Press Releases

Magyar Telekom's Digital Bridge Fest tours three additional localities

Budapest, April 23, 2010 15:00

On the occasion of this year's Earth Day, Magyar Telekom's unique initiative, the Digital Bridge Fest is to reach three additional localities. In the framework of the two-day event held on April 23-24, Magyar Telekom's volunteers will educate the residents of three small settlements of Borsod County (Northern Hungary) - Mezőcsát, Tiszabábolna and Tiszakeszi, how to use the Internet, while a talent contest will be held with Péter Novák and the Kultúrpart website.

The Digital Bridge Fest, in cooperation with one of the winners of Magyar Telekom's NGO Strategic Partnership contest, Szívlapát Foundation, organizes a two-day program series for residents and visitors of the region. On Friday, Magyar Telekom invites those interested to join the program at Tiszabábolna, where volunteers of the company will help local residents in how to use the internet, then offer the opportunity to those up to the challenge to test their abilities at a talent contest. On Saturday, the festival will continue at Tiszakeszi, where the best performers selected in the contest can go on stage to entertain the audience in the framework of the Horváth Pista Memorial Day.

Commenting upon the event, Magyar Telekom's Chairman-CEO, Christopher Mattheisen said: "It is very important for us that we, as a large corporation, help people in a way that we are the best at. The Digital Bridge Fest is an excellent way to prove that we can promote sustainable development by capitalizing on our resources in a way that we involve our colleagues in different volunteer programs. Of course, these two days are not only about teaching and learning, as we offer the visitors entertaining program elements and a talent contest, too."

Thanks to the success of the Digital Bridge Fest, we have managed to cover 135 localities already with the internet training program. Magyar Telekom's commitment is also demonstrated by the fact that, in course of the past five years, more than 250 employees of the company have volunteered to take part in popularizing the internet and have helped small regions to catch up with the rest of the digital world.

One of the major objectives set by Magyar Telekom's sustainability strategy is to enhance the information society, to eliminate the digital divide and to promote internet use. In the framework of the Digital Bridge initiative, launched in 2004, a program was put in place for small settlements, with the purpose of helping local residents by showing what the Internet is, what it can be used for, how it can connect people living far apart, and to what extent it can enable solutions to everyday problems.

You can read more about the Digital Bridge program and the events at http://www.jovomeno.org/index.php?jovomeno=hirek&news_id=331.

Interesting facts about Earth Day:
* The first Earth Day event was held in the USA on April 22, 1970, upon the initiative of a university student called Denis Hayes. (Since then, Hayes has become a world famous researcher and expert of alternative energy sources.)
* Earth Day started as a movement of the youth, but 25 million people joined it even the first time it took place.
* Afterwards, laws have been adopted to protect the air and waters, as well as environment protection organizations have came to life in numerous countries around the world.
* Nowadays, millions celebrate this day globally.
* The first time it was celebrated in Hungary was in 1989.
* "Who says you can't change the world?" - that is one of the Earth Day movement's slogans.

About Magyar Telekom
Magyar Telekom is Hungary's biggest provider of telecom services. It provides a full range of telecommunications and info-communications (ICT) services including fixed line and mobile telephony, data transmission and non-voice, as well as IT and systems integration services. The business activities of Magyar Telekom are managed by two business units: Consumer services (the home-related services brand T-Home and the mobile communications brand T-Mobile) and Business services (T-Systems brand). Magyar Telekom is the majority owner of Makedonski Telekom, the leading fixed line and mobile operator in Macedonia and it holds a majority stake in Crnogorski Telekom, the leading telecommunications operator in Montenegro. Magyar Telekom's majority shareholder (59.21%) is MagyarCom Holding GmbH, fully owned by Deutsche Telekom AG.
For further, information visit www.telekom.hu.