The Hungarian Communications Market Developments and ...

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The implementation of the regulation relating to mobile services in
Hungary may be considered typical. Yet, the regulation of termination
rates in all of Europe follows a homogeneous practice (costbased
and glide path approach), with certain additional elements
(symmetric rates, regulator’s own cost model).
In addition to the selection of the adequate regulatory means, the
application and realisation of the regulation is of key importance for the
operation of the market. In this respect, regulated wholesale prices have
an important role. The obligation of cost-based price regulation is ineffective
if the prices cannot be really pushed down to a cost-based level.
In 2007, the average price of fixed termination rates in the European
Union was 0.57 cent locally, 0.87 cent at a regional level (single transit),
and 1.12 cents in the case of national interconnection. The Hungarian
price is slightly higher in the case of local access (0.71 cent), the
regional price is roughly the same (0.91 cent), and the national interconnection
price is somewhat lower than the average (1.05 cents).
In 2007, the all-inclusive average price of the LLU calculated for
one month in the EU was EUR 11.28 in the case of full unbundled
access and EUR 4.51 in the case of shared access to the local loop.
While prices varied mostly between EUR 8 and 12 for full unbundled
access to the local loop, in the case of shared access, we can find
considerably lower (in Belgium and Netherlands the value is about
EUR 2) and also higher prices, as compared to the average.
The Hungarian prices, in the case of full unbundled access to the
local loop is somewhat below the EU average (EUR 10.5), with the
price of shared access to the local loop being significantly higher
(EUR 6.16). If we take only the monthly price of unbundled access
to the local loop into consideration, in the case of full unbundled access,
the Hungarian price complies with the EU average (EUR 9.54),
but the price of shared access is higher (EUR 6.16 in contrast with
the EU average of EUR 4.5).
Figure 4.27: Fixed termination rates – double transit (2007)
Eurocent/
minute
4
3
2
1
0
SE
UK
CY
DK
NL
IE
EL
HU
BE
EU27
LV
IT
FR
MT
RO
PL
PT
DE
ES
SI
SK
AT
BG
LT
Source: EU Implementation Report 13
Figure 4.28: Aggregated price of full unbundled access
to the local loop for one month (2007)
Euro
20
16
12
8
4
0
EE
IT
NL
EL
LV
DK
PT
SI
CY
RO
HU
FR
SE
MT
EU27
BE
ES
DE
AT
LT
PL
SK
LU
UK
BG
FI
CZ
IE
Source: EU Implementation Report 13