Budapest, December 19, 2005 13:15

On December 19, 2005 Peter Janeck, Chief Officer and Head of Networks Division of Magyar Telekom disconnected the last crossbar switch in Miskolc in a special ceremony. This action completed the process of full scale replacement of the crossbar switches with digital ones, and with it the digitalization of telecom service reached 100% at Magyar Telekom. Mihály Jambrik, administrative state secretary of the Ministry of Informatics and Communication was also present at the event.

The crossbar switches operated for more than 30 years at Magyar Telekom. The life cycle of the switches has expired, their operation became costly, and they were no longer suitable for the provision of advanced, value added services. This is the reason why Magyar Telekom launched in September 2004 the full-scale replacement of crossbar switches. The number of customers connected to these switches decreased gradually, by the end of 2005 Magyar Telekom connected 158,000 customers of 130 switches to digital exchanges. With the full-scale replacement of these switches the digitalization of telecom services has reached 100% at Magyar Telekom.