On 7 July 1999 a consortium formed by V.R.A.M. and Primatel won the third GSM 900/1800 licence in Hungary. After signing the agreement on 30 November 1999, the consortium launched its network under the
Vodafone brand. In the initial years, Vodafone used towers of its main competitors Westel (now
Telekom) and Pannon GSM (now
Yettel) 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 reached over 1 million. In December 2004, Vodafone purchased the third
3G licence under the 2004
UMTS tender of NHH. In the same year, the company offered free in-network texts or minutes for all pre-paid customers, provided they charged their balance with 3000
HUF or more. Vodafone Hungary, along with
Magyar Posta and Line 21 launched the first
MVNO operating under the Postafon brand in Hungary in 2009. The operator was also testing
LTE technology in Budapest around this time. Vodafone introduced the Vodafone Plus
postpaid plan as well, which offered unlimited voice and text services as a first on the Hungarian market. In 2011, Vodafone announced the modernisation of their network infrastructure. In 2012, Vodafone announced a 50% joint venture with
Tesco to launch
Tesco Mobile. This partnership was the first official collaboration between the two companies in the world. In December that year, Vodafone launched 3G services on lines M2 and M3 of the
Budapest Metro. In 2018, Vodafone announced the acquisition of UPC Hungary. The acquisition closed in August 2019. In April 2020, the UPC brand was completely phased out, with all services rebranded to Vodafone Hungary. The network modernisation process completed in March 2012. Vodafone, after securing additional bandwidth in the
E-GSM band, launched the nationwide
HSDPA+ network, which is available for roughly 9.5 million people in the country. As of July 2012, the 21 Mbit/s capable HSDPA+ network is available in 2432 settlements while the 42 Mbit/s capable
DC-HSPA+ network in 101 settlements, including
Budapest. The whole network is capable of
LTE. They were the first operator offering flat-rate tariffs on the market. On 31 January 2023, Antenna Hungária (a subsidiary of 4iG) and Corvinus Nemzetközi Befektetési Zrt. (an investment company owned by the Hungarian State) acquired Vodafone Hungary, with the companies owning 51% and 49% of the shares, respectively. On 1 January 2025 the company changed its name due to the new owners to One.
UPC Hungary UPC Magyarország () was
Liberty Global Europe's telecommunications operation in
Hungary. UPC Magyarország is the largest cable television operator in Hungary. UPC Hungary provides digital and analog cable video, broadband internet, and traditional circuit-switched and digital telephony (VoIP) services to 2.0 million service subscribers as of 31 December 2014. In May 2018,
Vodafone announced that it would acquire the company. The company merged with
Vodafone Hungary and the UPC brand was retired in April 2020. ==Sponsorship==