Hungary’s 4iG has provided details of what will be a complex transformation and the creation of a completely new structure at the IT and telecoms group. Speaking to Portfolio, its chairman Gellért Jászai said that in a simplified view it is splitting all its domestic telecom companies into commercial activities and infrastructure, then merging its commercial units and doing the same with its infrastructure companies. At the end of the process it will have created a commercial and an infrastructure company from its current four telecoms companies in Hungary, and we will continue to operate its IT and systems integration activities in a separate IT company. As a result of the structural separation, 4iG will be among the first in Europe to implement the separation of its fixed telecoms infrastructure.
Looking to the future, Jászai said that thanks to the Hungarian government phasing out two telco taxes, 4iG will be able to spend over HUF15 billion (€39.4 million) more on its investments each year.
He added that 4iG has committed to invest HUF150 billion over the next five years in an agreement with the government. This means that it will make gigabit-capable networks available in our current service area and in an additional 1.1 million households using fixed or high-capacity 5G wireless technologies.
4iG will also make broadband internet and HDTV services available to nearly 100 % of the population. In Budapest and its agglomeration, in the county seats and along the main transport routes, it will build a high-capacity 5G network, with at least 1,000 base stations deploying the latest 5G technology available today.
It wants a paradigm shift in the development of 5G networks in Hungary, so it has committed in the agreement to build 3.6 GHz base stations, which will provide a true 5G network for its subscribers.
