By Veronika Gulyas
BUDAPEST--Hungary's telecommunication regulator NMHH has
extended until April 2022 the mobile frequency contracts of three
providers active in Hungary, the authority said Friday.
The three mobile phone companies operating in Hungary are
Norway's Telenor ASA (TEL.OS), the U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC (VOD)
and Magyar Telekom Nyrt. (MTELEKOM.BU), owned by Germany's Deutsche
Telekom AG (DTE.XE).
Mobile frequency usage in the 1,800 megahertz frequency band
would have expired in Oct. 7, 2014 for all three mobile firms.
Usage of the 900 MHz band would have expired Oct. 8, 2014 for
Vodafone and Oct. 8, 2016 for Magyar Telekom and Telenor, Gabor
Matrai, the vice president of NMHH said.
The frequency contract extension will generate a total 100
billion forints ($436 million) by 2022, Mr. Matrai said.
The authority will also call a tender for additional parts of
the 900 MHz frequency band by the end of this year after it
annulled a tender earlier this year. The new tender will allow
mobile firms to widen their existing businesses and it will also
enable a new entrant to appear in the market, Mr. Matrai said
without elaborating.
Hungary's top court annulled in February a mobile frequency
tender that would have enabled the establishment of a state-owned
mobile telecommunications company.
Write to Veronika Gulyas at veronika.gulyas@dowjones.com
