The Hungarian Communications Market Developments and ...

The Hungarian Communications Market Developments and Regulation between 2004 and 2008
Figure 3.13: Changes in mobile number portability
Thousand
pcs
250
227
3.3 internet market
The number of Internet subscriptions in Hungary has been dynamically
growing. The number of subscribers by the second quarter of
2008 reached over two millions, as compared to 500 thousand at the
beginning of 2003. Growth rate in 2007 was as high as 42 percent.
200
150
100
50
0
Source: NHH
44
99
Dec 2004 Dec 2005 Dec 2006 Dec 2007 Aug 2008
Figure 3.14: Changes in the number of Internet subscribers
143
194
Competing technologies
In the last four years a remarkable technological realignment took
place in the Internet market. Whereas at the beginning of 2003,
three-quarters of the subscriptions was narrowband, by 2008 these
in practice were replaced by broadband access. By now the ratio of
narrowband subscriptions has decreased to under two percent.
Owing to the development of services, the recent period has seen
an increase in average bandwidth within the broadband category.
While in 2003 download capacity was mostly 384-512 kbps, in 2008
most of the subscribers have connections with a download capacity
of more than 1 Mbps.
In the second quarter of 2008, as many as 415 Internet service
providers were registered with the National Communications Authority,
yet ninety percent of the market is covered by the subscribers of
29 Internet service providers.
pcs
2 500 000
2 000 000
1 500 000
1 000 000
500 000
0
03/I.
03/II.
03/III.
03/IV.
04/I.
04/II.
04/III.
04/IV.
05/I.
05/II.
05/III.
05/IV.
06/I.
06/II.
06/III.
06/IV.
07/I.
07/II.
07/III.
07/IV.
08/I.
08/II.
Source: HCSO