1. NHIT Mission

The NHIT (National Board for Communications and Information Technology) is a government body with the task of formulating opinions and making recommendations; it was established by the government to cooperate in carrying out tasks relating to infocommunication (information technology, telecommunications, media) on the basis of applicable relevant law.

The Board is an organization with a special legal status: it is only subject to the law that decreed its establishment; within their respective operational areas, its members are not subject to outside control. The Board’s composition as it has developed over time ensures that in the formulation of the body’s opinions attention is given to supervision of state compliance with its communications obligations and to the development of state strategy relating to information technology and communications. In the case of electronic media the content includes services and the amalgamation of viewpoints to ensure the harmonisation of the telecommunications infrastructure, the implementation of scientific opinions concerning communications and information technology, and representation of the interests of telecommunications service providers and consumers.
Board operations, however, are not characterised by struggles between sharply divergent interests attempting to gain ground at each other's expense. On the contrary, the task of the Board is to synthesise via their representatives the opinions of organizations representing various interests. Consequently, and as a result of its special legal status, the Board is ideally suited to moderate the effect of interest groups that influence political decision-making, ensuring a balanced, reliable perspective for political decision-makers.

 2. NHIT’s role as it has evolved over time

The establishment of the National Frequency Allocation Board, the legal predecessor of NHIT, was decreed by Act LXII (1993) on frequency allocation, passed into law by Parliament on April 27, 1993 but only announced on July 3, 1993. The NFAC, set up by the government to operate as a consulting and recommendation-making body, albeit with the status of a government committee, under the provisions of the law was intended to coordinate government and civil frequency allocation.

The present name, composition and duties of the Board and its special legal status were set forth by Act I (1996) on radio and television services, which modified the earlier relevant provisions of the law on frequency allocation. Subsequently, the ideas relating to the Board were incorporated within the governing coalition agreement and the government programme subsequent to the 1994 elections. According to those ideas, the Board's only task was to ensure equal access to programme frequencies.
Although in the course of drafting the media law it became obvious that this was primarily the task of the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT), the considerations of that time left their mark on the Board's mission and composition. Similarly, during the drafting of the media law the view emerged that the right to dispose of the  radio frequency spectrum, and top-level decisions relating to the use of radio frequencies, should not be the responsibility of the government, but rather of a Board independent of the state.

This concept survived tenaciously almost until the passing of the media law, despite the fact that it would have created an exception unprecedented in the Hungarian legal system. Breaching the executive power's unified system of responsibility for and management of national and natural resources, it would have removed the radio frequency spectrum therefrom, which obviously had appreciating economic value.
Finally, the Board was not awarded these special powers, but at the same time, the theoretical debate  had become a distraction from the detailed implementation of the tasks that the Board could indeed be expected to carry out. For historical reasons, among the Board's tasks specified in the law, those relating to frequency allocation are the most specific, while those concerning information technology, the regulation of the communications market and undertaking monitoring agency tasks for communications are couched in more general terms.

The recently approved law on communications describes the Board's mission with more subtlety, taking into consideration the greater independence of the communications authority when compared to previous ones, independence which is guaranteed by law. It states that the Board, at the request of the government or of any member of the government, shall give its opinion on all proposals or individual decisions relating to communications and information technology, and it further sets forth the tasks of the Board relating to the regulation of the information society infrastructure. Such detailed specification of the Board's tasks makes it possible, on the basis of its authority, by directing its operations in a flexible manner and by exploiting the advantages stemming from its  composition and its special legal status, to provide effective assistance and ensure a desirable point of view for political decision makers in all issues relating to communications and information technology.

3. An organisation important for integration

The predecessor of NHIT, the National Frequency Allocation Board, was a government advisory body similar to those that exist in many other countries, bodies that continued to develop via the recognition of the convergence between telecommunications and information technology (and the e-media), in line with international practice. In countless developed countries there is some sort of high-level government advisory body like NHIT, an expert, non-political entity assisting in the creation of the information society. In developed countries, the state, through a variety of promotional activities, fosters the development of information society.
The knowledge or information society is a network-based society; one of the cornerstones of its implementation is the telecommunications and IT infrastructure, which provides data communications applications. The electronic economy, electronic government and other social applications in the system of political, social, economic, technical, legal and regulatory aspects impose complex requirements that are specific to each country but must be uniformly adhered to.

A key question in the development and operation of the infrastructure is the role of the state and the manner and extent of its involvement. Because of its legal authority and composition, the NHIT in this complex situation seeks to provide the government with thoroughly analyzed, integrated professional solutions that take international trends into consideration.

The personnel composition of the Board is determined through appointment; the chairman is appointed by the President of the Republic, while three members are appointed by the Prime Minister; an additional three members are appointed by the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT), with one member jointly appointed by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), the Federation of Technical and Scientific Societies (MTESZ) as well as by telecommunications lobbying organisations. The mandate of the chairman and members is valid for a period of four years. The Board has been operating in its current constitution since November 15, 2004.

NHIT’s activities are subdivided into three fundamental areas:

·        Providing opinions and recommendations;

·        Implementing professional projects;

·        Maintaining contact with domestic and foreign fields of specialization.

Providing opinions and recommendations includes drafts of laws, drafts of governmental decrees and directives, and drafts of ministerial decrees. A special component of this activity is forming opinion on extensive national plans and narrower strategies.

NHIT launched professional projects in areas of great significance:

o       The Technological Future of the Information Society (IT3)

The objective of the project is to sketch a vision of the future with regard to technology, insofar as information and communication technologies (IKT) can be foreseen, with particular attention paid to factors with an expected impact on Hungary over the intermediate term.

o       Access to national data collection

Government institutions continuously collect and generate data. The objective of the project is to examine the extent to which the current setup ensures the optimal utilisation of this collection of data for the public sector.

o       The utilisation of the national data collection

The complete title of the project is: „The utilisation of the national data collection in relation with communications activity, and access to public sector data – potential  regulating, legislative forms” The purpose of the regulation is to make the enormous quantity of knowledge in the hands of government authority accessible and to further enhance the utilisation thereof.

NHIT considers regular professional contacts as very significant. It conveys the results of its operational projects to professional and political organisations and also publishes the same on its web site. It takes part in the editing of professional and technical journals („Híradástechnika” /Communications Technology/”, „Információs társadalom” (Information Society)); occasionally it organises professional/technical discussions; its members are regular participants of national and international events.

The personnel composition of the organisation guarantees the supervision and resolution of the listed tasks at a high level of professional competence. Today the organisation is composed of more than technical professionals; social scientists have also been involved in the work. The impact of modern technology on society, including the knowledge of the level of acceptance or adoption of a given technology, cannot be ignored. Consequently, it is here that the respected representatives of the two major disciplines perform their legally mandated tasks for the good of the public, augmenting each other’s knowledge base and corroborating with one another.