Released on Monday, the animated film, part of the NMHH campaign to boost consumer awareness, showcases via the international summer holiday of a Hungarian family of four the most important things to know about using mobile phones abroad. Titled Useful Advice and Tips for Using Your Mobile Phone Abroad brought to you by  the NMHH (Jótanácsok külföldi mobilozáshoz – Roamingtippek az NMHH-tól), a young girl, Lily, on an international holiday with her family, conveys NMHH guidance for holiday-makers travelling abroad. The film is available for viewing on the Authority’s Youtube channel as well as via its Web site video library (www.nmhh.hu/videotar).

In European Union member states as well as in three other European countries (Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein) charges for one megabyte of data  are capped at HUF 78.3. Outbound calls from mobile phones are capped at HUF 74.4 per minute, inbound calls at HUF 19.5 per minute and text messages at HUF 23.5 per SMS. Denominated in euro across the EU, current standard price caps became effective 1 July 2014 in the aforesaid states regardless of telephony company or country.

With a little attention, customers can achieve attractive savings  on their mobile phone bills. Prior to travel it is useful to check with our service provider whether or not special activation of roaming service is necessary versus it being active by default. Roaming service need only be activated once. Thereafter,, our preferences can be set and, accordingly, our phone will automatically connect to international networks. As for  smart phones and tablets it is a good idea to disable automatic connection to international networks since automatic application updates can generate sizeable digital data use subject to hefty extra charges.

For customer protection mobile telephony companies also apply an automatic cap on charges or roaming data use. Reaching 80 per cent of this set cap the service provider sends a text message to its customer, and unless the customer, upon reaching the full cap, clearly indicate the wish to continue using data roaming, the provider will cut off the service. Key information on international roaming is available on the Web page (http://mediaeshirkozlesibiztos.hu/cikk/167151/Hogyan_vehetjuk_okosan_tudatosan_igenybe_a_roaming_szolgaltatast) of the Office of the Media and Infocommunications Commissioner, which functions inside the NMHH.

On the NMHH Web site the TANTUSZ Roaming tariff comparison tool helps customers educate themselves about costs of international mobile telephony, with information broken down by target countries, service providers, and tariff packages: the tool enables customers to compare six telephony companies’ thirty roaming packages. (http://tantusz.nmhh.hu/tantusz/roaming/roaming.jhtml.) Also, customers can search for current roaming tariff information world-wide.

The Authority’s first public awareness-raising  commercial Where is Klaus? (Hol van Klaus?) had an audience reach of some 34,000 viewers. This film advised parents on how to protect their children online, why this was as important as protecting them in other walks of life, especially during the summer school holidays.