-as-a-platform: Cloudification, automation, and disaggregation of telecommunications networks
• 6G: Development of the sixth generation of mobile networks
• Sustainable Telco: improving energy efficiency and energy resilience

Patent portfolio

Patents are gaining more and more significance in the telecommunications industry. Our patent strategy has to keep pace with the constant evolution of market players and fields of activity. On the one hand, our Group’s scope for action must be maintained. On the other, we want to protect the results of our own research and development, and to use these in cooperation and partnership with other companies. National and international patent rights are vital for these types of activity. We are therefore strongly dedicated to developing, obtaining, and maintaining our own patents. In the reporting year, Deutsche Telekom held a total of 8,089 patent rights. We are firmly committed to expanding our patent portfolio, taking relevant current and future technologies into account. This will secure the value of our innovations in a dynamic world and bolster the Group’s competitiveness. We predominantly license our patents through our membership of patent pools.

Investments in research and development

Research and development (R&D) expenditure includes pre-production research and development, such as the search for alternative products, processes, systems, and services. By contrast, we do not class as R&D expenditure the costs of developing system and user software which is designed to improve productivity and make our business processes more effective. R&D expenditure in the Deutsche Telekom Group amounted to EUR 20 million in 2025 (2024: EUR 21 million). As the parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG bears part of the Group’s research and development expenditure. The expenditure was down slightly against the prior year at EUR 9 million (2024: EUR 12 million). However, this figure cannot be viewed in isolation from our three-pronged innovation strategy comprising in-house developments, partnerships, and start-up funding. In 2025, our Group’s investments in internally generated intangible assets to be capitalized were EUR 590 million, more or less on a par with the prior-year level of EUR 592 million. These investments predominantly relate to internally developed software, mainly in our Group Headquarters & Group Services segment. In 2025, Deutsche Telekom AG’s investments in internally generated intangible assets to be capitalized were EUR 10 million compared with EUR 5 million for the previous year.