ISP Vodafone UK Launch £12 Social Tariff for Home Broadband
Mobile operator and broadband ISP Vodafone UK has today responded to pressure from Ofcom by announcing the launch of their own social broadband tariff for those on benefits (Universal Credit etc.) – called ‘Essentials Broadband‘, which is one of the cheapest social tariffs on the market at £12 per month.
The move comes after Vodafone recently became one of several ISPs singled out by the UK telecoms regulator for not having introduced such a plan (here). Ofcom called on the operator to “introduce a broadband social tariff as soon as possible.” Until they do, the regulator said they would “expect these firms to waive early termination charges for any customer who wishes to switch to another provider’s social tariff.”
Suffice to say, Vodafone was quick to respond. The new Essentials Broadband plan costs just £12 per month and is available to those on Job Seekers Allowance, Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Disability Allowance or Personal Independence Payment. The price of £12 is roughly half what they normally charge for their equivalent commercial packages on discount (usually around £22 per month).
Advertisement
Customers can join without a set-up fee, leave for free at any time, and won’t be subject to in-contract price changes. The plan gives access to Vodafone’s Fibre 1 or Full Fibre 1 Essentials Broadband plan (FTTC and FTTP) for 12 months, providing average download speeds of 38Mbps. A router is also included, although it’s their older model.
“After 12 months we will validate if customers still qualify for Vodafone Essentials broadband and recontract. If not, customers can choose one of our standard broadband plans or leave without charge,” says the small print.
Ahmed Essam, CEO of Vodafone UK, said:
“The rising cost of living is putting a million families at risk of falling on the wrong side of the digital divide. We must not allow this to happen. So as part of our everyone.connected programme, today we are launching Vodafone Essentials Broadband at just £12 a month, the cheapest on the market, and 12 months free broadband for small businesses. Vodafone is the only network provider to offer social tariffs across fixed and mobile, meaning eligible customers can access mobile and broadband connectivity for 72 pence a day”.
These new tariffs complement VOXI for Now and the 750,000 free SIMS we’ve donated so far as part of our everyone.connected programme. We’re on track to meet our commitment to donate a million connections by the end of this year and will continue to put the cause at the heart of our business until the problem no longer exists.”
In addition to this, for small business owners, Vodafone will also offer “free broadband for a year” on their similar business broadband (domestic grade) packages to help mitigate rising costs and help firms stay connected to customers (they’ve done an offer like this before, but it’s always welcome).
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
Pensioners on Pension Credit not included ?
Correct. The eligibility list in the article is complete. Exact same list as on the Vodafone website.
lol £22 for 38 megabits is a deal? Virgin do 100 mbit for £20. Yes not everyone can get Virgin. But then not everyone can get Vodafone or Cityfibre either. I think they should be offering something like 10 megabit for £10, otherwise why not go look for a £20 5G deal I mean you can get three 5G for £10 a month for 6 months and then £20 and if you spend a little bit of time you can often find unlimited contracts with them for under £10.
It says £12 a month for 38Mbps
Though this is a welcome move. I’m puzzled as to why its always got to be on the lowest speed?
Why not make it a percentage reduction in price of 50% on whatever package is available.
They still want some opportunity to upsell customers away from an effective loss-leader. Remember, these are commercial businesses, not charities.
It’s definitely a loss leader, isn’t it? The wholesale price (ex VAT) is around £14 on Openreach?
Sensible to reuse their older routers.
@Iain its about £60 per year for 40/10 FTTC, FTTP used to be around £140 but got price matched under equinox to the same as FTTC.
Ah, of course. Thanks Alex. A tight margin but maybe not completely absurd.
Isn’t the relevant price the SOGEA one, not the one that needs phone line rental? That’s £152.51 a year plus VAT.
Is there any info for the “Full Fibre 1” option? I’d assume the 12 quid is for the
fttc option given it quotes 38mb speed but what about the cityfibre based service in which full fibre 1 is 100mb, will this also be capped at 38mb?
£12 is for both Openreach and Cityfibre platforms. I did ask about uploads and they said 10Mbps for both.
Thanks Mark.
I was wondering about upload speed too. Thanks for asking Mark.
FYI: Vodafone now only seem to offer FTTP pure-fibre (if available)
Obviously, if you only have FTTC availability it will be provisioned over copper.
I cannot believe other ISP’s still allow ADSL/VDSL orders when FTTP is available.
Things need to change in this industry. Vodafone are leading the way on this front.
There is a list of Social Tariffs with costs, crietria etc being maintained on the hotukdeals website https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/best-broadband-social-tariffs-for-those-on-certain-benefits-megathread-4011658
It’s no good…
I don’t quite understand why private businesses are now being forced to subsidise atrocious wages and state benefits? This is simply the Tory government booting the problem into the private sector and hoping nobody will connect the dots.
What next? 50% off at Tesco if you’re on JSA? Free Sausage Roll at Greggs with every child benefit payment?
Are pensioners on pension credit included
If only fibre large chunks of country won’t be served, same get out as usual
Called them and they don’t cover my area. Only more expensive offers from other providers which don’t really save much at all on the most competitive deals available. Oh well. Nice thought.