Hungary
 

There seems to be very little recent information here about Hungary, so why not collect it in this thread?
Fortunately, all three carriers have good information online in English.

**Telenor**

Coverage / Speed
Both EDGE and HSDPA are provided. Target speed values seem to be rather low...

Prepaid

Internet
Internet for mobile phones
Internet for your computer
I think their only prepaid offer is Internet Praktikum Recharge Card Mobile Internet where you pay 5HUF/min which is about 1EUR/h.

**Vodafone**

Coverage

Prepaid
VitaMAX Party seems to be the best deal.

Prepaid Internet
50MB is free! Very flexible, but rather expensive.

**T-Mobile**

Coverage

Prepaid Domino plans
What a mess. I don't like any of their plans.

Prepaid Data plans
Not as flexible as Vodafone, cheaper only for 3GB/7GB.

I'll be in Budapest from September for at least 4 months.
I'll use a regular phone, a dongle and maybe a smart phone.
Actually I wouldn't mind post-paid either, as long as there is no loyalty.
What do you think of those offers? Anyone with hands-on experience?
Thanks.

The only thing I may add is that a passport was required about 1 year ago in order to buy a pre-paid sim, however after spending 20 minutes in the Vodafone shop a saleswoman told me that I can't buy their sim as I need to provide a hungarian address. As I was only traveling for a short time and visiting various parts of Hungary I decided to give up and left this shop with nothing.

Interesting.

Required Documents

According to their site a passport/ID should be enough for prepaid.
Maybe it's best if I print out their whole website before I go to the store...

Does anyone know a websites where you can top up Vodafone-HU by credit card online?

Hi,

I live in Hungary and I think I know the market. It would be a long story for one single post, and also, offers change every other day :)

All I can promise right now is that if you tell me what you want the best option for, I'll try to give you hints.

Mobile internet is not cheap, but a lot depends on how much traffic you want to generate. You can get dedicated data SIMs, or you can get mobile data bolt-ons with a certain amount of traffic.

As for dedicated prepaid data SIMs, all three providers have offers, Telenor has hidden their offer, it is worth taking a peek at 'Djuice Reload Net', which is an alternative to Telenor's own, minute-based offer. Unfortunately I cannot find a link in English, perhaps because their target audience is local youth :)

T-Mobile and Vodafone both have their flexible prepaids, where you pay for the amount of data you use and not a fixed monthly fee, but these offers are meant for people who only use the card occassionally and do not generate a lot of traffic. Like me. If you know for sure that your traffic will exceed a certain limit a give month, you might be better off with a normal voice SIM with a certain amunt of prepaid gigabytes.

People are different, and the choices are abundant:)

Vodafone - Elektronikus egyenlegfeltöltés

But you'd better speak Hungarian. Enter phone number twice, choose the amount you wanna topup, and click its icon. Amounts over HUF 3000 extend validity with a year. You also are eligible for free minutes or free SMS, you can choose which bonus you want by sending an SMS.

Once you are okay, click on "Feltoltes" and then you can proceed to the payment page.

Lots of options. I do not think postpaid is reasonable if you are just staying for 4 months, but who knows. I would not recommend it without a Hungarian company, good local friends or relatives... Getting rid of a subscription is not easy either, even if not bound by loyalty.

From what you are saying, it looks you need at least two cards: one for your (smart)phone and one for the dongle.

I suppose that something like 50-100 MB/month should be enough for the phone, while you definitely need a couple of gigabytes for your dongle. Can you make a rough guess at the amount you use the net? And what for? Do you want all traffic on 3G or just when on the go? Is there no internet at your apartment / office /school?

Write back here, or drop me a message, we sure can find some options for you.

Thanks for your help, hkr!

I don't know yet if my flat has internet, as I don't have any yet.
I'll soon be on flat hunt though for three days. During those three days it would be perfect to have a sim for calls and a sim for the dongle, so that I don't have to rely on WiFi.

T-Mobile prepaid doesn't look very flexible to me.

You can also use Google chrome which has Google translate integrated.

Hi,

T-Mobile is not renowned for being the most flexible or cheapest... However, their 'Domino Web' package is sort of copying a similar package of Vodafone. It is for people who need to have a stick ready for emergency, and use it a few times, but cannot/don1t want to commit themselves to paying a monthly fee for something they do not use that heavily. I have the similar package from Vodafone in a backup modem, should my CATV and ADSL connections fail at home, the router automatically uses the 3G. I do not pay a penny apart from topping it up once every year. If I use it, it certainly costs more than it would, but it is still cheaper than paying for X Gbyte each month if I only use it once a year... Another similar card I put in my stick, once every week or so, when I am out with my netbook, I check my e-mail on the road. Only once have I used up more than the free allowance of 50MB/month...


Certainly, if you know you are to use your 3G heavily, you can buy a normal voice SIM and activate a data package. I believe such packages are available with all three providers.


T-Mobile offers the following bolt-ons for voice packages:
Mobile broadband

Vodafone has the following bolt-ons:

Vodafone - Mobil Internet - dij_vitamax


Telenor's offers are around here:
Mobile Online 5 GB - Telenor
Mobile Online 10 GB - Telenor



Telenor has the Djuice brand aimed at young people, their Reload Net package might also be interesting: djuice



Mobile internet is not cheap, and there are no real "unlimited" offers. But if you only use the net moderately (ie. surfing, some emails) a few gigabytes must be enough. For applications like FTP, videos etc, you can be better off by finding a neighbour who can share his internet access with you :)

Another point to consider is coverage, a lot depends on which carrier has best signal and bandwidth in your area. It is perhaps worth checking before purchase.

Two things I forgot to mention.

a) Vodafone has two APNs. One of them works with compression, ie. they compress pictures, text and everything they can. This means you get less good looking pictures, but a lot less data. If you do not need full resolution of ads and all, you can save a lot by this.

b) It is also worth noting that while Telenor and T-Mobile offer EDGE for the most of the country, Vodafone only has GPRS in areas where their 3G is unavailable. If you travel a lot to rural areas, this can be a factor. But as a matter of fact I have found that EDGE can sometimes actually feel slower than GPRS...

I went with Vodafone and was not disappointed. Didn't do any tests, but speed seemed very fast. Also apparently latency is low, made several flawless calls through VOIP.

Ok, maybe I understand now what you're talking about.
I think on their website, there is only information about Domino Net and not Domino Web.
Finally I found information about Domino Web in the Domino Tariff Guide... (page 15, 2.2.12.2.)
I don't like it though as you're paying 490 HUF even if you don't use it and for most usages it's more expensive than Vodafone.

Let's compare:

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6702/2gb.png

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5196/fullni.png

So for <1.5GB, Vodafone is generally better.
Above 1GB, you might want to get a fixed data plan from T-Mobile (Domino Net M or L), as you high premiums for the flexibility.

Just to illustrate the point I made above:

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7184/2gbv2.png

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7739/fullv2.png

As you can see, Domino Net 40 MB, Domino Net 100 MB and Domino Net 500 MB are useless.

Domino Net M is ideal between 1GB and about 3GB, while Domino Net L is ideal between about 3GB and about 8 GB.

Reload Net is indeed interesting!
Do you know if Mobile Online 5 GB and Mobile Online 10 GB are available with prepaid?

Djuce Reload Net offers internet for 5 HUF / MB.
Additionally a 500 MB (1990 HUF), a 1GB (2990 HUF) and a 5 GB (5990 HUF) package are available.
These packages are valid for 45 days. The great thing is that you can renew them anytime you want. So if you have used up the data before the 45 days are over, you can activate a new package. This is not possible with T-Mobile.

Let's add Djuce:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9084/2gbv3.png

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/889/fullv3.png

So if you need between 50MB and 1GB, it's quite interesting!
Also from 8 GB and above...

Hi,

thanks for all the interesting comparison and charts.

I am not 100% sure about DominoWeb, I think that they only take the HUF 490 when you start using the internet, so if you dont use it at all, you dont have to pay either. But I will double check.

The main thing to consider beside price is speed and coverage. I mainly use a 3 MB T-Mobile subscription, but also use Vodafone and Telenor SIMs. I find that T-Mobile is usually the fastest of the three, and they also offer EDGE when 3G is unavailable. Telenor/Djuice also offers EDGE. Vodafone does not, so if there is no UMTS coverage, only GPRS is available. It is useful to remember, especially if you are to use stick in a rural area. But generally speaking all three are usable. With some white spots on the map.

As I need internet on the go, but have modest traffic, I keep three SIMs with me, and if one fails, I might use another.

You're welcome.

Thanks, good to know!

Daily tickets
 

There are two interesting data options from Vodafone HU.

If you have a normal voice SIM, for daily 150 HUF you get 10 MB for a day. It is useful for checking your mail / surf some websites on your phone.

If you have the "Vodafone Instant Net" SIM in your modem, the daily ticket costs 590 HUF, but it gives you 300 MB for the day. Can be a good alternative for short stay visitors.

Just re-checked. If you do not use your T-Mobile DominoWEB card in a given month at all, it is free. But immediately you start using it, you pay the HUF 490. With Vodafone Vitamax Instant Net, the first 50 MB / month is always free and you only pay when you have exceeded the 50 MB that given 30 days.

SIM kiosk at Ferihegy 2?
 

I'll be in Hungary in December 2010 - is there a SIM kiosk for any of the carriers at airport Ferihegy 2 ?

I'm flying to Budapest in a couple of hours and will have a look for a kiosk.

Landed an hour ago but unfortunately I could not find any shop selling SIM cards. However the building between terminal 2A and 2B, which will house a shopping area, is currently under renovation. Perhaps you will find SIM cards there when works have finished.

As far as I know Hungarian sim cards are not sold in kiosk but only at official mobile operator shops, which are not so many even in Budapest... let's hope they will put one (or better 3!) in the renovated airport

Top up with Credit Card
 

Hello,

I finally found

https://etopup.hu/online/?language=english

to top up hungarian prepaid cards. I tried T-Mobile and it worked...

(... but I am still looking for a swedish page...)

Hi everyone,

I'll be flying to Budapest by the end of the month for new year. Would someone know the address of some shops in the city where I could get any of these prepaid SIM cards?
I know where the Vodafone shop is, but I'd like to find something nearer to Vaci utca.

I just need the SIM for a week and would use it in my smartphone mostly for internet and not for calls.

Thanks in advance

Hi,

I do not know which operator you want a SIM for...

Actually you can find/buy some SIM cards at a lot of places... Just keep your eyes open. Bigger newsagents and almost all bigger petrol stations, cellphone shops, large stores like Tesco or MediaMarkt also sell SIMs. Some of these places offer so called 'instant cards', which you can put in your phone, but you need to make a call to a certain number where you have to register by talking to an operator. They will send you a letter in a couple of days to verify your address.

Branded (Vodafone, T-Mobile or Telenor) shops are better in the sense that they register you on the spot. However, you can expect a longer queue/waiting, especially as Christmas is coming. But if you are not very picky, you can can just walk a few meters on and find the next shop, especially in Budapest :)

I do not know what you are really after, I might be able to help, just drop me a message.

I know of only one Swedish general web service for topping up PrePaids, that is Tanka mobilen på nätet. Fyll på kontantkortet på Goyada.se

It's only in Swedish and I haven't tried using bank cards issued outside Sweden.

Let me know if I can assist you.