Hungary has moved to increase competition in its mobile sector by announcing it is to put out two new mobile licenses for tender. According to a Dow Jones report, cited by TeleGeography, one license will be a “full mobile service” in the 900/1800/2100MHz bands, while the other is in the 450MHz frequency aimed at delivering broadband services to remote or underdeveloped areas. The winner of the full license will need to cover 35 percent of Hungary’s population area within three years, while the 450MHz winner will need to cover 30 percent of Hungary’s geographical area over the same period. The licenses – which will last 15 years with an option of a further 7.5 years extension – will be sold for a fixed HUF100 million (US$480,200) fee, plus a minimum 0.75 percent of the winning operators’ annual net revenue.

Speaking at a press briefing, Daniel Pataki, president of NHH, Hungary’s telecoms regulator, estimated that there are still around 20 percent of Hungarians without a mobile phone despite the country having a mobile penetration of over 100 percent. He added that competition in the market has slowed recently with the market shares of the three main players remaining unchanged since 2006. According to Wireless intelligence data, T-Mobile Hungary was market-leader by the end of second-quarter 2008 with 5 million connections, followed by Pannon (3.4 million) and Vodafone Hungary (2.4 million). However, neither the incumbents nor firms owned by the Hungarian government are allowed to bid for the new licenses. NHH also ordered the incumbent mobile operators to reduce their interconnection fees by 41 percent by December 1 2010 from the January 1 2009 level.