<nettime> Net crisis in Hungary

[aiahrp@nyoc.hu]

Hi all,

Did you know that 17 May is World Telecommunications Day? Well, it's not so 
shattering I know, but the intriguing thing is what will happen in Hungary on the 
same day. Net users of the nation are preparing to have a boycott of telephone 
lines, including not making phonecalls or connecting to the Internet. 

This is part of a campaign against a recent step of the country's major telecom 
company, Matav. Its 60 percent owned by Deutsche Telecom, Matav has an 
overwhelimng power in Hungarian Internet service providing market. 

On 29 Arpil Matav management declared they would withdraw their flat-rate dial-
up access package from 1 July 2002, which would mean excluding a large 
number of Hungarians from using the net. The flat-rate packages, largely 
instrumental in spreading Internet use countrywide since 1999, were tolerable 
but not cheap. A rise in the prices would bereave many homes of Internet 
access, broadband connection being unaffordable for most of those who chose 
dial-up service. (Also, the country's infrastructure is simply not prepared to shift 
to broadband in the short term.) 

Last year there was a similar situation and society's answer was the threat of a 
mass demonstration. That was enough to have Matav refrain from their drastic 
plan, but now there are fears that the company will carry out its plan this time. 
Freshly elected socialist governing party (still waiting for inauguration), National 
Association of Consumer Rights, a society of internet lawyers and other forums 
expressed their dislike of Matav's decision, saying this step would set back the 
development of Hungarian information society. A large number of net users are 
preparing boycotts, a demonstration in the capital in front of Matav 
headquarters is in the offing, and an online petition has been signed by more 
than 12.000 people since 29 April.

World media has not shown much intereset in the issue, thus an English 
language webpage has been set up by Hungarians, offering translations of 
relevant articles from Hungarian sources: http://english.nyoc.hu/  The 
contributors of the website, including me, hope that the voices of international 
media and organizations might be instrumental in having Matav consider the 
consequences of their decision,  beyond the scope of business, at social level 
too. As socialist party's minister of informatics Laszlo Madur said, <FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param><bigger>"<FontFamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>We hope 
that the telecommunications service provider, being almost in a monopolistic 
position and having a profit of tens of billions of HUFs, will feel the weight of the 
responsibility it has to undertake inevitably for the sake of the future of national 
information society." 

As an aside, Deutsche Telecom "faces EU fine for overcharging." The situation 
very much looks that a national government is not a worthy opponent for a 
market giant. So what can a country, like Hungary, which is not a member of 
the EU, can do?

(Note: this is NOT a spam. Though, my first reaction to the event was sending 
some emails of a simiar vein to media worldwide, suggesting treating the 
subject in their news. Then I initiated the website and <nettime> is the only 
public forum where I send this. I do not advocate the idea of an email 
campaingn.)

A. B.




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