Budapest, March 31, 2000

Two MATÁV applications received the shared 1999 Innovation Prize of the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water Management: the "MATÁVŐR nation-wide security system" (the organizations implementing it include, besides MATÁV, Hungarocom Híradástechnikai Kft. and ElektroTop Fejlesztő, Termelő és Kereskedelmi Kft.) and the "Nation-wide multi-level integrated geographical information system supporting map handling, technical planning and inventory tasks". The jury of the 8th Hungarian Grand Prize for Innovation Competition listed the above two innovations among the first ten in 50 entrants. The Innovation Prize was received by Elek Straub, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, in a ceremony held in Hotel Gellért today.

The protection of tangible assets and real estate has become increasingly important over the past decade. It is a novel feature of the prize-winning innovation that the security signaling system covers the entire country. The system developed and implemented by the company is unique in Europe insofar as it uses a dual technological solution (in-band and over-band transmission) to carry signals to the dispatcher center in such a way that on the receiving end the two systems are standard. The system can be flexibly expanded and further developed (to accommodate functions like meter reading, video image transmission, intelligent home). The customers are satisfied with the system that has been developed entirely in Hungary.

The availability of an accurate public utility mapping system relying on a uniform database is an essential tool of public utility planning. Such a system helps avoid disturbance or damage to each other's system by the different utility operators. The prize-winning system meets that objective: it is connected to an intranet network, contains core geographic data and the relevant descriptive database, as well as the connections of the telecommunications objects.

MATÁV has been a member since November 1996 of the Hungarian Innovation Association which has some 300 members and has been submitting applications for the Innovation Grand Prize competition since 1997. In 1997 and 1998 the company won the KHVM special award for innovation with the following applications:

• Improvement of the qualitative and financial indicators of the telephone network (Péter Szentannai, 1997)
  
• Modern telecommunications services in the new data communication network of MATÁV (Dr. Imre Abos,1998)