Press Releases

Budapest, June 9, 2011 12:00

The T-City program, which was launched as the first intelligent city concept by Magyar Telekom and the city of Szolnok in May 2009, looks back on two years of successful cooperation. Yet additional innovative services become available in Szolnok from now on in the framework of the program. The city card T-City-CityPass is an intelligent chip card facilitating access to various community services and benefits for their holders and, what is more, relying on the NFC technology, the cards will be able to be used as a pass or ticket for local transport as well. The CityGuard service will contribute in the long run to enhancing the city's public security through automatically monitoring usage, which can be analysed subsequently. The EnergyManagement system, which is also being inaugurated now, will facilitate considerable energy savings in buildings operated by the local government.

Szalay Ferenc, the Mayor of Szolnok emphasised: "We are proud that Telekom selected Szolnok to host such a major innovative program. The two-year success of the T-City program is a good example of good cooperation between business, the local government and the civil sphere. Szolnok's citizens, the local firms and institutions can only benefit from being the first to meet several innovations of Telekom. I am confident that the CityCard and the CityGuard to be implemented now along with the EnergyManagement system will contribute to the competitiveness of our city and enhance its appeal. In addition the program is an encouragement for the local government of the City of Szolnok, as it incessantly encourages us to innovate in which Telekom is our excellent partner."

Pataki Róbert, Magyar Telekom's Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer said: "Our cooperation has testified so far that our decision was correct when we decided to choose Szolnok for our T-City program. The flexibility of the city and its institutions, the openness of the local population and businesses, their willingness to cooperate have been an indispensable prerequisite for the success of the past two years. Entering new business areas is of a key importance in our company's strategy and T-City offers an excellent opportunity for it. In our cooperation so far we have conducted 7 tests, of which three services have been included in our product portfolio. T-City continues to play a major role in Telekom's innovative activities. Through the implementation and testing of our most recently announced innovations, accompanied by our high-speed HSPA+ mobile internet already available in the city we intend to contribute to Szolnok's aspirations to turn into a digital city."

The city card called T-City CityPass as one of the services to be implemented now will be available to those interested for testing from May 2011 till the end of the year. Using their intelligent card Szolnok citizens will be able to access various services (e.g. city transport, token collection, e-meeting, etc.) and benefits. The city card will mainly take the form of a card for its users, but a key attention will be paid during testing to the implementation of the "mobile phone integrated city card" using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. A key partner to accept the city card in Szolnok will be the Jászkun Volán Plc, the firm providing community transport services for the city. The firm will grant card holders the possibility to purchase and use on its vehicles its products (like a general pass for all its lines, pass for young mothers, and time-based ticket). In addition to this the city card can be used for collecting and using loyalty tokens at the various institutions of Szolnok County City as well as for availing of various benefits at the city's commercial partners having signed up for the program.

In the result of the CityGuard program to be implemented this June public security in Szolnok and thus the city-dwellers' sense of security may improve. In the framework of the test equipment monitoring inbound and outbound public roads of the city will be installed at several points of the Szandaszőlős part of Szolnok. It can be especially instrumental for use by national and local authorities responsible for public security as well as civil bodies operating with their authorisation. Operating automatically the equipment installed reasonably but not necessarily along the boundaries of settlements has the ability to identify and, depending on how it has been programmed, to take photo of every vehicle passing it in any direction in 24 hours a day, without any human intervention. The photos marked with the place and the time when they have been taken are stored. They can be used only in strict compliance with data protection rules and only in the event if something extraordinary or some criminal act occurred in the vicinity in which case an analysis by the authorities of the photos is assumed to advance the investigation.

The current economic situation, rising electricity and gas prices as well as the increasingly strict environmental regulations of the European Union businesses look for solutions that promote an immediate reduction of energy consumptions whereby they can minimize their costs and CO2 emissions. The EnergyManagement system, which is going to be tested in the T-City program, can provide help in this regard. The energy control and data collecting system continuously measures and collects energy consumption data (electricity, gas, water, district heating), along with other environmental factors (temperature, humidity, wind speed etc.) at several points of a plant and prepares on their basis forecasts with respect to future consumption.

About T-City

T-City is a joint development and innovation program between Magyar Telekom and Szolnok County-City, which was launched in May 2009 with the aim of providing and testing the most advanced telecommunication, info-communication and content services. In the wake of the initiative Szolnok's citizens have been the first ones to have the opportunity to use the possibilities inherent in new technologies in the areas of health, education, public administration, tourism and culture. One of the missions of T-City is to render the services being implemented available for the broadest possible walks of the city as well as to have T-City innovations promote the county-city's long-term development strategy.

The T-City program has been in operation for two years now in Szolnok. In its framework 7 tests have been successfully conducted (the Panic-button, the Future Store, RFID, i.e. radio-frequency enabled school access system, HomeGuard, IP camera based communication system, the AreaMonitor, Visuland). Services are enhanced in cooperation with the local population and institutions, with the help of their feedback and ideas, having resulted in the market rollout of three services in the meantime.

An additional important element of the T-City program is the reduction of digital illiteracy. With this end Telekom introduced the possibilities inherent in the computer and info-communications in the framework of the Internet Academy for grownups and the T-City Kids program for primary school pupils.