Hungary’s two largest mobile operators, Deutsche Telecom-controlled Magyar Telekom and Telenor Hungary, have agreed to jointly operate and develop their 4G networks in the 800 MHz band across the whole country except for Budapest.
The main aim of the…
Hungary’s two largest mobile operators, Deutsche Telecom-controlled Magyar Telekom and Telenor Hungary, have agreed to jointly operate and develop their 4G networks in the 800 MHz band across the whole country except for Budapest.
The main aim of the agreement is to provide customers in rural areas with 4G coverage and access to 4G-based mobile internet services as quickly as possible, Telenor Hungary, a unit of Norway’s Telenor, said in a statement.
It will also improve service availability and quality in areas already covered by the 4G networks, the company added.
Magyar Telekom noted in its own statement that the agreement will “generate efficiency gains for both parties through more effective leveraging of capacities”.
The agreement will see Telenor gradually roll out and operate the 800 MHz network in the west of Hungary and Telekom do the same in the east, barring the capital.
The operators plan to install and maintain 800 base stations each – 1,600 combined – by the end of the year.
Each operator will also lease its spectrum in the 800 MHz to the other. The National Media and Infocommunications Authority has approved this spectrum lease agreement, while the Hungarian Competition Authority has been notified of it.
As a result of the network sharing agreement, Telekom expects to boost its nationwide outdoor 4G coverage to 97%, up from the previously-announced 93%, by the end of 2015, while Telenor aims to extend its coverage to 95%.
The operators stressed that the network sharing agreement is exclusively a technology cooperation deal and will not affect their commercial activities, meaning they will continue to compete with one another.