Vodafone UK 1Gbps Home Broadband Live in Southend-on-Sea
Cityfibre’s £30m project to roll-out a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network across Southend-on-Sea, which is being supported by UK ISP partner Vodafone (with TalkTalk to follow later), has officially started to go live for new customers in the large Essex based town.
The deployment, which began in the Eastwood Park and Progress Road industrial areas last July (civil engineering firm Intelligent Telecommunications are doing most of the work), ultimately aims to cover 100,000 local homes and businesses. Under this plan the build should be completed by the end of 2022, but those living in the Eastwood area should be able to connect by the end of this month.
As usual the new network has been able to use Cityfibre’s existing 90km+ Dark Fibre network in the town as a basis for its growth outward to homes (here). The existing network was initially only used to serve local public sector and business sites.
Vodafone has also announced a new partnership with Southend United Football Club to mark the arrival of their ultrafast broadband service. As part of this new deal, Vodafone is supporting ‘Future Blues’, a joint initiative between the football club and Southend United’s Community and Educational Trust to give children from local primary schools and sports clubs the opportunity to attend matches at Roots Hall Stadium.
Aideen Sadler, CityFibre’s City Manager Southend, said:
“We are extremely proud and excited at seeing CityFibre’s full fibre infrastructure come to life in people’s homes. This is only the beginning of Southend’s full fibre journey and we look forward to working with all of Southend’s communities to ensure more of the city enjoys the transformational benefits full fibre connectivity has to offer.”
Max Taylor, Vodafone UK’s Consumer Director, said:
“Vodafone Gigafast Broadband will provide residents and local small businesses in Southend-on-Sea a major boost in online speeds and reliability. We are working closely with the local community, Southend United and our full fibre infrastructure partner, CityFibre, to create a real buzz around the town and to ensure Southend-on-Sea is on the map for being one of the best connected places in the UK.”
As usual this forms part of the operator’s proposed £4bn investment (details), which aims to deploy a Gigabit capable “full fibre” broadband infrastructure to cover around 1 million UK premises by the end of 2021 (phase one – costing c.£500m), before potentially rising to 8 million premises by the end of 2025 (here).
The development means that Southend-on-Sea can now join Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Coventry, Huddersfield, Milton Keynes, Peterborough and Stirling as some of the first Phase One cities where Cityfibre’s new FTTH network has gone live for customers. Subscribers can of course take a service via Vodafone’s related Gigafast Broadband packages (costing from £28 per month for 200Mbps and speeds go up to 900Mbps).
Otherwise the main source of competition for Cityfibre in the town will come from Virgin Media’s 500Mbps+ (soon to be 1Gbps) cable network, which covers almost two thirds of the area. Openreach’s G.fast network also exists in a modest patch but there’s clearly plenty of scope for improvement via a new FTTH infrastructure.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Will Vodafone provide FTTP via the Openreach network? Places like Cambridgeshire and Norfolk finally are getting FTTP from Openreach. I can see my address as now FTTP available. Will one only be able to get FTTP from BT (or the likes of Zen) or would Vodafone offer FTTP?
Because I know cities like Peterborough are CityFibre and Vodafone Gigafast available, but can one order FTTP with Vodafone when you have Openreach FTTP (if you live outside of a Gigafast area, but are in an Openreach FTTP area)?
Yes, Tony, your obsession with Vodafone will soon be satisfied.
When? So Vodafone will sell a full FTTP product – e.g. 1000/220?
@Tony
Off topic and anyway nobody can answer for the future plans of Vodafone with any real certainty other than the company itself, especially when you get into specifics like service specs. Irrespective if its plans, there are plenty of other ISPs out there, why the fixation on a single mid-tier provider like Vodafone?
@New_Londoner
It’s on topic as this is about Vodafone’s offering. The Gigafast rollout includes other parts of the country.
The question is about “mainstream” providers who can offer FTTP.
And in particular those who can offer FTTP via Openreach.
The focus here on Vodafone is pertaining to this article and asking about their ability to offer FTTP or what they term “Gigafast” via Openreach. When one asks Vodafone, their people seem to give the impression that this is imminent, though it’s unclear if they fully understand themselves that their Gigafast product is provided by CityFibre.
You say there are plenty of ISPs out there – but that’s not the case for FTTP. Vodafone is the focus of my question because it’s the only one offering a reasonable price. The other small ones are more expensive than BT and BT itself are trying to charge a hell of a lot for a 330 service fixed for 2 years! And that too only guaranteed to 150!
To those of us from outside the London bubble, to be getting FTTP finally after a decade of being told it’s only 6 months away is great. But to be forced to enter a 2 year contract with a limited number of providers is appalling. There were articles here talking about how Vodafone (and some others) were taking up Openreach FTTP, so that is why I asked, given this article is about Vodafone and 1Gbps Broadband. The Vodafone website doesn’t seem to make clear any offering about Openreach FTTP being offered despite the news headlines stating they will offer it. Hence the question!
@Tony
It’s off-topic in the sense that this story is about Vodafone launching on the CityFibre network in Southend-On-Sea, Essex, which is quite a way from both Norfolk and Cambridge (and also outside of the “London bubble”).
You have posted pretty much the same question against other stories, I suggest that you don’t turn into NGA and repeat post at the drop of a hat, largely irrespective of the story in question. It quickly gets boring for the rest of us!
@New_Londoner
I find it quite boring that people like you don’t read the entirety of a post (you clearly haven’t read my reply) and then misquote and arrogantly talk down out of context. Re-read my post and if you have something intelligent to say then say it. The ability to merely speak doesn’t make you intelligent. I don’t care what you find boring, or interesting. Speak if you have something helpful to say. You are free not to read through comments. Invest your time elsewhere and invest it better than the “investment” that any of our dear providers have done over multiple years to our broadband infrastructure. May you live in interesting times
@New_Londoner
It’s on topic as this is about Vodafone’s offering. The Gigafast rollout includes other parts of the country.
The question is about “mainstream” providers who can offer FTTP.
And in particular those who can offer FTTP via Openreach.
The focus here on Vodafone is pertaining to this article and asking about their ability to offer FTTP or what they term “Gigafast” via Openreach. When one asks Vodafone, their people seem to give the impression that this is imminent, though it’s unclear if they fully understand themselves that their Gigafast product is provided by CityFibre.
You say there are plenty of ISPs out there – but that’s not the case for FTTP. Vodafone is the focus of my question because it’s the only one offering a reasonable price. The other small ones are more expensive than BT and BT itself are trying to charge a hell of a lot for a 330 service fixed for 2 years! And that too only guaranteed to 150!
To those of us from outside the London bubble, to be getting FTTP finally after a decade of being told it’s only 6 months away is great. But to be forced to enter a 2 year contract with a limited number of providers is appalling. There were articles here talking about how Vodafone (and some others) were taking up Openreach FTTP, so that is why I asked, given this article is about Vodafone and 1Gbps Broadband. The Vodafone website doesn’t seem to make clear any offering about Openreach FTTP being offered despite the news headlines stating they will offer it. Hence the question!
You’re not forced to do anything because buying FTTP isn’t mandatory. If it’s too expensive you’re free to buy something copper or 4G based. Delivering FTTP costs money – and the people investing in doing that need to recover their costs and make a margin or they’ll go bust.
@125us
Infrastructure costing money to build doesn’t justify cartels and over the top pricing. In continental Europe, FTTP is available in rural Spain for a fraction of the cost that the 330 product is being offered at by BT. And BT are trying to lock people in for 2 years which is an awfully long time. Not to mention that BT regularly increases the price on a whim mid contract and there is nothing the consumer can do about it.
In addition the Vodafone price with CityFibre is significantly cheaper than the BT price. It’s not as if any of these entities have “delivered FTTP” to the UK this entire time. Other countries are far ahead of us and make our telephone/broadband infrastructure look like a bad joke. Places like South Korea and Japan are way ahead on the internet scale.
My question pertained to when the likes of Vodafone (as well as Sky/others) would offer FTTP on Openreach. Clearly in this country when there are multiple providers, prices tend to become more reasonable, contract lengths more reasonable and it gives the consumer a choice. It also is baffling why after all this “INVESTMENT” that you cite, why the “guaranteed speed” on a 330 FTTP product is only 150?!
@Tony Gupta
To sum you up in two words: Never happy 🙁
@TheTruth
Think about it like being only allowed to buy 1 egg at an exorbitant price for years with the constant promise of a 24 egg pack being available in under 6 months. This situation continues for over 10 years. Then you are told that this glorious 24 egg pack is here. Only for you to find that they are selling 12 eggs with the guarantee that each pack will contain at least 6 eggs when you open it.
@Tony Gupta
Doesn’t help me as I don’t eat eggs 🙂
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/business/business-connectivity/data-connectivity/dedicated-internet-access
It’s even Vodafone!
You’re welcome.
Tony.
I need to be very clear on this: the price of Vodafone Gigafast over the Openreach network will *not* be the same as the price over CityFibre.
No chance, no way, no how. You should stop looking at what is being charged for Gigafast over CityFibre as indicative of the pricing over Openreach: it is not.
The price for the gigabit product, the 1000/115, over Openreach will potentially start with a 6.
If you are bothered by a 330 service only guaranteeing 150 you’re in for a fair amount more disappointment when you see the guarantees on the gigabit product. Spoiler: they aren’t going to be just under half of the maximum. The 1000/220 product that costs £80 a month before it’s even reached your provider’s network can only guarantee 330.
That said: cheap / fast / good. Pick two: you aren’t getting all three.
The closest over Openreach is the 160 Mb G.fast service TalkTalk sell. £28 a month – this is compared with Sky and BT who both charge £39.99 for it. Vodafone don’t sell it.
Over CityFibre Vodafone are able to sell symmetrical 200 Mb for the same price TalkTalk charge for their G.fast and TalkTalk are as cheap as it gets.
TL;DR you aren’t getting 500 Mb over Openreach FTTP for the £38 you can get it via CityFibre, and you aren’t getting 1000 Mb for the £48 you can get it for from Vodafone via CityFibre.
Openreach will be charging £32.73 a month for the 500 Mb FTTP link between your home and the exchange/handover point, before it even reaches Vodafone kit, and £37.53 for the 1000 Mb.
That doesn’t leave a lot of room to actually make some money charging CityFibre pricing.
@CarlT
Thanks. This is helpful. But it’s still worrying. This entire process of going FTTP is taking ages. And even at the point where places become “FTTP ready” we find that now the product on offer seems inferior to services in Europe (let alone East Asia), yet we are going to be charged a hell of a lot for it. Obviously FTTP at 330, or preferably 1000, would be infinitely better than the abysmal copper service that most of the UK has (and we have had here). But some clarity on products on the consumer end would be helpful. A lot of the people you talk to on a helpline at BT, Vodafone, Talktalk etc don’t have a clue what the product they offer is which doesn’t help matters.
So you reckon the Openreach 1000 product for a consumer would start at around £60? I mean that’s still MUCH better than the current 330 product with BT which is around £50.
G.fast isn’t FTTP right, so I wouldn’t consider that worthy of consideration or acceptance by the public as having delivered Fibre. Purely talking about Fibre though, do you understand what I mean? I can see for instance Vodafone offering their “Gigafast” service in places like Southend on Sea and Peterborough. Now what about people who sit just outside those places – so technically not in the CityFibre area. Let’s say that Openreach has suddenly (coincidentally) made these areas sitting outside these cities, FTTP ready.
Now can Vodafone, Sky, TalkTalk, Joe Bloggs offer a FTTP product in those areas? I am guessing it would be on the Openreach network not CityFibre. But the problem is there is zero pricing on the respective websites. Vodafone only shows pricing for FTTC or Gigafast and not prices for FTTP on Openreach!
I would have thought that once the other “big” name providers offer FTTP on Openreach and after the March price reset, then surely the FTTP price will be more reasonable. And the 24 month BT contract won’t be the only one a customer can go for (the smaller alt nets don’t offer even that price and charge even more).
Why is the guaranteed speed so low? Isn’t this meant to be Fibre!? Surely there should be next to no loss of signal/speed over the new fibre line?
If Vodafone are offering their 1000Mb service for £48, 500Mb for £38, then surely they would still offer FTTP (on Openreach) for a price not too far from that. They don’t charge line rental even for FTTC and are cheaper than BT on that (even though it’s all on the same Openreach network)???
‘Why is the guaranteed speed so low? Isn’t this meant to be Fibre!? Surely there should be next to no loss of signal/speed over the new fibre line?’
Bandwidth costs money to provide. A gigabit costs an awful lot more to provide than we’re paying.
The Vodafone pricing over CityFibre is nothing to do with the pricing over Openreach. At all. It is not a guide to it.
CarlT
Please re-read my questions in my above response to you. What you’ve said doesn’t really answer what I asked. I mean I could promise you 24 LARGE eggs a month for years. Tell you they will come in 6 months. For years, you are able to pay me £40 for 1 egg. That egg varies in size every month with no consistency, and you have zero power. Even if you complain, you get 1 egg. Sometimes I even charge you for 2 eggs and take months to refund you. 10 years later, I can tell you that those LARGE eggs are now finally available. I now restrict you to buying those eggs from a select set of stalls. When you enquire about buying eggs, you find that I am offering to sell you 12 MEDIUM eggs (not large). The price is £50. I will guarantee that each packet will contain no less than 6 eggs. When you ask why you don’t get large eggs, why you pay for 12 and I only guarantee 6 in a packet (but market this as a packet of 12 eggs), I simply tell you that making eggs takes a lot of investment and I’m making a loss to even give you this. And that if you don’t like paying £50 for 12 eggs with a guarantee of 6 eggs, that you are free to continue to pay £40 for 1 small egg. You then find that another egg seller is growing his own eggs selling a large egg product of 12 eggs for £40. The packets sometimes contain 8 eggs, but they’re all large and the product is cheaper. You find out that other egg sellers are allowed to buy wholesale eggs from me and sell them to others. I hope you now understand my enquiry.
That is utter gibberish, Tony, that I regret giving up my time reading and won’t waste my time responding to given how absurd the attempted analogy is.
It’s not gibberish. That proves you don’t read. It is evident you don’t read given you don’t answer the questions that people write. You just select one or two lines of text, respond to that and then have a go at someone. Try reading it again and maybe you’ll grasp the ludicrousness of your claim that we should be giving thunderous applause for mediocrity. You also might understand my question which you didn’t answer. I won’t be wasting time responding to your holier than thou attitude and statements which don’t even answer people’s questions.
@Tony Gupta
Isn’t this where people leave comments, not a Q & A session as your suggesting
I’m happy to answer your questions, even inane ones like this, Tony, if you pay me my standard consultancy rate. However given your complaining about pricing of FTTP I seriously doubt you’d want to. As a guide it’d be around the £100 per hour mark.
Otherwise I owe you exactly zero answers especially when it means wading through the above. If you don’t like what’s on offer don’t buy it. You aren’t entitled to buy any product from anyone you wish at the price you wish to pay. If you were in B4RN land you could get a gigabit for £30 a month. You aren’t, so you can’t.
Basically you’re butthurt because Openreach are charging a higher price wholesale than CityFibre and that’ll translate to a higher retail price. Openreach aren’t actually allowed to charge too little and would be accused of predatory pricing. CityFibre among others would complain. Fundamentally you want to pay the same as CityFibre areas.
Tough.
On the matter of bandwidth guarantees that’s been covered in a bunch of other places. Check for the guarantees on the Gigafast over CityFibre you’re so lusting after.
Still looking? I’ll save you the bother: there isn’t one. Part of the reason it’s cheaper and the upload higher is that Vodafone can contend the hell out of it.
You clearly don’t need the extra performance FTTP provides if you’re so fixated with the pricing that you’re holding off waiting for a specific operator. Your time clearly isn’t that valuable if you’re willing to waste it writing asinine analogies about wholesaling poultry products and equating buying a fixed quantity of a *product* with a shared, no guarantees broadband *service*.
Stick with FTTC. If you’re on ADSL and have no FTTC option stick with ADSL.
Have a nice life. Fixating over this stuff isn’t good.
I’m surprised that this development is being done in competition with VM as Southend-On-Sea is an area of deprivation compared with the England average.
Close to London I guess. Commuter belt.
Tony – you really need to get rid of the chip on the shoulder regarding London.
Leeds is getting this too. In competition with Openreach and Virgin Media. We’re hardly London commuter belt and the areas where they are building are certainly not the most affluent in the city.
lmao i love these threads CARLT you’re the best haha!!
xD!!
I have read what you lot have written. I work for a local fibre optic company and would you believe I am on furloughed leave. We are doing the roadside cabinets for a few customers. My boss gets very poor drawings from these people and has to work out these for them. We have completed jobs sitting about for six months waiting mainly for backup lithium batteries from Mexico. Now you begin to see why things are 10 years behind.