BUDAPEST -(Dow Jones)- Hungary's telecommunications market authority NHH said it started talks Tuesday with the country's three mobile service providers on the upcoming expiry of several mobile concessions.
Both market leader T-Mobile Rt.'s and second biggest provider Pannon GSM Rt.'s 15-year GSM 900 megahertz concessions expire in November 2008. Their DCS 1800 MHz concessions end in October 2014. Vodafone Hungary's GSM and DCS concessions also end in 2014. The third generation, or UMTS, concessions the companies won last year will expire in December 2019.
"Harmonizing the different expiries would boost investor confidence and reduce the mobile providers' risks...," Gyozo Drozdy, Pannon's deputy chief executive, said.
It would also help market transparency, boost competition and could help reduce prices further, the NHH added.
T-Mobile is fully owned by Hungary's largest telecom company, Magyar Telekom Rt. (MTA), which changed its name from Magyar Tavkozlesi Rt., or Matav, this week. Magyar Telekom is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). Pannon GSM is 100% owned by Norway's Telenor ASA (TELN). Vodafone Hungary is fully owned by U.K. mobile operator Vodafone Group PLC (VOD).
Out of 100 Hungarians, 88 are mobile subscribers and half of all voice telecom traffic is on mobile phones. The penetration rate and the price level of mobile services are at the European average.
Telecom authority Web site: http://www.nhh.hu
-By Margit Feher, Dow Jones Newswires; +361-267-0622; margit.feher@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 10th May 2005
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/12806.php