By Margit Feher
BUDAPEST--Norway's Telenor ASA (TEL.OS) and Magyar Telekom Nyrt.
(MTELEKOM.BU) may share their 800 megahertz frequency networks to
provide a better mobile and data service with the mutual use of
each others' spectrum, Hungary's communications authority NMHH said
on Wednesday.
"It's important to stress that this is a technological
cooperation agreement and doesn't include retail sales, pricing and
customer relations," said Telenor Hungary's strategic advisor Gyozo
Drozdy at a press conference.
Under the network-sharing agreement, which will expire in 2029,
the two companies will partially and mutually allow each other to
use their respective 800 MHz frequency, the licence which they won
last year in a public tender for various unused broadband
frequencies.
The network sharing agreement specifies that Magyar Telekom will
provide the high-speed service in Eastern Hungary and Telenor in
Western Hungary. The capital city, Budapest isn't included in the
contract.
Financial terms weren't disclosed. Both companies see an
increase in efficiency from the deal, Mr. Drozdy added.
Since Magyar Telekom is Hungary's biggest and Telenor is the
country's second-biggest mobile provider in terms of subscriber
numbers out of the country's three providers, the Hungarian
competition office GVH is still to approve the cooperation
contract, the NMHH said. Magyar Telekom is majority owned by
Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). The third mobile provider is the
Hungarian arm of Vodafone Group PLC. (VOD)
As a result of the deal, the two companies will be able to
provide a Long-Term Evaluation, or LTE, mobile service that will
have more capacity and be more advanced technologically than if
they developed the service on their own, the NMHH said in a
statement.
LTE is often referred to as 4G services, a high-speed wireless
technology for mobile phones and data transmission.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com; Twitter:
@margitfeher