T-Mobile supports recycling at the Mobile Etiquette Day event

• This year's annual Mobile Etiquette Day will draw on T-Mobile's recent promotion of handset recycling which resulted in the reuse of over 50,000 old handsets
• The three-day celebration at Prague's Náměstí Republiky square, held from 1to3August, will both inform and entertain people
• The event will provide plenty of information, workshops, a competition for a "golden phone", fashion shows of "recycled" outfits, live concerts and Maxim Velčovský's artwork

Prague, 27 March 2008 - Prague's Náměstí Republiky will witness an extensive event open to the general public on 1 August. This event will commemorate the second annual Mobile Etiquette Day (3 April). This year's hot topic will be mobile phone recycling, which T­Mobile has been supporting for a long time. The event will culminate on Thursday, 3 April with a concert by Laura a její tygři, a fashion show and the unveiling of a sculpture made of unused handsets, designed on the spot by Maxim Velčovský.

The event, which is part of T-Mobile's successful jaXmobilem project, is supported by the Prague 1 Municipal District and will be held under the auspices of this district's mayor, Petr Hejma. The non-profit corporation REMA System, which is involved in recycling electrical devices and electronics, will be the expert guarantor of the event. The huge tent raised over a 160-square-meter area will be the base for the Mobile Etiquette Day's many entertaining shows and interesting educational demonstrations. The accompanying program will be presented free of charge during the whole three-day period of the event.

"It is our long-term aim to increase people's awareness of environmental issues and their energy-conscious approach. These include, among other things, more responsible handling of obsolete mobile phones. We are glad that our recent campaign, during which we offered a discount voucher (Recyklístek) for each returned handset, turned out to be such a success. And we would like to draw on it during the Mobile Etiquette Day celebration, too," says Martina Kemrová, Senior Head of Corporate Communication at T-Mobile, adding: "We want to try a different approach now, providing people with all the facts on recycling in an interesting and entertaining way."

Participants in the Mobile Etiquette Day celebration will be able to consult special informative panels on facts related to the lifecycle of handsets, their composition and the toxicity of some of the materials used in their production. The contribution of the recycling of old handsets will be demonstrated using specific examples and put into stark contrast with the environmental burden created when they are buried in a waste dump. The theoretical part will be supplemented by practical workshops in which those interested can try disassembling old mobile phones. Both of these activities can be incorporated into ecology lessons at elementary and high schools as a viable element of study. Therefore, both teachers and students are welcome to attend the three-day event.

The educational part of Mobile Etiquette Day will be interspersed with a rich accompanying program. Visitors will be invited to join in a competition to find the "golden phone", try out making fashion accessories using handset components, watch fashion shows presenting "recycled" outfits or go to live concerts of some of the promising bands featured at Stage.cz. The designer Maxim Velčovský will design and assemble a sculpture using old handsets, ceremoniously unveiling it on the last day of the event, after a concert by Laura a její tygři.

"The local administration of Prague 1 is very much concerned with environmental issues. That is why we are pleased that the Mobile Etiquette Day event will be held under our auspices," says Petr Hejma, Mayor of the Prague 1 Municipal District, adding: "What I very much like about this event is the fact that it smoothly and effectively joins a relatively serious issue with an entertaining show. I am convinced that this is exactly the method that will speak to those who otherwise are not very interested in environmental issues and waste recycling."

This year's three-day educational event draws on last year's successful inaugural celebration of Mobile Etiquette Day that also took place at Prague's Náměstí Republiky square. Its visitors had a chance to see, among other things, the jaXmobilem exhibition providing them with information on the Ten Mobile Commandments that sum up the principles of considerate behavior related to mobile telephony. One of the commandments specifies the responsible way of handling obsolete handsets.

The celebration of Mobile Etiquette Day is part of the successful jaXmobilem project in which T­Mobile has been involved since 2006, when the www.jaxmobilem.cz website was launched. The informal "holiday" called Mobile Etiquette Day is celebrated in the Czech Republic each 3 August. It commemorates the date when the first voice connection using a portable cellular phone, the direct ancestor of today's mobile handsets, was established in New York in 1973.

Corporate social responsibility program and support for recycling
In addition to other projects, T­Mobile's comprehensive program of corporate social responsibility also includes, for example, the T­Mobile Fund, which is intended to support local initiatives throughout the Czech Republic, a volunteer program for T­Mobile employees, and environmentally sound waste management on the company's premises. In 2005, T­Mobile became the first mobile operator in the market to have enabled customers to hand in their old handsets for the purpose of ecological disposal.

T-Mobile also supported handset recycling recently by conducting a campaign from 7 November 2007 to 31 January 2008 based on offering vouchers for each unused mobile phone that was returned to a T­Mobile shop. The value of the voucher, called Recyklístek (recycling voucher), was CZK 200 incl. VAT and it could be used when purchasing a new handset, Twist set or accessories at T­Mobile shops. The campaign was an immense success: It persuaded customers to bid farewell to 50,554 unused mobile phones, which is 70 times more handsets than were collected in the whole of 2006. The total value of the recycling vouchers distributed among customers was CZK 10,110,800.

"It was during the first few weeks after the event started that our skepticism regarding Czech people's lack of enthusiasm about environmental matters disappeared completely," commented Martina Kemrová, Senior Manager of Corporate Communication at T­Mobile, adding: "We twice needed to print additional recycling vouchers in order to satisfy everyone returning their obsolete handsets."

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.