Hungary - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Hungary - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Hungary's broadband market has benefited from intense infrastructure-based competition, with the result that broadband penetration is the highest in Eastern Europe. There is an extensive cable network competing against DSL services and a vibrant and rapidly expanding fibre sector. By late 2019 the incumbent telco delivered a gigabit broadband service to about a third of all premises in the country and was in the process of replacing all of its copper infrastructure with fibre nationally. In July 2019 Vodafone Group completed its acquisition of Liberty Global's UPC Hungary unit, a deal which is expected to result in further investment as Vodafone Hungary seeks to improve its position in the market for bundled services.

The regulator has introduced a number of measures aimed at promoting market competition, which is pushing the drive for higher speed platforms and encouraging operators to invest in technology upgrades with a focus on fibre deployments. While FttP and the expansion of services based on the DOCSIS3.1 standard will help drive the take-up of fixed broadband services, from about 2023 it is anticipated that growth will slow as customers adopt voice and data services on 5G infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

Amendments to the Utility Tax have also encouraged operators to accelerate the deployment of superfast networks, which accounted for about 72% of all fixed broadband connections by mid-2019.

This report provides an overview of Hungary's broadband market, including market analyses, statistics and subscriber forecasts.

Key Developments:

Maygar Telekom's gigabit service extended to a third of premises;
Vodafone Group acquires UPC Hungary from Liberty Global;
Telcos strike deal with the government to extend broadband to underserved areas;
Utility Tax amendments favouring superfast broadband network roll-outs;
RG Networks launches satellite broadband via Eutelsat;
FttX subscriber base reaches 800,000;
Government expands e-payment systems;
Maygar Telecom steps up e-health initiatives;
Report update includes the regulators market data to June 2019, telcos financial and operating data to Q2 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

UPC Hungary, Vodafone Hungary, Maygar Telecom, Hungarotel, GTS Datanet, B2B Europe.