Telecoms operator Vodafone UK has today launched a new range of bundles that includes their FTTC based superfast home broadband ISP service alongside a phone line and a selection of four SIM-Only 4G mobile tariffs, which when taken together could save subscribers a little extra money.
At present Vodafone offers two home broadband packages – Superfast 1 (up to 38Mbps) and Superfast 2 (up to 76Mbps) – on an 18 month contract term, both of which include a wireless router (£9.99 delivery), unlimited usage, phone line rental, Parental Controls and six months of free F-Secure anti-virus software for up to 5 devices.
Both also come attached to their “Ultimate Speed Guarantee,” which means that customers benefit from a guaranteed minimum speed (“sync speeds” to the router, not over wifi etc.) of 25Mbps (Superfast 1) and 55Mbps (Superfast 2) respectively. Should Vodafone fail to deliver on this minimum speed then customers will be given a 15% discount (once per month until the issue is fixed).
On top of that if you happen to be an existing Vodafone Mobile subscribe then each package will also cost -£2 per month less.
Superfast 1 (up to 38Mbps)
Guarantee of 25Mbps
PRICE: £21 for Voda mobile customers (£23 for non-mobile customers)Superfast 2 (up to 76Mbps)
Guarantee of 55Mbps
PRICE: £26 for Voda mobile customers (£28 for non-mobile customers)
Today the operator has moved to enhance this by introducing the option of bundling in a SIM-Only mobile plan alongside. For example, you could take Superfast 1 alongside a 4G SIM-Only plan that includes 500MB of mobile broadband data, 500 mins and unlimited texts for a total of £31 per month (i.e. you pay +£10 extra for the Mobile SIM on this one).
Sadly Vodafone doesn’t have a 500 min SIM Only plan for a comparison, although their 250min / 250MB plan costs £11 per month and so the above does reflect a small saving.
You can also bump the home broadband speed on any of those to Superfast 2 for an additional +£5 per month. Take note that the SIM Only plan above comes attached to a shorter 12 month contract term, while the broadband service retains an 18 month contract.
Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK CEO, said:
“We’re already delivering guaranteed speeds on home broadband as well as great mobile connectivity on our strongest UK network, so naturally the next step was to bring the two together. We are delighted to launch these home broadband and mobile bundles, delivering great value and a service our customers can rely on.”
Unfortunately the bad news is that at present it doesn’t appear as if you can order these new bundles via Vodafone’s website. Similarly the press release states that “customers looking to take advantage of these bundles can do so by speaking to one of our advisors on the phone via 191 or in-store at one of our 450+ retail stores across the UK.”
The move is designed to give BT, Virgin Media and Sky Broadband a run for their money. Unfortunately there’s no easy way for TalkTalk to respond as they recently scrapped their MVNO aspirations, which has left them vulnerable to competitive offers like this one.
Vodafone broadband is great value for money, so glad I switched from talk talk.
Not only for money. It is also important for mental health. With TalkTalk I have had up to 15Mbit/s out of 38. On the same line with Vodafone I have 35-38 all the time.
I downloaded their broadband app that pairs up with the router. So easy to use! 🙂
This is just a marketing ploy as opposed to bt ultrafast.
Nah mate it’s just a 15% discount you can apply with a button on the Vodafone broadband app if (and only IF) your sync speed is lower than 25 or 55Mbps.
The treason might be that your house is far away from the exchange or you have aluminium cabling outside your home. It doesn’t apply to dodgy WiFi issues. There are ways to improve that like splitting the SSID and changing WiFi channels.
Luckily I live close by to a BT Exchange so I get 80Mbps to the router, so no discount for me.
Not what I wanted to hear, mobile or fixed line operators need to back their services up with a 4g connection for people living in rural areas, then try these packages would be more inviting
Didn’t EE launch a product like that recently?
You can do this with any provider, people are just too lazy to buy an antenna and put it up themselves.
Vodafone Broadband is rubbish. Just ditched then after 4 months of hassle. I provided them with documented evidence of the outages and they denied any probelems, and despite their own helpdesk could alleviate the issue temporarily by resetting the account restrictions.
AVOID!
Out of interest who did you switch to?
He never had them in the first place
Useful tip: The speed refers to sync speed, not WiFi or throughout speed. WiFi speeds can be optimised using 192.168.1.1 (settings page) or using the Vodafone Broadband app
You request the discount yourself via the same Vodafone Broadband app if the sync speed is less than 25/55Mbps (not the “my vodafone” app – that’s for bills etc).
If their Openreach engineers can’t get the sync speed above 25/55Mbps then the discount will remain.
People who live far away from their local Openreach exchange will have to get the discount indefinitely since there’s often no way to improve the sync speed above 25/55Mbps. The line is just too long so the speed diminishes.
Vodafone can send a fibre engineer to investigate, check the quality of the line and ensure the line is on the right DLM profile, in order to make sure you’re getting optimal speed without having intermittent connection drops.
Whilst it is good that users will receive a discount if the minimum is not achieved (others may follow) the danger here is that ISPs are more likely to check via databases whether your address can achieve it and if not they may not offer the product. My line is in this category at 44Mbps.
Vodafone broadband? In UK is only one company for home broadband – OPENREACH. You can pay vodafone, talk talk etc.
Err, what part of Virgin’s infrastructure uses Openreach? Oh and Hyperoptic, Gigaclear etc.?
And you can’t order broadband from Openreach.