Deutsche Telekom makes another attempt to slice into cloud gaming

That's because it is being offered at no extra charge. None at all. It has simply been made available via the operator's loyalty programme, Magenta Moments, which is open to mobile customers in Germany from the MeinMagenta app.

There is a slight catch – at launch, it only works on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but DT insists support for other models is in the works.

Those customers who are eligible, and who sign up between now and mid-November, can avail themselves of free access to the top 100 games on Sora Stream until the end of next April.

Based in Spain, Sora Stream provides cloud-based access to AAA titles, so customers can play high-end games – including from the likes of Steam and Epic – anywhere, without having to fork out for high-end gaming hardware.

Once the end of April has come and gone, these customers will have to pay €9.99 per month to access Stora, but DT's 5G+ gaming tariff will continue to be free.

First shown off at Gamescon in Cologne in August, DT claims 5G+ Gaming represents Samsung's first foray into commercial network slicing – one of the more tantalising features of 5G standalone (SA) technology. In the case of 5G+ gaming, DT has configured the network slice to minimise latency, enabling a lag-free experience and stable response times.

DT says that when it comes to gaming on the go, this type of network performance can make the difference between victory and defeat.

Speaking of victory and defeat, 5G SA and network slicing was billed as a means of growing mobile connectivity revenues, but it would appear that by making its new network slicing-based service free of charge, DT has given up on that idea – at least when it comes to gaming customers.

This may well come as a disappointing development to some, given the industry's well-documented struggles to come up with exciting new 5G use cases that will convince punters to part with a little more of their hard-earned money.

This time last year, a report published by Ericsson's ConsumerLab claimed that 20 percent of 5G smartphone users like the idea of tiered network quality, and would be willing to pay a premium of up to 11 percent for it.

DT, having invested in a 5G SA deployment, and worked hard to develop and commercialise network slicing, has sent the message to its millions of customers that all this effort is worth precisely zero cents on top of what they already pay to access its network.

It sets a worrying precedent, because with the telecoms market as competitive as it is – especially in Europe – it might make it challenging for DT's rivals to successfully charge for similar services.

DT and its peers might just be setting themselves up for another self-inflicted spin on the merry-go-round of failing to drum up fresh sources of revenue.