The first EU country is leading the way

What worked for cars should also work for mobile phones: in Hungary there is now a trade-in bonus for older smartphones. If you buy a new one, you will receive around 56 euros for your old device. The background is the shutdown of the 3G networks in the EU country.

Hungary: Trade in a 3G cell phone and get money

Anyone in Hungary who still owns an old mobile phone that doesn’t even have LTE is now eligible for a scrappage bonus. When you buy an LTE or 5G-enabled smartphone, a Exchange bonus of 20,000 forints paid, which corresponds to around 56 euros. There is no difference in the type of devices, so it does not depend on the condition or the manufacturer.

According to the Hungarian Telecom Regulatory Authority Farewell to 3G networks accelerated through the trade-in program. Five billion forints are available, which is enough for 250,000 scrapping premiums.

One of the prerequisites is that a Residence in Hungary must exist and the mobile phone to be exchanged was still actively used in the past year. So there is no plan to rummage around for an ancient mobile phone and then collect 56 euros for it. In addition, the new device must cost at least 265 euros net.

If there is still enough money in the pot on May 8, 2022, then the Scrapping premium even extended to 2G cell phones will. The requirements otherwise remain the same (source: hot online).

We have summarized more about switching off 3G here in the video:

Scrap bonus: Hungary switches off 3G networks

In Hungary is with the Shutdown of 3G networks been started. The frequencies released in this way will then be used in the 4G and 5G areas. From July 2023, according to the plan, 3G will no longer be available in Hungary. This has already happened in Germany. Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone said goodbye to the UMTS network in June 2021, Telefónica (o2) took a little more time.