Hungary is a market where EDGE technology has been a natural step to mobile broadband. WCDMA is seen as an extension of EDGE. T-Mobile Hungary and Pannon GSM already provide EDGE, giving users a taste of mobile broadband.
Staffan Perhson, head of Ericsson Hungary, says: “It is clear that the advanced operators in this country have understood the importance in providing mobile broadband in order to extend their revenue base. They are also tactical in their stepwise approach with GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, and also later the evolved version of WCDMA, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).”
As 3G handsets are not yet available, achieving 3G services requires utilizing EDGE through the use of PC cards in laptops. In this way EDGE users will get a taste of the benefits of 3G, such as making quick music downloads and e-mail access, and will be ready to enjoy the same services on their mobile the day WCDMA is launched.
The Hungarian telephony market has grown rapidly. Last year's trend of aggressive price competition initiated by Vodafone, the late entrant operator, will probably continue through 2005, benefiting the Hungarian consumer. Mobile telephony has gone from 18 percent penetration in 2000 to more than 85 percent at the end of February, equating to 8.7 million users. T-Mobile has the dominant market share at 46 percent, followed by Pannon GSM with 34 percent and Vodafone with 20 percent.
Fixed-line telephony also experienced enormous growth in the 1990s. But after stagnating at 35.5 percent penetration, the trend reversed in June 2004, with the number of users declining to 35.1 percent or, 3.6 million lines at the start of this year.
Internet penetration is still low but is increasing slowly. Fixed broadband is also growing, but both penetration and offered bandwidth is lower than that in Western Europe. The ratio of ISDN lines has remained steady since September 2003, at 16.7 percent. First-time figures for household DSL connections, primarily ASDL, showed that at the end of January there were 250,000 lines, which is 7 percent of landlines.
The mobile stronghold in Hungary makes 3G services all the more attractive. In April 2002, Hungary was home to the world's first commercial, full-scale Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) call, made by Westel (now T-Mobile) using Ericsson technology. Hungarians have become accustomed to non-voice services, predominantly based on SMS, but MMS is starting to take off with MMS push services such as daily news, weather and humor becoming popular in some segments. All three operators have branded WAP portals offering primarily their own content. Third-party content providers could also soon make an appearance.
GPRS is making these services possible, especially through the added capabilities of EDGE. Being adopted now, EDGE gives wide, high-speed coverage instantly and only requires a simple upgrade of a network's radio base stations. By the end of 2005, WCDMA will be available in large cities, and 3G handsets will be released on to the market.
