Vodafone UK Give 5G Launch a Boost by Adding Unlimited Data

ISP Vodafone has today gone live in 7 UK cities with their new 5G based ultrafast mobile broadband network. At the same time they’ve moved to challenge Three UK by introducing a new range of SIM-only and handset plans with “unlimited data” (also on 4G services). A new home broadband (FTTC) and mobile bundle is coming too.

At present the service, which harnesses Vodafone‘s slice of the 3.4GHz spectrum band, is only available across parts of Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Glasgow (the Isles of Scilly are also on the list). After that a further 12 cities will be added later in 2019 including Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington, Wolverhampton and the operator’s home town of Newbury.

The operator has also confirmed that their 5G service will be priced the same as 4G for both consumers and business customer, although they’ve now gone one step further by announcing a new range of three “unlimited data” plans that seem firmly intended to erode Three UK’s niche.

The catch is that you’ll only get the best mobile broadband speeds on their most expensive plan, while the other two have heavily restricted maximum speeds of 2Mbps and 10Mbps. Sadly the new unlimited plans won’t go on sale until 10th July 2019 next week.

The New UK Unlimited Data Plans (Monthly Prices)

Unlimited Max (£30) – Maximum network speed possible

Unlimited (£26) – Maximum speeds of up to 10Mbps

Unlimited Lite (£23) – Maximum speeds of up to 2Mbps

On top of that Vodafone has said that they’ll launch a new home broadband (FTTC) and unlimited mobile plan bundle toward the end of this month, which will all be managed from the My Vodafone App.

Customers of the above should receive a free Amazon Echo Plus and can use Alexa calling to make and receive calls out of their mobile allowances. Prices will start from £50 a month for Unlimited Max and Vodafone Superfast Broadband 1 (FTTC). Cheaper options may be available with smaller mobile allowances from £43.

Elsewhere they’ve also confirmed that during this summer they will become the first UK operator to add 5G roaming in Germany, Italy and Spain. Other countries will follow as 5G is rolled out, although equally we’d expect the same to follow from EE, Three UK and O2.

Nick Jeffery, CEO of Vodafone UK, said:

“5G will transform the way we live and work. Our customers are streaming over 50% more content today than they did last year, and with 5G the demand for data is only set to increase. That is why we want to remove the limits on data, so that customers can unlock the full potential of 5G, and we can really propel the UK into the digital age. By offering unlimited plans to our consumer and business customers, we will revolutionise the market. We will give customers all the data they need, when and where they want it.”

The operator added that it will continue to invest in rolling out 5G over the next few years, with the aim of covering at least 8 million consumers by 2021. Apparently they have also “installed 100-gigabit-per-second capable optical fibre connections to our 5G base stations,” although we have our doubts about whether this will hold true for all of their future base station deployments or even small cells.

In addition to Vodafone Unlimited, three new simplified Vodafone Red plans are also available from 10th July. Called Red 1 (1GB, £11), Red 2 (5GB, £15) and Red 3 (20GB, £20), they all have unlimited minutes and texts. Customers can also add an entertainment pack for £6 extra a month (i.e. choose from Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Sports Mobile or Now TV).

Finally, they will offer a 5G router for use in the home and office (fixed wireless broadband) called the 5G GigaCube, which is promising to give customers “high-speed broadband access up to 10 times faster than 4G.” Prices will start from £30 per month (18 month contract) for a 100GB service or £50 for unlimited (a one-off upfront fee of £50 to £100 also applies) and the Huawei made GigaCube can connect up to 64 devices via WiFi.

5G GigaCube Specs (Huawei 5G CPE Pro – H112-370LTE|5G(NSA))

Network: 5G/LTE

Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax

802.11 n22*2 MIMO for 2.4GHz and

802.11ax4*4MIMO for 5GHz

Ethernet ports: 2 x GE LAN (inc. 1 LAN/WAN)

Memory: 4GB NANDFlash/8GB DDR4

External antenna port: 2 x Ext. antenna ports (TS-9)

SIM port: 1 x nano USIM card slot

Device model: Huawei 5G CPE Pro (H112-370)

Dimensions: 99mm x 107mm x 215mm