Vodafone: our most important goal is to help the recovery of Hungary after the virus and enable all Hungarians to have a connected future
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Difficult weeks and months are behind with significant challenges for all of us. Restrictions implemented because of the coronavirus epidemic clearly showed how important digital networks and tools are. As the country now re-establishes itself, what are the new priorities and how are companies like Vodafone going to evolve? We tried to answer these questions with Amanda Nelson, CEO of Vodafone Hungary.
DNH: Today Vodafone announced unlimited mobile data for their RED customers. That’s big news! Is it linked to the crisis situation or something bigger?
Amanda Nelson: I think all of us understand more than ever before now how critical high-speed networks and constant connections are – it’s what’s got us through the last few weeks and months. Immediately the crisis hit Hungary, we’ve been supporting our customers with extra allowances and free connectivity where required. However, it’s time to make a big step forward and unlock the freedom of connections for as many as possible, for the longer-term support of our customers.
So today we launched our updated RED tariffs which offer a truly unlimited experience. We want Hungarians to feel the freedom and security that comes from knowing you are able to connect at all times.
These are important weeks for building resilience and creating the new normal in our daily lives. Having access to affordable, unlimited mobile voice and data options will be critical to this.
DNH: When the crisis hit, what other actions did Vodafone take? How many of these are permanent?
Amanda Nelson: We always have been a purpose-led business – and as the crisis hit we turned our immediate attention to keeping Hungary connected at all times. We had a 5 point plan with immediate actions to support customers, partners, employees and the authorities during the difficult times of the epidemic.
We’re now focusing our attention on supporting Hungarians to get back to the normal life – adjusted for new habits learned during lockdown – and on providing ongoing solutions that will make sure we are even more resilient should further waves hit.
Today’s announcement is a permanent step forward. Of course, the continuous investment in and improvement of our fixed and mobile networks is another ongoing action that remains an ongoing priority
DNH: What did you do during the crisis period that made the most difference, do you think?
Amanda Nelson: While helping people and businesses stay connected remained our overall objective – there were many ways we could make this happen. Whether it was offering discounts or free extra services such as extra 15GB allowance – that was an immediate boost to people finding themselves in an unexpected crisis.
Securing children’s access to digital education and helping teachers learn and improve in how to do that was another clear priority. In order to do this – we allowed a lot of teacher training content to be available for free and made sure access to digital education websites was free for our customers.
We had already launched an excellent Life-Saver app as strengthening Hungary’s accessibility to digital healthcare services (even before the crisis) was an obvious way Vodafone could contribute. It was great that we could adapt the app for Coronovrius situation, with a special virus information button and the ability for push notifications about the most important information.
Hungary’s small and medium-sized business sector is clearly critical to this country’s growth – and we took emergency actions to support them as the crisis unfolded. Whether it was the need for urgent extra bandwidth – or some support on cashflow management by receiving our payments early – we put in place measures to keep our partner businesses able to operate throughout.
All of this, of course, is only possible because we continued to make significant investments in our network to ensure flawless and continuous connections. I’d especially like to thank the technical and other teams who worked 24/7 for an extended period to ensure the network operated as our customers would expect from us and delivered all the capacity required in such an unprecedented time
I have a question for her. Why cant Vodafone Hungary negotiate EU tarrifs for nearby countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo? This region of the world has so many historic, family and cultural connections to each other. It is rather unfair that to keep in touch with friends and relatives in these Countries is so outrageously expensive, or traveling there you have to once again learn to live without online mobile connections, limit phone use etc. It would be such a service to Eastern Europeans, both here, and for those from the above listed countries when traveling to the EU. It would be… Civilized. Not one single mobile carrier has taken such initiative, yet it would help millions stay connected to the 21st century lifestyle. All will be EU eventually, why not take this initiative now?