Internet Speeds And Reliability In Budapest

Enfusia wrote:

...

1. How reliable (up time, service issues etc...) is the internet in BP?

2. How fast is the internet in BP? Or, what are the high end speeds that you know of? And are those on cable only or ADSL or?

3. What's up with these monthly caps on data transfer? If I have a family of 5 and my wife downloads a movie a day and I'm online all day and most of the night and my daughter plays games online what package would be plenty

Internet access is the least of your problems.  I am using T-Home (which is part of Deutsche Telekom).

Internet is generally OK but the customer service and information about how to configure equipment to their peculiar system is quite hard to find. Their supplied equipment is irritatingly basic but it does work.  Hardly of the technicians speak English and customer hours for English speakers are stupidly limited.  I find the service can get wobbly if it's really bad weather but that's not unusual here as we have thunderstorms reasonably often which can cause power outages.   Protecting equipment from voltage spikes is necessary here.  All of our sensitive electronics are protected.  It's not a massive issue at all.

You can get pretty good speeds to the home here theoretically up to 120 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload for about HUF 7500 a month including local Internet TV and phone over a 2 year contract.   That's rather cheap - about $26 a month.  The current offerings at high speed at VDSL2 and there is also cable as an alternative some places.  There are no caps on downloads and as far as I know - I use 30-40 GB per month but I listen to a lot of internet radio and watch broadcast TV from the UK that way. There's no blocking on web sites for downloads. But in that case, you can just VPN to the USA, get the torrent file and disconnect and let your download software get on with it in the background.

You can also get free Wifi in some places like McDonalds.  Mobile Internet (3G/4G) is patchy. Sometimes it hardly works at all in the countryside.  It's perhaps the weakest part of the entire system.  There are caps and it's stupidly expensive compared to the fixed line.

Enfusia wrote:

What's up with these monthly caps on data transfer?

1) People are poor here. They can not always afford such packages, so there are also cheaper but limited (both in total bandwidth and data transfer) options to suit every budget. Here, you pay more to get more. See for DSL example:

http://www.telekom.hu/otthoni/lakossagi … ijcsomagok

Translation services for above web page:
   2 éves hűség - Monthly price with 2 year contract
   2 éves hűség - Monthly price with 1 year contract
   hűség nélkül  - Monthly price with no contract (you can cancel any month)

  Kínált legnagyobb feltöltési sávszélesség - Upload speed
  Garantált letöltési sebesség - Guaranteed download speed
  Garantált feltöltési sebesség - Guaranteed 'minium' speed
  Hűség nélkül, TV és telefon mellé - Price if you also get their telephone and TV service (e.g. the XXL no contract will be 11,200 Forint ($40 at today's exchange rate) per month without also TV and phone)
  Egyszeri telepítési díj új előfizetés esetén - One time installation fee

2) Wireless Internet is pretty standard around fixed prices per monthly transfer totals (if you exceed the limit, they slow you down (a lot), not cut you off), or you can pay per MB/GB you use each month.

3) American concept of "net neutrality" does not necessarily apply here. The national government in Hungary even tried to impose an Internet use tax last year. They have backed off the idea (for now).

Fluffy 2650 and klsallee, thank you very much!!!

I really can't tell you how important internet is to me so all your information is greatly appreciated.

Fluffy 2650 if that's correct on the pricing then that's 1/10th of what I pay here in Tampa Florida. With taxes and all the fees that is. I have 35mgps down and 15mgps up with a TV bundle with no premium channels and 3 phone lines. and my total bill from Verizon is just under $250 USD per month.

I teach email marketing so my main focus is list building.

Your information is so greatly appreciated you have no idea. Because with what I do you can imagine this is a make or break deal on living there.

Any insights and information anyone has would be appreciated.

Thank you very much, Patrick

Enfusia wrote:

Fluffy 2650 if that's correct on the pricing then that's 1/10th of what I pay here in Tampa Florida. With taxes and all the fees that is. I have 35mgps down and 15mgps up with a TV bundle with no premium channels and 3 phone lines. and my total bill from Verizon is just under $250 USD per month.

if you make local calls, you can get a subscription mobile for about $50 a month with unlimited calls within Hungary. When I want to contact Mrs Fluffy, I give her a "missed call" and she calls me back from her unlimited allocation.  Our ordinary fixed phone is not used much at all for outgoing calls. Missed calls are free (as no connection is actually made). For others, you can give them a pre-paid throwaway phone (what the cop shows call "burners").  These are absolutely cheap to buy and use so long as you do not make a lot of calls. 

If you get VoIP equipment, you can even have "landline" numbers in the USA which will ring in Hungary.  Callers will have no idea where you are and it will be basically free to you so long as it's a "caller pays" system in the USA (as it is here).  For making outgoing calls it can be expensive but the caller ID will show a USA number.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Enfusia wrote:

Fluffy 2650 if that's correct on the pricing then that's 1/10th of what I pay here in Tampa Florida. With taxes and all the fees that is. I have 35mgps down and 15mgps up with a TV bundle with no premium channels and 3 phone lines. and my total bill from Verizon is just under $250 USD per month.

if you make local calls, you can get a subscription mobile for about $50 a month with unlimited calls within Hungary. When I want to contact Mrs Fluffy, I give her a "missed call" and she calls me back from her unlimited allocation.  Our ordinary fixed phone is not used much at all for outgoing calls. Missed calls are free (as no connection is actually made). For others, you can give them a pre-paid throwaway phone (what the cop shows call "burners").  These are absolutely cheap to buy and use so long as you do not make a lot of calls. 

If you get VoIP equipment, you can even have "landline" numbers in the USA which will ring in Hungary.  Callers will have no idea where you are and it will be basically free to you so long as it's a "caller pays" system in the USA (as it is here).  For making outgoing calls it can be expensive but the caller ID will show a USA number.

That's fantastic information, thank you.

We don't really make very many calls at all. You know how here in the USA people walk around with their phone in both hands acting like they are important because that means lots of people are communication with them. Yeah... we don't do that.

So, very few calls really compared to most people here.

Thank you, Patrick

50USD / month for calls in HU? That is too much!
I hope this rip off will end in 2017 when roaming will be abolished and EU becomes one cellphone market like in US.

MOHCTEP wrote:

50USD / month for calls in HU? That is too much!
I hope this rip off will end in 2017 when roaming will be abolished and EU becomes one cellphone market like in US.

Probably is I suppose but it's unlimited flat rate. And the way Mrs Fluffy burns through her minutes she probably needs it. She calls everyone.  She also has data I think but doesn't use it as she doesn't have a smart phone.  The Fluffyettes and I  have been trying to persuade her to get a proper phone so she can get her e-mails mobile too.  But over all the EU, the worst thing is data. It's an utter rip off.   If I go anywhere for more than a couple of weeks, I get a local sim card. 

The EU butt kissing going on to the mobile phone companies transitioning to the one price model all over is utterly ridiculous.  Prices have gone down a bit but it's just taking too long. 

BTW, I believe the mobile company "3" which operates over a few countries in Europe and Asia already operate a flat rate on their networks across the world.