The Hungarian government is rolling out a nationwide initiative to connect underprivileged families to the internet.
The Basic Digital Success Package will help between 200-250,000 Hungarians who have not yet connected to the world wide web due to financial reasons.
Prime Ministerial Commissioner for the Digital Success Programme Tamás Deutsch said the program will become available among the product range of service providers from this summer.
“According to the latest studies, one and a half million people are not internet users and 14 percent of these people cited financial reasons as the chief reason," Deutsch noted. “Government measures have already been implemented to remedy the most often cited reason, a lack of competency," he added.
According to MTI, Deutsch said that service providers can now submit their applications to use the state-owned trademark, and following an accelerated process companies will have 45 days to include the new package, which will be at least 15 percent cheaper than the most favorable package they currently offer.
The level of VAT on internet services was cut from 27 percent to 18 percent on January 1st this year, and according to the proposal currently before Parliament they will be further reduced to 5 percent from the beginning of next year. Together with the introduction of the Basic Digital Success Package, this measure means that prices will have fallen by at least 35 percent.