Hungary’s largest telecoms service provider Magyar Telekom (MTel) says it has purchased additional small cable ventures in the country to bolster its coverage and ability to deliver high speed broadband services. Although details are sketchy, the carrier said that as a result of the latest buyouts, it is now able to reach a further 30,000 households with its T-Home services. Under the goals of the ‘Digital Hungary’ plan, MTel is looking to be able to cover all Magyar households with broadband by 2018 – a full two years ahead of the deadline specified by the European Union (EU). At 30 September 2014 the telco reported a total of 302,791 cable broadband connections, up from 271,616 a year earlier. At the same date it had 528,053 retail DSL users (down from 601,175), 66,172 wholesale DSL lines (73,946) and 56,097 Fibre/LAN customers (48,615).
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, last year MTel acquired no fewer than nine smaller cable network operators in the country, with the assets involved collectively spanning a total of 33,000 Magyar homes – each capable of providing television, fixed broadband internet and voice telephony services on their existing infrastructure. The move to buy out cablecos forms part of the operator’s strategy to improve its market position in the high speed internet segment. It is understood that the combined value of the acquisitions in 2013 was HUF850 million (USD3.86 million).