Cash alternative payment solutions at Sziget

Vodafone Hungary continues its co-operation with Sziget Festival as a main sponsor this year. Vodafone is going to focus on mobile internet solutions at this year's Sziget, thus for the first time in the history of festivals, they are building a mobile highway of 21mbit/sec for the festival audience using smartphones. The year 2011 is going to be about innovative mobile solutions which make a week-long Sziget-stay comfortable and safe. Among all innovations planned, the most outstanding solutions are the mobile devices equipped with NFC-chips, which can be used for paying throughout the festival, thanks to Vodafone.

Vodafone Tower and 21 megabit mobile net

For festival-goers who find it extremely important to be able to use a fast and comfortable internet-connection, a new symbol of fast mobile internet is being built: a new multifunctional base station and interactive tower which is a true symbol of the results of Vodefone's network development, the outstanding quality and speed of their mobile internet. Less than a month ago, Vodafone began the modernization of their network, and as a result of this process, 99 percent of the Hungarian population will be able to use broadband internet by 2012. After the down town area of Budapest, now Sziget-inhabitants get to use the service offering a theroretical download speed of 21 Mbit/sec, so they are not going to miss anything while having a good time at Sziget. “Our goal is to offer the best for our customers throughout Sziget, so the Tower is not just spectacular, but also offers the possibility for each Sziget-visitor to try the facilities hidden in mobile internet usage. The reason why the outstandingly successful sponsorship-cooperation is highly important to Vodafone is precisely because Sziget is also a test-venue to get a glimpse of the innovative mobile solutions of the future. It is not just an accidental fact that we won the Summa Artium Award in the category of projects for our unique, innovative sponsoring activities associated with Sziget Festival last year” – György Beck, president and CEO of Vodafone pointed out within the compass of Sziget's and Vodafone's press conference.

The Vodafone Tower will be a symbol of Sziget

“The special Vodafone Tower with its unique way of being built is a spectacular – and multifunctional -, and by all means emblematic building of the festival” – Károly Gerendai, main organizer of Sziget added. He said: “Together with Vodafone, we are searching for the specially designed structure within the compass of a competition, which can be set up temporarily and is commensurate with Sziget's name. The inivation-only two-turn competition will be launched within a week or two. In the first run, we are looking for design solutions for the structure and shape of the Vodafone Tower. In the second run, we would like to find out out more about the contectual function and “embellishment” of the Tower, hopefully featuring innovative, special ideas and solutions turning the entire creative trade upside down. The building must be capable of meeting certain basic functions, for example it must give home to a number of community activities – conference room, bar, exhibition, internet café, lookoutv tower etc. – andit must be interactive and spectacular in daylight as well as at night” – Gerendai added.

Sziget is a sponsor of cash alternative payment solutions this year again

One of the outstanding technological innovations of Sziget Festival this year is the new improved Sziget-card, which makes cash the entire territory of Sziget nothing but a memory. With the help of this system, festival-goers get to pay even faster, safer and much more comfortably, no matter where they are at Sziget. This way, they have nothing else to do but focus on having as much fun as they can, as all transactions take place unbelievably guickly, within seconds. Guests receive their Sziget-card free of charge at the entrance, and they can re-charge it at many spots of the festival, using cash or credit cards. Money remaining on the card can be redeemed at the end of the festival at all recharging spots. Should the card get lost or stolen, registered card-owners can ban the card, and get back the money that has not yet been spent until the ban.

Have fun at Sziget without cash!

György Beck said: “We are going to continue the introduction of technological innovations, visitors get to test the next generation-service of mobile paying called Near Field Communications, for the first time on the Hungarian market.” Vodafone Hungary is testing Near Field Communications (NFC) in a production environment, which is a next generation service of mobile paying, enabling users to test real mobile payment using safe wireless data-transfer. In order to use this technology,- just like in the case of Sziget-cards introduced last year – a terminal and a mobile phone equipped with NFC chip are needed. The system works similarly to Sziget-cards, we pay with one touch, and we can already enjoy the fruit of our purchase. Another advantage of the phones is that with their help, special coffee-machines equipped with NFC-readers can also be used, moreover Vodafone-subscribers can even recharge their Sziget-cards.
Vodafone, of course, wants to offer some special sevices to their faithful customers even within the compass of Sziget, therefore as a part of their Thank You program, 7×7 lucky registered customers of the company are going to get a new phone suitable for NFC-services, with a 5000 HUF-balance on it, in order to test NFC-payment thanks to Vodafone at Sziget for the first time.

One of the most successful products of last year, Minute-based Sziget-
tickets are also available this year

Based on the success-products of last year, Minute-based Sziget-tickets will be available this year again, as nearly five-hundred people decided to take advantage of this simple and comfortable product in 2010. In order to opt for the minute-based mobile-payment, the visitor activates their mobile phones and then stops the system before they leave, so they get to pay only for the minutes spent at Sziget which is quite useful if they only want to see the show of their favourite band and do not wish to purchase the ticket for the entire day.