Vodafone UK Add New Who’s Home Feature to Ultra Hub 7 Broadband Router
Customers of internet, mobile and phone provider Vodafone UK, specifically those who take their latest Ultra Hub 7 Fibre (FG4278VF) router on Pro 3 Home Broadband packages, may like to know that the ISP has just introduced a new ‘Who’s Home’ smart feature to the device that “provides alerts when your loved ones arrive home“.
Available to new and existing Vodafone customers with the latest Ultra Hub 7 router “at no extra cost“, the Who’s Home feature proactively alerts customers when their loved one’s smartphone connects or disconnects from their hub. The feature is said to be “designed to give greater peace of mind and reassurance to customers“.
At present this is only available to Vodafone’s most expensive Pro 3 Broadband packages with the Ultra Hub 7 Fibre router, although the provider will “soon” extend this to those using some of their slower / older router models on cheaper broadband packages.
Advertisement
Vodafone Statement
Set-up is easy – account holders can activate Who’s Home via the Vodafone Broadband app, where they can create profiles for each household member by linking their smartphone – no matter which device or provider they use. Once added, each person receives an SMS invitation to opt in, ensuring privacy and control remain in their hands, while also receiving a reminder text every three months. They also have the option to opt out at any time, simply by sending a text. The account holder will be automatically kept informed on who’s opted in or out.
Beyond instant notifications, account holders can check the Who’s Home dashboard at any time to see who’s currently ‘at home’ or ‘out’, offering a reassuring snapshot of household activity.
Whether it’s knowing a child has got home from school or checking in on loved ones, Who’s Home brings smart, simple security to Vodafone broadband households.
Overall, this is an interesting feature and the ability for individual users to opt-in or out should help avoid the risk of it becoming too intrusive, although we’re not sure how much of a selling point it will be for the service. Hopefully Vodafone have also figured out a way to avoid excessive notification spam in busy households, such as when moving in and out of the garden during sunny weekends etc.
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.
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person's legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
> no matter which device or provider they use. Once added, each person receives an SMS invitation to opt in, ensuring privacy and control remain in their hands,
I’m sorry, I must of missed an update. But when was the mac address / device signature of the WiFi connection tied to the phone number of the user connecting to the AP point?
I like to think I am kept well upto on these things but I don’t recall that being a possiblity. I am presuming they mean, once the users is added into the back end of the broadband management app, the number the user entering the details of the device into the system gets sent a SMS to confirm they wanrt to be included into this system… Its not like disposable numbers exist so a bad actor could forge someones consent into this alert system! No, the mobile networks have everything nailed down when it comes to CLID spoofing. I mean, when was thew last time any of use a got a spam text message from a UK 07 number that wasn’t connected to a legit mobile phgone account? I’m sure I’m just seeing problem where none exist….
(AKA, Vodafone, drop the veneer of privacy, It doesn’t exist! Those of use who already use WiFi connection in out home assistant systems to control automations know there is no real opt-in and if there was, SMS optin is the weakest system they could have!
Heck (trying not to swear), just make the system dependant on the Vodafone App and track location that way, least then if the user wishes to optout later they can just delete the app…)
both iphones and android randomize MAC addresses too, no way is that going to work on that basis alone
Totally something I want my ISP to have access to
This seems quite risky. Surely abuse victims with secret phones would be deemed at risk?
Yes you can see how many devices (at least you could before) and what devices are on the Vodafone app and this may just be an extension of that but this is just another tool for someone to be controlling?
Sorry I’m just a skeptic of this and I am not really sure why it’s needed
100% this.
abuser would enrol the phone and keep tabs on them at all times.
I agree I don’t know why its needed either.
Not that this is any way creepy (not)!
A quick hack of the system should allow burglars to check your property is empty, before venturing out on a wet and windy evening unnecessarily.
Although if the shoe is on the other foot, “Hello madam could you explain your whereabouts on the 23rd between 19;00 and 31:50? “Oh yes officer here’s Vodafone’s evidence I was at home”
Possibly even “Hello Vodafone, this is West County police, please supply the log for 101 Letsbe Avenue, for evidence”
They need to concentrate on the customer service. They wanted me to close a complaint before the issue was resolved?
Who’s Home seems like an intriguing step forward to provide more “bang for your buck” from Vodafone, offering additional service at no extra cost.
For those who aren’t tech savy to set up Home Assistant for Wi-Fi/Geo location tagging this provides a efficient way to know when loved ones get home safe or when they leave. It would be great if this was opened up to use these triggers via Matter/Thread for Smart Home Automations.
All in all with my tests of the solution, it effective, reassuring and the price is right. I don’t see a down side.
on the topics of secret phones and safe guarding… If someone has a secret phone the abuser is likely not to know about it, hence being secret. For the SMS T’s & C’s, the VF Broadband App doesn’t allow multiple users so there is a need to have each person whose presence will be monitored accept that they will be monitored, this is a compliance piece surely? Otherwise a single person (the account holder) can agree to the terms for everyone in the house, then you would have a privacy issue.
this is the last thing i want.
vodaphone just rocketed to the bottom of the list of options for me.
this is creapy as hell.
There’s a thing called texting or phoning your loved one to let them know your home Safely, it’s what I’ve done ever since I got my first mobile phone.
This is just creepy as heck and has definitely totally put me off ever getting Vodafone broadband.
Plenty good altnets out there that are cheaper than the big companies and offer better speeds and symmetric speeds(same speed down and up) too unlike nearly all of the big companies that are asymmetric(much slower upload speeds)