High-speed Internet Made Accessible in Low Population Density Areas

Hungary’s broadband development project has been successfully completed, with the roll-out of superfast internet across almost the entire country, meaning that today, almost 97% of households have access to the most advanced network connectivity. The project was implemented under the management of the Governmental Information-Technology Development Agency (KIFÜ) with more than HUF 3 billion (EUR 7.9 million) in non-refundable EU funding.

The EU’s Digital Agenda and the National Infocommunications Strategy set the target that by 2020, every household should have access to the Internet at a speed of at least 30 Mbps (megabits per second) and that at least half of all households should have access to the Internet at 100 Mbps. The NGA (Next Generation Access) network deployment had to be designed with a particular focus on areas of the underserved, lower population density, small villages, scattered farms and sparsely populated mountain regions.

In order to meet these objectives, the Superfast Internet Program (SIP) was launched with a call for proposals for the preparation and implementation of broadband development. Within the framework of the project, a national geo-spatial electronic communications database was created to manage the tendering process for network development and to provide engineering support for the implementation of the winning tenders.

The self-financing by the service providers covered some 300,000 sites, while the state-supported tenders covered nearly 350,000 sites in 196 district tenders.

Hungary’s 30 Mbps fixed internet network coverage exceeded 95% by 2020, reaching full coverage with the addition of the special mobile service introduced under the project. By the end of 2022, the share of households with gigabit access exceeded the two-thirds threshold. Some 22,500 kilometers of fibre-optic cables were laid and 8,300 kilometers of new infrastructure were built.

Endre Spaller, President of KIFÜ, said that

the program has provided 3,800 public institutions, schools, and municipalities with state-of-the-art optical network connections,

which will support a more efficient delivery of public administration and services.

“The success of the project is not only a result of the development of broadband networks, but also a milestone in the development of the Hungarian digital infrastructure and economy. As a result of the achievements, Hungary is already at the top of the digital map, with the eighth highest national average download speed in the OECD global ranking,” he added.

Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay