Fierce competition continued to drive mobile growth in Hungary in 2005, according to latest figures published by the Hungarian telecoms regulator, the NHH. The number of active users rose by 583,000, boosting the country total to 9.32 million. The NHH said mobile penetration reached 92.4% by the end of December 2005, up from 86.4% a year earlier and 90.7% in November. The largest single monthly rise took place in the pre-Christmas period and 178,000 new SIM cards were registered in December alone.
The regulator’s figures show T-Mobile and Pannon GSM have lost ground in terms of market share, while Vodafone has closed the gap on its two bigger rivals. T-Mobile controlled 45.2% of the sector at the end of the year, down from 46.2% the previous year, and Pannon’s market share dipped from 34.1% to 33.6% in the same period. Vodafone, however, increased its own market share from 19.7% to 21.2% by 31 December 2005.