History
On 7 July 1999 a consortium formed by V.R.A.M. and Primatel won the third GSM 900/1800 license in Hungary. After signing the license agreement, on 30 November 1999 the consortium launched its network under the Vodafone brand. At that time, it was the fastest network launch in the World. In the first years, Vodafone roamed on its main competitors, Westel (now T-Mobile) and Pannon (now Telenor) networks, while their own network was available only in Budapest and other main cities. At the end of 2002, they covered 90% of the country.
On 30 January 2003 the company launched the Vodafone live! service and in the same year, the customer base of Vodafone topped 1 million.
In December 2004, Vodafone purchased the third 3G license under the 2004 UMTS tender of NHH.
In 2005, Vodafone launched the Vodafone Passport service, which was available in 17 countries at that time. On 16 December 2005 they launched the third 3G network of the country, which was available only in the inner districts of Budapest.
In November 2006, the company offered a new alternative for fixed line telephone users. The Vodafone Otthon service allows customers to combine the advantages of fixed line and mobile telecommunications with one single handset.
In 2008, Vodafone switched to Huawei as a supplier of their UMTS infrastructure. In the same year, the company offered free Vodafone to Vodafone texts or minutes for every prepaid customers after top up their account with 3000 HUF or more.
Vodafone Hungary with Magyar Posta launched the first MVNO operating under the Postafon brand in Hungary in 2009. The operator also tested LTE technology in Budapest. Vodafone also introduced Vodafone Plus postpaid plan, which offered free minutes and texts beyond the inclusive minutes first on the Hungarian market.
In 2011, Vodafone announced the modernization of the network infrastructure. Later that year, Vodafone announced a 50-50% joint venture with Tesco to launch Tesco Mobile in Hungary in 2012. This partnership is the first tie-up between the two company anywhere in the World.
The network modernisation process completed in March 2012. Vodafone, after securing additional bandwidth in the EGSM band, launched the nation-wide HSDPA+ network, which is available for 9.5 million people in the country. As of July 2012, the 21 Mbit/s capable HSDPA+ network is available on 2432 settlements while the 42 Mbit/s capable DC-HSPA+ network on 101 settlements, including Budapest. The whole network is capable of LTE, although the launch of the service is not yet disclosed.
Read more about this topic: Vodafone Hungary
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