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Vodafone UK Totals 687000 Fixed Broadband ISP Customers

Wednesday, Feb 5th, 2020 (12:42 pm) - Score 2,790
Vodafone UK 2016

Mobile giant and UK ISP Vodafone has published their latest quarterly results to the end of December 2019 (financial Q3 19/20), which saw them add +20,000 fixed broadband customers to total 687,000 (down from +61k added in the previous quarter) and mobile customers jumped to total 18,056,000 (up by +250k)

Otherwise the main developments for Vodafone UK during the last quarter were the continued expansion of their ultrafast 5G network (here) and the decision to relax their exclusivity agreement with Cityfibre’s FTTH network (here). On top of that Ofcom named and shamed the operator for generating some of the most consumer complaints (here) and the ASA banned several of their adverts for unlimited data plans due to being “misleading” (here).

Meanwhile the operator saw their fixed service revenues increase by just 0.5% (Q2: 2.2%) and most of the new fixed broadband customers they’ve added will have come from their Openreach (BT) based FTTC (VDSL2) packages.

Sadly no details are provided to show how many customers have joined via Cityfibre’s new FTTH broadband network and Vodafone blamed the slowdown in fixed broadband growth on increased “competitive intensity” in the market.

In terms of Vodafone’s rising base of mobile customers, it’s noted that 134,000 were added in the quarter from contract customers, while the other 116,000 came from prepaid customers. The latter grew faster thanks to their VOXI sub-brand.

Nick Read, Group CEO, said:

“I am pleased with the pace at which we have executed our commercial and strategic priorities, which has allowed us to maintain our momentum in the quarter. Competition in Europe remains challenging, primarily in the value segment, however we continued to improve customer loyalty and to grow in broadband, and we achieved good growth in Africa. We expect a further gradual improvement in service revenue growth in Q4, led by Europe.

We have recently announced the proposed sale of our stake in Vodafone Egypt, which simplifies the Group into two scaled regional platforms – Europe and sub-Saharan Africa – and reduces our net debt. We have also appointed the senior management team for our European TowerCo, and we are preparing for a potential IPO in early 2021.”

Otherwise Vodafone’s overall UK service revenue for the quarter hit €1,282m (up from €1,233m in the previous quarter). The full report is here (PDF).

 
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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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 .
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Comments
14 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Michael V says:

    I joined Vodafone home broadband when I was living with the parent in 2018. The service has been great with their Superfast 1 plan. The parent is definitely going to stay at the end of the contract.

    1. Avatar photo John says:

      Vodafone’s pricing is much much better. If only their CityFibre network would extend around more of the UK. As someone on Vodafone VDSL (with slow speeds), I use their Mobile Wifi to get 4G speeds (with unlimited data). Now after a decade (and told by Openreach that Fibre was six months away every year), finally there is FTTP in my area.

      However, FTTP with Openreach is limited to a few providers, of which the best (or least expensive) option is BT. Bizarrely they also only guarantee half the 330 speed (150mbps). The price is much higher than the symmetrical Gigafast product from Vodafone where one can get 930mbps for £48. And Vodafone usually offer a discounted price for mobile customers as well.

      Vodafone certainly could give BT a run for their money when it comes to complaints and poor telephone support/service, BUT their pricing is a hell of a lot better. It seems ridiculous that the BT price is so high (£50). In March, prices may well drop. But the best thing would be if Vodafone offers FTTP via Openreach. Their FTTC prices are much better than BT already. That would really add some competition to FTTP if another retail brand (Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk etc) were to offer nationwide pricing.

      BT’s price looks even worse if you look at regional prices for specific FTTP prices. As well as CityFibre, Hyperoptic offer the 1000mbps package for around £30. All this talk about Fibre being expensive to install doesn’t compute when Openreach should have ECONOMIES OF SCALE to be able to deliver this more competitively than the smaller infrastructure providers!

  2. Avatar photo Dave Scott says:

    I would agree with Michael. I joined Vodafone back in 2015 and I absolutely love the prices I on Superfast 2 and I don’t just get 76Mbps but I get the full 80Mbps. I asked Openreach about this and they said it depends on how short the line is. But my point is you hear people complaining about customer service I have know problem with them. If you know what your talking about they will try there best to help you. You just need to know what your talking about.

  3. Avatar photo John Uncle says:

    Vodafone’s pricing is much much better. If only their CityFibre network would extend around more of the UK. As someone on Vodafone VDSL (with slow speeds), I use their Mobile Wifi to get 4G speeds (with unlimited data). Now after a decade (and told by Openreach that Fibre was six months away every year), finally there is FTTP in my area.

    However, FTTP with Openreach is limited to a few providers, of which the best (or least expensive) option is BT. Bizarrely they also only guarantee half the 330 speed (150mbps). The price is much higher than the symmetrical Gigafast product from Vodafone where one can get 930mbps for £48. And Vodafone usually offer a discounted price for mobile customers as well.

    Vodafone certainly could give BT a run for their money when it comes to complaints and poor telephone support/service, BUT their pricing is a hell of a lot better. It seems ridiculous that the BT price is so high (£50). In March, prices may well drop. But the best thing would be if Vodafone offers FTTP via Openreach. Their FTTC prices are much better than BT already. That would really add some competition to FTTP if another retail brand (Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk etc) were to offer nationwide pricing.

    BT’s price looks even worse if you look at regional prices for specific FTTP prices. As well as CityFibre, Hyperoptic offer the 1000mbps package for around £30. All this talk about Fibre being expensive to install doesn’t compute when Openreach should have ECONOMIES OF SCALE to be able to deliver this more competitively than the smaller infrastructure providers!

    WHEN will we get a reasonably priced FTTP package via Openreach from the likes of Vodafone?

  4. Avatar photo Dave Scott says:

    it’s funny your saying this John that was the main reason I left BT. Because there greedy. I am never going back to BT. I am Happy with Vodafone. I am on the VDSL2 80/20 but when City Fibre comes to Fife I getting the 500Mbps because £38 a month is a excellent deal. BT is asking £49.99 plus £19.99 line rental for 300Mbps.

    1. Avatar photo John Uncle says:

      Dave that’s a good point.

      Thing is BT are not only greedy, but they also increase their prices mid contract. Other providers tend to only do one minor increase and that too perhaps only 50p to £1 every 18 months. BT on the other hand, make their bill highly complex and increase the price multiple times so that you will most certainly end up paying more than the £50 a month in the first year alone. The fact they want to lock people in for 24 months is also not a good sign.

      Vodafone’s pricing tends to be much much much better. They still have problems and their customer service can also be a real pain. I had an issue with a mobile with them where eventually they paid compensation, but I still wish they hadn’t wasted my time in the first place. Their broadband thus far has been okay, but based on the Openreach network (and thus still low speed and unreliable). Their mobile broadband is excellent.

      However, what would really really help is if Vodafone can offer FTTP on Openreach at a better price than BT. £50 with BT for 300Mbps with a guaranteed speed of only 150MBps and no fixed price with a 2 YEAR contract seems like a massive rip off. Hyperoptic are selling 1000Mbps symmetrical for around £30. And Vodafone’s Gigafast 900Mbps service is £48 a months. I wonder whether BT itself has suddenly delivered FTTP to multiple locations to try and block others like Vodafone from coming in.

      You would have thought that Openreach having economies of scale would mean a much better price for FTTP. In parts of Europe and certainly in South Korea, you get much faster FTTP speeds for much cheaper prices than in the UK. I am worried that Vodafone might not sell FTTP outside of their CityFIbre network, and if Openreach have provided FTTP (which isn’t symmetrical) already, would Vodafone provide their Gigafast service (and pricing) to those houses?

    2. Avatar photo New_Londoner says:

      @Dave Scott, @John Uncle
      Your posts intrigued me so I took a look at the BT pricing for its Ultrafast 250 product, which is £49.99 per month for 24 months including line rental, so no additional £19.99 per month. It mentions an average download speed of 300Mbps and a guarantee of at least 150Mbps, which is unusual as many ISPs don’t offer a minimum speed guarantee. The only negative that I could see was the longer than average contract length of 24 months.

      As for the implied suggestion that Vodafone would sell an FTTP product based on the Openreach network at the same price as one on the City Fibre network, that’s unlikely if the underlying price charged to them is higher. You’re right that Openreach should have economies of scale, on the other hand its pricing is regulated and it has to fund a much larger build programme – remember that it is deploying the equivalent of the entire City Fibre network roughly every six weeks.

    3. Avatar photo New_Londoner says:

      @Uncle John
      Regarding pricing in other countries, comparisons are pointless unless you adjust for purchasing power parity. A straight currency conversion is meaningless for comparison purposes, as MarkJ mentioned in a story a week or so back.

    4. Avatar photo John Uncle says:

      @New_Londoner

      I did include Line Rental in the £50 a month price for BT. But you see the price of Vodafone’s CityFibre at 930Mbps on an 18 month contract is £48 a month. And Vodafone will negotiate for existing mobile customers as well. Hyperoptic are doing 1000Mbps for £49 (they had an offer for £30 a month back in January) on a rolling contract of 30 days, or £46 a month for 12 months.

      Openreach should have economies of scale to be able to deliver FTTP at a cheaper price than the others. And frankly CityFibre and Hyperoptic are offering symmetrical speeds (Same upload as download). It seems bizarre that we are all praising FTTP for 330 with a guaranteed speed of only 50% of that for a price of around £50 a month. We should ALL be on the same side here with much better expectations. This all feels like we are being duped into applauding very minor achievements. I do think that the South Korean (nationwide), Japanese (where cost of living is even higher than here) or Singaporean examples are pertinent simply to show that things can be done quicker and provided at competitive rates.

      At bare minimum, all FTTP properties on Openreach should have access to 1000 download speeds, even if the upload isn’t symmetrical. And the price should AT LEAST match the Vodafone CityFibre price of £48 a month for the customer. To have to pay £50 for 330, which may only be 150 is ridiculous.

      Line rental is included, but the multiple price increases that BT often do on a regular basis are not. By month 9 you will no doubt be at a higher price. And you’re locked in for 2 years. At least the other public enemies (Vodafone, Sky, Talktalk etc) tend to increase the price once every 18 months. They’re all the same customer service wise (i.e. bad), but the prices for Vodafone are at least more reasonable. The regulator should fine all of them £500,000 each time a customer has to wait more than 30 minutes. Per customer. That will end this bad customer service instantaneously, but the regulator has no backbone here. And the definition of Fibre should be FTTP (not to the Cabinet and then Copper). I just hope Vodafone offers FTTP via Openreach too which will give some competition to benefit the consumer.

  5. Avatar photo Mark says:

    I’m currently with virgin Media but hoping cityfibre come round our area soon I’ve been a Vodafone mobile customer for the last 24 years.

    Were currently not in a scheduled area but all surrounding areas are so it should only be a matter of time

  6. Avatar photo Dave Scott says:

    I would agree I have suggested that to Vodafone to share there FTTP with Openreach. Because it would stupid two have fibre cables going in to the house think of mess.

    1. Avatar photo dave says:

      Mess? I have 5 phone lines and there’s no mess.

      I would love to have 2 fibre runs into my house, there would be a certain level of redundancy then.

      Look for the positives!

  7. Avatar photo Dave Scott says:

    There is line rental just look at the pricing https://www.bt.com/assets/pdf/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf

    1. Avatar photo New_Londoner says:

      @Dave Scott
      BT Ultrafast 250 at £49.99 per month definitely includes line rental at the moment – you can see the details via this link:

      https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals

      I’m sure you can find ways to make it more expensive but it’s currently available at that price, possibly lower if you haggle. You don’t have to pay a further £19.99 per month on top of the £49.99.

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