(March 15, 2002) - Highlighting the growing importance of the Microsoft .NET platform and the XML Web services it enables, Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecommunications company, have unveiled extensive plans for Deutsche Telekom (DT) to adopt the .NET platform for DT's mobile and solutions business. DT and Microsoft will also create a groundbreaking solution called T .NET, and cooperate in the development of devices and services, providing new functionality and access for the future of business mobility. Microsoft and Deutsch Telekom expect T .NET to spur the development of advanced XML Web services throughout Germany and Europe, opening new opportunities for software developers and application service providers.

DT's T-Mobile division and Microsoft also will collaborate on the next generation of mobile devices (including Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone and Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition powered devices) and mobile services, providing customers with access to the MSN network of Internet services, including MSN Messenger Service and MSN Hotmail Web-based e-mail.

Deutsche Telekom will rely on .NET technology to launch new services later this spring that enable customers to access their corporate data -- including e-mail, contacts, calendars, full-color HTML pages and Virtual Private Networks -- securely from anywhere in the company's U.S. and European network, and from any wireless device.