Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom Nyrt. ("Hungarian Telekom Plc."; full legal name: Magyar Telekom Távközlési Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság, "Magyar Telekom Telecommunications Public Limited Company") is the largest Hungarian Telecommunications company. The former monopolist is now a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom (in 59.21% of shares). Until 6 May 2005, it was (and informally still is) known as MATÁV (Magyar Távközlési Rt. – Hungarian Telecommunications PLC.). The company was formed under the name of Magyar Távközlési Vállalat (Hungarian Telecommunications Enterprise) in December 1989, when Magyar Posta (Hungarian Post) was split to three separate enterprises. On 31 December 1991, the company was re-structured as a Public Limited Company, as Magyar Távközlési Rt., and the company remained in 100% state ownership until the end of 1993. On 1 July 1993, the Telecommunications Act came into effect, and now it was possible to privatize the company. A consortium was formed by Deutsche Telekom and Ameritech International, which was named MagyarCom, and bought into the company a share of 30.1% for a price of 875 million USD.
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| Type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| BPSE: MTELEKOM OTC Pink: MYTAY BUX Component CETOP20 Component | |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Central and Eastern Europe |
Key people | Kerstin Günther (Chairwoman) Christopher Mattheisen (CEO) |
| Products | Fixed Telephony, Mobile Telephony, Broadband Internet, IT Services, Networking Solutions, Digital TV |
| Revenue |  US$2.698 billion (2012)[1] |
| US$263.7 million (2012)[1] | |
| US$203.86 million (2012)[1] | |
| Total assets |  US$4.702 billion (2012)[1] |
| Total equity | US$2.320 billion (2012)[1] (on 225.1 USD/HUF) |
Number of employees | 10,870 (2014)[1] |
| Parent | Deutsche Telekom (59.21% of shares) |
| Subsidiaries | Makedonski Telekom Crnogorski Telekom |
| Website | www |
History
The Early years
On 31 December 1989, after becoming one of the three sections of the Hungarian Post service area, then in 1990 established state of the Hungarian Telecommunications Company (Matáv) was founded in 1991 on 31 December as a telecommunications operator Magyar Telecom Rt., The abbreviated name Matáv. The company remains 100% owned by the state until the end of the 1993rd Entered into force on 1 July 1993, the Telecommunications Act, [8] which is classified as a service concession to the public telephone, mobile telephone, paging and public service. Matáv, out of the privatization tender with the aim of acquiring and purchasing shares of Matáv's national telephone concession. In 1993, a contract was concluded on 22 December, whereby Matáv became the owner of 30.1% of Deutsche Telekom and Ameritech International telecommunications companies, MagyarCom Consortium, a $875 million cost.[2] After the concession tender in February 1994 were born in the local telecom companies. Matáv's service area Hungary about 70% of the territory and 72% of the population covered 36 primary areas covered, where Matáv provided local telephone service. During the privatization process MagyarCom in the Matáv it acquired a majority stake. Under the contract signed on 22 December st 1995. The effect of the two companies forming a consortium of property of $852 million to 67.3% in so Matáv's privatization was in Central and eastern Europe's largest privatization so far, and at the same time the largest foreign investment in Hungary.[3]
Deutsche Telekom's Majority
On 14 November 1997, the trading of Matáv shares began simultaneously in Budapest and New York City with the placing on the market of 26.31% of the shares, the largest share subscription ever held in Hungary. This made Matáv the first Central European company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the summer of 1999, ÁPV Rt.( Hungary's State Privatization Property Agency) sold the last package of shares of the Hungarian State of 5.75%, but still held the Golden share.[4]
On 3 July 2000, in accordance with the shareholder agreement between SBC and Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Telekom acquired SBC's 50% stake in MagyarCom. As a result of the change in the ownership structure of MagyarCom, Deutsche Telekom's ownership in Matáv increased to 59.52%, the remaining 40.48% public shareholding, while the Gold Share was owned by the Hungarian State.[4]
Internationalization
Since 2001, it was possible for Matáv to become an international telecommunications group. The consortium led by Matáv then acquired a majority stake in Macedonia's national telecommunications company Makedonski Telekomunikacii (MakTel), and MakTel became a consolidated subsidiary of the Group.[4] As a further step of the strategy, Matáv acquired the remaining 50% stake in Emitel Rt.
The Group's companies took leading positions in the mobile phone, internet and business data communications markets, with a share of over 80% in the fixed phone market.
A new governance structure of the Group was adopted at the end of 2001, which would serve to achieve the strategic objectives and to ensure successful business by ensuring efficient operation.[4] As of January 2002, a new corporate structure was introduced, whereby four business areas were the basis for the operation: Retail Services, Business Solutions, Internet, and Mobile.
The Biggest Rebranding
2002, the Matáv Group obtained group-level certification in accordance with ISO 9001: 2000, certified by SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance SA), the world's largest independent quality control and certification body.[4]
During continuous developments, Matáv also sought to play a leading role in telecommunications and Internet services in Hungary. This is evidenced by the 100,000th ADSL subscription reached in December 2003. In mobile telephony, number portability was a minor difficulty, but the Westel division of the Group also successfully solved this in 2004.[4]
In March 2004, the Group decided to replace the Westel name, which had existed since 1989, and join the global T-Mobile brand. This happened on 1 May 2004, the day of Hungary's accession to the European Union. Subsequently, the Matáv Group itself decided on consolidation and full unification, subordinating the structure of the group of companies on 1 January 2005, and then on 6 May 2005 all its services and operational organizations under central management and the group of companies. It changed its company name, and from that date the Magyar Telekom Group operated as a group of "T" brand names. That was the biggest rebranding in Hungary to the time.[5]
On 8 November 2005, Magyar Telekom agreed to purchase Orbitel (Bulgaria's telecommunications provider), a transaction that ended on 3 February 2006.
As a result of the full unification in the transformation process, the two companies, T-Mobile Magyarország Rt. and Magyar Telekom Rt. ceased to exist,[6] as a result of which Mr. András Sugár, CEO of T-Mobile, resigned. At the same time, Magyar Telekom Távközlési Nyilvánosan Működő Részvénytársaság took over their role from 1 March 2006, so in Hungary, like in Germany, it was possible to talk of a unified telecommunications company that covers all forms of communication.[4]
Repositioning
On 25 September 2007, Magyar Telekom's board of directors decided to restructure the Company's management and organizational structure to raise service levels, improve cost efficiency, and take advantage of new, innovative service and business opportunities. According to the decision to transform the organizational model, the emphasis on technology is on the needs of each customer segment. The new management structure based on each customer segment was introduced on 1 January 2008 to achieve the strategic goals.
From 2008, the organizational structure of the Enterprise Services (T-Systems) business was simplified to provide a higher level of customer service and increase sales efficiency. The number of subsidiaries in the business was reduced to two.
As part of the integration processes within the Magyar Telekom Group, IWiW Kft. and Adnetwork Online Marketing Kft. merged into Origo Zrt. on 30 June 2008. iWiW was the most visited social networking site on the Hungarian language.
Following the decision of Magyar Telekom's board of directors in June 2008, in September Magyar Telekom launched the T-Home brand, which replaces the T-Com, T-Online and T-Kábel brands, and which represents wired communication and entertainment services related to homes. At the same time, the corporate "T" brand was renewed, emerging as a brand uniting the T-Home, T-Mobile and T-Systems offer brands. By this time, Magyar Telekom's new "Együtt. Veled" ("Together. With you") slogan, which was used by both T-Home and T-Mobile.[7] With the introduction of T-Home, the entire Magyar Telekom Group was repositioned as the only “double triple-play” service provider in Hungary, which, through T-Home and T-Mobile – is unique in the country – makes the Internet, television and telephony available.
Farewell to the New York Stock Exchange
On 1 September 2009, an integrated strategic and business development organization was established by the decision of Magyar Telekom's board of directors. The new organization sought to improve operational efficiency and maximize synergies within the Group.
Based on the decision of the board of directors T-Kábel Magyarország Kft. and Dél-Vonal Kft. were merged into Magyar Telekom Nyrt. on 30 September 2009. The merger was another significant step in the integration process of the Magyar Telekom Group.
In April 2010, the board of directors decided on organizational changes affecting governance, which took effect on 1 July, in order to enable the company to respond even more effectively to the rapidly changing market and economic environment.
To manage product development, communications, market research and brand strategy for the retail market, the board of directors has created the position of Deputy chief marketing officer and the position of Deputy Chief Sales Officer to ensure a high level and full range of retail service. To manage the management and control functions (legal, regulatory, internal control and security), the board of directors has created the position of Deputy chief executive officer for Legal and Corporate Affairs. The new Deputy CEOs became members of the Executive Committee.
In order to simplify the structure of financial reporting and reduce administrative costs, Magyar Telekom withdrew from the New York Stock Exchange with effect from 12 November 2010, while continuing its listing on the Budapest Stock Exchange. The company continues to prepare English-language reports.[8]
4G Technology Enters Hungary
2011, another large-scale modernization of Magyar Telekom's mobile network was launched. As a first step in the modernization, T-Mobile customers were provided with 21 Mbps mobile internet. The modernized mobile network was able to serve multiples of the previous network capacity and was also ready for 4G technology.
In October, the modernization of Magyar Telekom's mobile network reached a significant milestone: the service provider started the extended network testing of 4G / LTE technology with the involvement of its customers. In December, Magyar Telekom once again reached a significant milestone: it was the first in Hungary to launch an innovative satellite TV service expanded with interactive services.
On 1 January 2012, Telekom was the first in Hungary to launch its 4G / LTE-based mobile Internet service. With this, the full outdoor 4G coverage of Budapest was achieved, and the possibility of 4G mobile internet was available to almost 27% of the country's population.[9]
In October, Magyar Telekom won the 2012 Customer Service Excellence Award in the personal service category, and also ranked first in the Top 10 Call Center competition in the telephone customer service category. With this, Magyar Telekom proved to be the best among the country's large companies in terms of customer service. Magyar Telekom won the title of Best Workplace in Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe in the corporate category for the second time in 2012.
T-Systems Hungary, which was 100% owned by Magyar Telekom, started its operation on 1 October 2012, by merging four long-established industry players: IQSYS Zrt., Dataplex Kft., ISH Kft. and Daten-Kontor Kft. T-Systems Hungary provides a full range of telecommunications and IT infrastructure, application development and system integration services to corporate customers, public administrations and institutions.
Brand concentration, brand strengthening
2013, Magyar Telekom won the 2013 Customer Service Excellence Award in CCCC, which means Corporate Call Center Category. During 2013, Telekom successfully acquired nine cable networks. A total of 33,000 households were available for TV, broadband Internet connections and voice services on the networks purchased. These transactions further increased Magyar Telekom's high-speed Internet coverage and strengthened its market position in fixed line services.
During 2013, Magyar Telekom standardized its brand structure: it merged the former strong market brands into a single brand and introduced a new, more dynamic image. From then on, customers could access all services under the Telekom brand, be it mobile or landline, home or mobile internet, interactive TV, healthcare or insurance products. It continued to provide full infocommunication services under the T-Systems brand to its corporate customer base.
In February 2014, the Hungarian government and Magyar Telekom signed a partnership agreement. It was decided that the Government and the market-leading group of telecommunications companies will work together in the long term for the digital development of the country. The creation of Digital Hungary was considered feasible through high-speed broadband internet for all, the dissemination of digital literacy and the increase of the competitiveness of enterprises.
In May, Telekom was the first in Hungary to bring the experience of "multi-screen" television in Hungary. With the TV GO service, customers could watch TV anywhere in the country, even on a variety of devices: tablets, laptops and smartphones. Telekom's innovative product, based on its integrated service and network capabilities, has also provided an answer to the latest content consumption needs.
In October, Telekom became the first operator to use the new frequency blocks won in the tender, which immediately increased the national retail coverage of its 4G mobile broadband network to 73%, increasing its download speed to a maximum of up to 150 Mbps.
In November 2014, CEO Christopher Mattheisen announced that Magyar Telekom had already launched concrete, comprehensive developments for the implementation of Digital Hungary, the first stop of which was Nyíregyháza. Pillars of the development program: development of digital infrastructure, digital services and digital competencies.
In November, Magyar Telekom won the “Excellence in Customer Service – Best Online Customer Service” Award. With this, it once again proved to be the best in the country in the field of online customer service, through its customer service provided through the corporate website www.telekom.hu.
Company Group
Magyar Telekom Group covers three business areas: wireline services, mobile communications, services provided to business customers. The further members of the Magyar Telekom Group in Hungary are the following:
- T-Home (fusion of T-Com, T-Online, and T-Kábel)
- T-Mobile (formerly Westel 900, later Westel)
- T-Systems (formerly Matáv Üzleti Szolgáltatások Üzletág)
International companies
The Magyar Telekom Group’s strategy is to strengthen its footprint in the southeastern European telecommunications market. By the end of 2006 the telecom held substantial shares in companies:
- Makedonski Telekom – Macedonia
- T-Mobile Macedonia – Macedonia
- Combridge – Romania
Development projects
NGN based developments
Magyar Telekom have been working on several subjects, one of them is the ENUM (E.164 NUmber Mapping) project. In the frame of the project is elaborated such a pilot ENUM system, which allows assigning ENUM identifiers to users and accessing the ENUM users at several, different addresses. A web-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) is provided both for the administration and the managing of user profiles. Many investigations in the signaling protocols of 3G mobile networks are made to amalgamate geographical mobility and dynamically distributable relatively high bandwidth with the wide range of next-generation services. In the field of IP telephony services and applications they have already implemented the integration of hardware-based telephones. They have elaborated such a QoS measuring method, with the help of which the quality of the VoIP (Voice over IP) service can be tested and measured on a relative scale, and the given test results can be compared.
A special case of mobility is the so-called nomadic mobility, when the user, who is on the move, is not connected to the network. An average laptop user can hardly concentrate on his work, while he is on the way. He needs network connection only when he stopped and can pull out his laptop from his bag. For instance, such typical places of temporary, nomadic presence are the public WLAN hotspots located in airports or cafeterias, or connection points made available by companies for their business partners visiting them. In the course of our developments Magyar Telekom have been analyzing the possibilities of providing VoIP connection for such "wandering" subscribers.
WiMax developments
Magyar Telekom has already announced its new WiMax technology based service. In the interest of it, they have created a test environment on which the system integration and functional tests can be carried out prior to general rollout.
xDSL technologies
The traditional twisted copper pair continues to be a determinant element of access networks. Systems of the past have been improved in efficiency through numerous innovations and the appearing newer and newer technologies offer further possibilities for the providers. In the frame of this research we have been analyzing the possibilities of new generation xDSL technologies (ADSL2, ADSL2+, SHDSL, VDSL2). Achievable bandwidth, reachable distance, and the triple-play features of equipment are in the focus of the tests. Moreover, we carry out analyses and measurements to identify the conditions of system integration of DSLAM-s with Ethernet uplink. The purpose of the research works is to enable for Magyar Telekom to determine already in the early phase of technological developments those solutions that can provide broadband access for the future's advanced services.
Optical systems
In high-speed (10, 40 Gbit/s) DWDM systems, especially in pure optical networks, the optimum location of the optical amplifiers and the dispersion compensating elements to a great extent influences the performance (throughput) capabilities of the network. At the same time, an exact and accurate calculation method giving the optimum for the location based on the physical parameters of the network and the active elements, is not yet available. The R&D theme has the purpose to explore the mentioned interrelations and through practical measurements to verify and correct the theoretical results. In the frame of this research work we are searching for those practicable calculation and dimensioning methods that can be manufacturer, vendor, or system independently applied for the "physical" networks.
Controversies
In July 2017 T-Systems Hungary, a wholly owned subsidiary of Magyar Telekom, launched an online ticket service for BKK, the unified transport operator of Budapest, Hungary. Reportedly the application contained multiple security bugs. T-Systems Hungary reported online attacks on the application to the local authorities. One major bug was reported to BKK by an 18-year-old student, who then was detained by the police in the middle of the night causing public outcry, as it turned out that the detention was ordered following the report by T-Systems. Tens of thousands of comments and negative ratings flooded both the social media pages of T-Systems and BKK.[10][11][12]
References
- "Annual Report 2012" (PDF). Magyar Telekom. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
- "Cégtörténet – Magyar Telekom csoport". Telekom Mobilszolgáltatás (in Hungarian). Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- Linking privatization and regulatory reform (PDF). David M. Eisenberg, Partner, White & Case*.
- "Magyar Telekom". magyarbrands.hu. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- Reading 5 April 2005, News Wire Feed Light. "Hungary's Matav Changes Name". Light Reading. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- Closed shop? The Hungarian Telecommunication Service Market 2006/2007 (PDF). Goetzpartners and Consolidus.
- earningsreport (2 January 2009). "Deutsche Telekom 3Q 2008 earnings release". Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - Martin, Roderick (1 January 2010). "Transferring Corporate Governance Codes: Form or Substance? Corporate Governance in Hungary". Europe-Asia Studies. 62 (1): 145–171. doi:10.1080/09668130903385440. ISSN 0966-8136. S2CID 153379764.
- "T-Mobile Hungary deploying 4G/LTE services with Cisco mobile internet solution". www.commsupdate.com. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- Márai, László (24 July 2017). "18 year old guy arrested for reporting a shamefully stupid bug in the new Budapest e-Ticket system".
- "Éjjel elvitték a rendőrök a BKK e-jegyének hibáit feltáró fiatalt".
- Péter, Magyari (21 July 2017). "Éjszaka elvitték a rendőrök a 18 éves fiút, aki szólni merészelt a BKK-nak, hogy szar a webjegye". 444.
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