Press News

Budapest, December 16, 2004

Matáv is already testing its system for electronic bill production and payment service which is expected to be launched at the end of the first quarter of 2005 - Péter Racskó, the company's director told MTI.

The director who is responsible at the company for business intelligence, when asked by MTI, did not give the exact cost of the development, but said that several hundred million forints would be spent on it. He added: the investment will pay off in 3 to 5 years. The solution, including the American Checkfree software will be installed and brought into operation at Matáv by IBM. The objective of the service is to enable the company to produce for applicant customers having internet access authentic electronic bills instead of paper-based bills that comply with Hungarian and European regulations and enable payment of bills through the internet. The addressee of the bill can view the itemized bill on the internet, download the data in an authentic way, with electronic signature and time stamp, to his computer and present it like a paper-based bill when required for control. Having checked the correctness of the bill the customer can pay via internet or by mobile phone. The customer can make a complaint to the service provider in connection with the bill via internet or the call center. The customer can register for the service at any time and can view and pay bills from any computer with internet access from home or even from abroad. All this with the strictest security regulations - he said.

The director added: in Hungary it has been possible to issue authentic electronic bills only since May 1 this year when the Finance Ministry decree on electronic bills entered into force. Péter Racskó said that electronic bill issuing has many advantages, when it becomes widely used the large quantity of paper used by public utility companies each month for printing millions of bills will not be needed. This will have a positive impact on the environment. Additionally companies can save postage costs while shortening bill delivery time and more time will remain for checking. Payment by internet and mobile phone will also enable customers to pay a given bill only after having viewed it.

Péter Racskó said that electronic bill payment is already widespread in the USA where almost half of internet customers use it. In Europe the first systems were launched in the last two years, in Hungary Matáv’s system will probably be the first one. The system will start with the Matáv Group's bills: today the Group issues 3.5 million paper-based bills each month. In the first year the company expects less than 5% migration and reckons with an increase over 5 years. However, the spread of electronic bills will be largely influenced by the quantity and quality of internet usage. The company prepared the system for cooperation with other public utility providers and bill issuers to produce their bills also in the electronic channel. The director also said that in the first phase, expectedly in January, Matáv employees can used the system which can be considered actually as a second test.