ADSL prices fall under the psychological barrier of 5000 HUF
Budapest, November 9, 2005
During its new ADSL campaign for home subscribers, GTS-Datanet offers an ADSL plan called easy_c with a download bandwidth of 512 Kbps, without any one-time fees, for as little as 4995 HUF (including VAT). Actually, it is possible to use the Internet for free with GTS-Datanet: subscribers of the easy ADSL plan do not need to pay anything at all for the broadband connection for four months after signing the contract. These ADSL fees are lower than the 'psychological border' of 5000 HUF, defined earlier by the Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunication. This is where most of the dialup users are willing to switch to broadband.
Retail ADSL prices have fallen to one-third in two years. At the end of 2003 the cheapest home user plan of GTS-Datanet, with a bandwidth of 384 Kbps and with a 12-month committed contract used to be 12 375 HUF (including VAT), plus one had to pay a one-time installation fee of 28 175 HUF (including VAT). Using the Internet for one year thus cost 176 675 HUF, and this was a very competitive price at the time. Today, the cheapest, 512 Kbps home user plan costs only 59 940 HUF a year.
"The radical drop in retail prices is mostly the result of the cutthroat competition on the market and the drop in the wholesale prices" - said Géza Szathmári, CEO of GTS-Datanet. "We hope that today's ADSL prices do not place a heavy burden on most households, so the number of broadband subscribers can jump up in the near future. Further decreases in retail prices depend on the changes in wholesale pricing. We do not expect any further significant price drops on the ADSL market", he added.
