A consortium of three Hungarian state-owned firms will apply to become the country's fourth mobile telecommunications services provider, business daily Napi Gazdasag reports Wednesday.

The consortium will include postal service Magyar Posta Zrt, energy firm MVM Zrt and development bank MFB Zrt. The newspaper says Magyar Posta will control 10% of the consortium, with the other two firms getting 45% each.

It would aim to control an 11% share of the mobile market by 2017. Analysts have said it would need to spend up to 115 billion forints ($515.7 million) in the next five years to achieve that goal.

The Hungarian government is set to auction mobile frequency in January, and applications to participate are to be submitted Thursday.

Hungary's mobile telecommunication market is currently controlled by three competitions, Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN), Telenor ASA (TEL.OS) and Magyar Telekom PLC (MTELEKOM.BU), the Hungarian arm of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE).

The latest figures from the National Media and Infocommunications Authority show there were 11.7 million mobile telephone subscriptions in Hungary at the end of September.

Newspaper website: www.napi.hu

-Budapest Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 361-267-0622

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