Hungaryʼs government has decided that the state-owned National Infocommunications Service Company (NISZ) will provide fixed-line telephone services for state administrative institutions in future, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Further expanding NISZʼs telephone services can achieve “significant cost savings,” it added.

The ministry noted that NISZ had taken over 80,000 telephone numbers used in public administration in 2012. Expanding its service further will allow NISZ to contract calling outside of the network at wholesale prices, it added.

The relevant government resolution stipulates that institutions required to use NISZʼs telephone service must cancel contracts with their current service providers by June 1, 2018, or at the earliest time possible after that date when penalties no longer apply to the cancellations.

Meanwhile, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) released its monthly report on telephone lines in Hungary. In June, the number of internet telephony (VoIP) lines increased by 16% to 1,636,000, while the number of cable telephony lines rose 7% to 964,000 on a year-on-year basis.

The number of conventional fixed (PSTN) telephone lines in Hungary reached 462,000 in June, down 38% from the same month a year earlier. The data compiled by the NMHH cover 98% of the fixed-line voice market.