Hungary’s Office of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) has opened its spectrum auction for a 10.8MHz block of spectrum in the 900MHz (E-GSM) band, paving the way for a new operator in the country. The awarded applicant will obtain the right to install and operate a GSM, WCDMA, LTE or WiMAX mobile network. In addition to the 900MHz band, the new entrant will also be able to purchase additional spectrum blocks in the 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands. The submission deadline for the auction is 20 October 2011, with the auction expected to close before year-end. The regulator has set the starting price for bids at HUF4 billion (US$21 million) for a 5 MHz block of spectrum.

The new entrant will compete with three mobile incumbents: Magyar Telekom –the Hungarian unit of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile; Norway’s Telenor and Vodafone Hungary. According to the latest Wireless Intelligence data, the market is led by Magyar Telekom on 4.8 million connections at end Q2, followed by Telenor (3.4 million) and Vodafone (2.6 million).