CETIN Hungary, Hungary's first mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider, turns five this year. The company has invested more than HUF 102 billion in infrastructure development, including several artificial intelligence-based solutions, and plans to make further significant investments this year.

The neutral, integrated telecommunications infrastructure provider, CETIN Hungary Zrt. has successfully closed its fourth full financial year. The company's net sales revenue for 2024 was HUF 73.6 billion. With around 230 skilled employees, CETIN Hungary provides services to its largest customer, Yettel Hungary, as well as to other telecommunications companies and enterprises requiring complex telecommunications infrastructure solutions.

Key financial data:

CETIN HU IFRS figures in billions of HUF	12/31/2024	12/31/2023	12/31/2022	12/31/2021	12/31/2020	2020-2024
Revenue	73.6	67.2	51.4	45.7	22.2	total
CAPEX (wo ARO)	22.9	28.3	26.2	19.7	5.0	102.1

 

Five years of development...

The separation of end-user services on mobile networks from the supporting infrastructure is a global trend. In Hungary, CETIN Hungary was the first: the company was created in July 2020 with the legal separation of Yettel Hungary (then Telenor Hungary). The company owns and operates one of Hungary's largest telecommunications network infrastructures: around 4050 base stations nationwide, the entire transmission network connecting them, as well as data centers, IT and security infrastructure.

CETIN Hungary has completed the modernization of its entire network infrastructure in 2024, at the end of a four-year process, at a total cost of HUF 102.1 billion (HUF 22.9 billion last year). It has modernized and almost completely replaced radio equipment, antennas, feeders, transmission equipment and, in many cases, also the passive infrastructure, i.e. towers and other supporting structures.

This means that by the end of 2024, 23% of base stations were 5G-enabled, and by the end of March this year, nearly a quarter of them became 5G-enabled. With this more than half of Yettel’s customer base has access to a true 5G experience.

This is one of the reasons why the services provided on Yettel's mobile infrastructure – based on CETIN's network and services – have achieved outstanding results. Winner of the Ookla Speedtest Award, Yettel was the fastest mobile operator in Hungary in the second half of 2024 both across all technologies, and 4G-LTE and 5G separately. Likewise, according to National Media- and Infocommunications Authority’s szelessav.net's measurements, the operator provided the fastest download and upload speed on 4G and 5G.

 

…to build on for the future

CETIN has completed the modernization of its network, but not the continuous improvement: the company anticipates a substantial increase in capacity over the coming years, with further major investment planned for 2025 to support this expansion.

CETIN Hungary has also developed and continues to develop new capabilities for its modernized network, including artificial intelligence and automation:

• Using artificial intelligence (AI), it monitors cells on a weekly basis against various quality indicators (KPIs), identifies the 100 worst performers and helps redesign an improved and optimized new radio configuration to be integrated into the network.
• AI helps to analyze traffic and quality of service performance in network-based services, comparing it with predicted traffic expectations, so failures can be identified within minutes.
• It also uses AI to monitor energy consumption that deviates from expectations and detect anomalies to identify faults.
• AI supports the company's energy efficiency program by adjusting network capacity to meet traffic-dependent demand while maintaining a high level of customer experience.
• Engineer’s supporting AI, a more comprehensive support and automation of radio network planning and operation, is in the preparatory phase. This means that our engineers will receive customized AI support for their work, based on CETIN's full technological knowledge and experience.
• More than 60% of our employees actively use the corporate AI platform to make their daily work more efficient.
   

Multi-operator services

CETIN Hungary provides telecommunications infrastructure solutions to more than fifty telecom operators and other customers. In addition to advanced data transmission – SDWAN, leased line, other data transmission solutions – and cyber security services, the company provides also mobile operator-independent indoor antenna systems. 

The construction industry has made a huge leap forward in quality, but the significant environmental benefits have also an impact on the quality of indoor mobile coverage. CETIN Hungary provides telecommunications infrastructure as a service to property developers: deploying multi-operator indoor antenna systems in areas considered to be radio blind spots. Applied in office buildings, corporate headquarters, residential complexes, hotels, factories, sports centers and major urban hubs, the technology enables users to benefit from excellent voice and data connectivity, even in buildings with poor mobile network coverage and capacity. CETIN Hungary recently installed Hungary's first multi-operator indoor antenna system with 5G capability for all 3 public mobile services in the Allee shopping mall. 

Milestones in the last five years:

• July 2020: CETIN Hungary, the first mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider in Hungary is established 
• March 2021: we start building the 5G network infrastructure
• December 2021: 600 modernized base stations, of which nearly 5% are high-speed 5G-enabled
• February 2022: cooperation with Széchenyi István University of Győr
• May 2022: cooperation with Óbuda University 
• December 2022: 1950 modernized base stations, of which nearly 12% are high-speed 5G-enabled
• September 2023: we launch STEMpowered by CETIN talent program
• December 2023: 3222 modernized base stations, of which nearly 17% are high-speed 5G-enabled
• April 2024: cooperation with University of Pécs
• June 2024: construction cooperation with BudaPart
• September 2024: construction cooperation with Skanska Hungary
• December 2024: we complete the network modernization on around 4,000 base stations