Excellent value fibre - Vodafone's fibre packages are priced very competitively against the other big name broadband providers
Cutting-edge router - the bundled Vodafone Broadband router supports fast 802.11ac networking, plus cutting-edge technologies for speedier downloading
TV bundles available - Vodafone have bundled in an Apple TV 4K subscription with most of their packages
Truly unlimited - there are no restrictions on the amount you can download or slow downs on different types of broadband traffic
Innovative smartphone control - with the Vodafone Broadband app you can control the router via your iPhone or Android phone
Possible downsides
Long contracts - all Vodafone Broadband packages require a 24 month contract
Fibre-only - if you're after cheaper phone line broadband then you'll have to look elsewhere
Phone support not 24 hour - Broadband technical support is only available via telephone between 8am and 9pm
Annual CPI increase - prices for broadband (and any other addons, such as line, call plans and call charges) increase by the Consumer Price Index in April of each year plus 3.9%, and then each April onwards
Features at a glance
Average fibre optic download speeds of 35Mb or 63Mb, Gigafast speeds up to 900Mb in selected areas
24 month contracts on all deals
Truly unlimited broadband usage
No upfront cost for existing lines, £69.99 when installing a new line
Support service available 24/7 via forums, and between 8am and 9pm on the phone, 7 days a week
6 months free F-Secure anti-virus software
Free AC-rated wireless routers with all deals
Line rental required on all deals, no inclusive calls as standard, Evening and Weekend or Anytime calls available at extra cost
Additional £2 monthly broadband discount for existing Vodafone pay monthly 12 month contract mobile customers and £3 discount for 18 month contract mobile customers
Sometimes the best way to get a feel for a broadband provider is to read what those who are already customers think of the service they're receiving. Below are all the reviews we've received for Vodafone.
Ratings are left by users of our speed test as well as by reviewers. Recent star ratings summarise the last 12 months of ratings or the last 100 placed, whichever is largest.
Open Reach network speeds are excellent. Vodafone CPE (router etc) and apps are unreliable. Customer service is appalling, with endless online menus before eventually being passed to unskilled faults teams which are outsourced overseas.
Faults teams do not listen to troubleshooting information, and instead blindly follow scripts that often lead to “not Vodafone’s problem”. They tried to tell me that all devices on my network must be faulty, and it could not possibly be a problem with their router, despite all evidence to the contrary (wired and wireless devices falling off network, or reporting that they were connected to router but were not connected to the Internet).
Avoid Vodafone. I have been with much better ISPs who also use Open Reach.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
5 stars
Reliability
3 stars
Ian
Essex
Vodafone
2024-07-06
Vodafone Broadband speed upgrade. Abysmal service. Speed not provided and unstable. Often worse than prior to upgrade. Online chats terminated by agents. The online chats have taken between half an hour to an hour. You are already frustrated by now and terminating the chat without a resolution, just because it fell in the too difficult box is absolutely infuriating! Faulty Vodafone telephone menu making it impossible to make a requested callback. The telephone answering service does not recognise the digit '2'. As it was option 2 that I needed, to speak to the right people, I could not get through. AND the message I received had threatened to close my ticket (without resolution) unless I called back!!!! Worst service ever received. Vodafone are well deserving of the Title of worst Broadband provider.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Stephen Cassidy
Poole
Vodafone
2024-07-04
Even though I signed a 2 year contract, they automatically put you on a 30 day rolling contract after the 2 year end date. Customer service do not tell you this when buying the contract, and they don't remind you of this. So here I'm thinking the contract will end naturally, but it doesn't and you need to give 30 days notice. Customer service, was just so condescending. Can't wait to be done with them! Beware
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
4 stars
Reliability
4 stars
Raymond
Glasgow
Vodafone
2024-06-26
I went to Vodafone,due to their apparent good reviews. How wrong was I/them. Customer welcome pack supplies an invalid phone contact number! As to customer service, I contacted them 5 times and my analysis of them is, they do not listen to the customer, they ask for details which I couldn't access due to NO internet, even though this was why I was talking to them. No resolution from them , eventually had to ask to be put through to tech. dept. Again no resolution only a promise that he would phone me back within 2 hours. He never did. I have various mobility issues ans a visual impairment yet he still wanted me to carry out various tasks, despite me saying that I was unable to do these.Customer service said they were unable to
put me through to complaints,yet one lady was able and did so.
Complaints dept. again seem to have an issue in listening. Still no satisfactory resolution.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Ian Cr
Scotland
Vodafone
2024-06-24
Gave me an activation date, pushed it back 3 days and insisted the activation date they previously allowed me to select was impossible. Took me almost an hour to cancel as I kept getting pushed through different teams
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
R
Vodafone
2024-06-23
For last 3 Months we have regularly had speeds of 2Mbps against the 74 Mbps im paying for. Cannot get any sense from the offshore call centre, and gave up after 30 mins on the phone waiting for them. Fortunately I’m out of contract so will be moving elsewhere.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Pail K
Essex
Vodafone
2024-06-21
Absolutely shocking, Wi-Fi rarely works, one day it works one week it doesn’t, had to use my limited data on my phone to connect to the tv, customer service is even worse always “oh we ll pass it on to someone higher up” next day they forget about you and you have to call 24/7 just for them to say the same stuff over and over, once the problem is “sorted” the wifi works for a couple days…then doesn’t work again. Honestly sick of it
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
2 stars
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
T
Hull
Vodafone
2024-06-20
I swapped from BT to Vodafone as BT prices werea lot higher.
The swap over was seemless and initially I was quite happy.
Never once had z problem using BT upstairs on a chromecast using 5ghz. With this router the chromecast was for everloosing signal.i downloaded the app and found I could split router between 2.4ghz and 5ghz. So I set up 2.4ghz and it was better. I could also manually change channels using the app this helped then after an update I could no longer do that but could on the Internet. Now they have stopped you changing channels on the Internet. I tried running a firestick upstairs on 5ghz useless. I then tried running chromecast downstairs in same room as router 2.4ghz OK 5ghz useless.
I feel the broadband itself is fine its their router that is crap.
I see they have brought out a new router they must know the model they sent me is useless.
Can't wait for my contract to end then I can move to another isp
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Nick
Carnforth
Vodafone
2024-06-19
Pretty much the same as everyone below. An hour at a time with the Vodafone chat to be told they’re looking into it and will call back. Never ending drop outs and ridiculous low speeds. The customer service is dire and no use whatsoever. Absolute garbage all around. Would recommend that you avoid like the plague.
Satisfaction
1 star
Customer Service
1 star
Speed
1 star
Reliability
1 star
Disgruntled
Scotland
Vodafone
2024-06-15
Hi Vodafone broadband is the worst broadband service I have ever had I am 13 months through a 24 month contract we use the broadband Internet and TV are broadband drops out multiple times a day everyday my wife is housebound and needs TV the service I receive from Vodafone is not good enough I just can't wait for my contract to end any comments please feel free to message me
The reviews published on this page are those of the individual authors who have warrantied that they abide by our review guidelines. Reviews are not the opinion of Broadband.co.uk.
Ofcom's latest figures on broadband complaints are out - and it's bad news for Virgin Media. The company has rocketed to the top of the list as the major broadband supplier that gets the highest rate of complaints.
The report covers January to March this year, and counted the number of complaints made to Ofcom about providers with a market share of 1.5% or more.
It shows that Virgin Media generated 33 complaints per 100,000 customers, an increase of 20 in just a year. That puts them a long way ahead - or should that be behind - the next two worst performers, with Vodafone and TalkTalk both getting 24 complaints. Vodafone had been the worst ranking provider in six of the last seven quarters. Plusnet also generated complaint levels above the industry average.
And that's not the end of the bad news for Virgin Media. They also racked up the highest complaint levels for their landline service (19 per 100,000) and their pay TV service (17 per 100,000), and were second worst for mobile (5 per 100,000) behind Three.
The biggest reason why customers complained to Ofcom about Virgin Media was failings in the broadband provider's own complaints handling system - amounting to 39% in total. A third complained about faults and issues with the service, and a further 13% about billing problems.
Industry-wide, faults, service and provisioning issues accounted for 42% of reports, followed by complaints handling and billing.
Sky and EE were the least complained-about providers, generating just seven apiece. They've been in the top two positions for the last two years. The only other provider to beat the industry average was BT, with 15.
In good news for the industry overall, the average number of complaints has more than halved over the last decade, from 40 per 100,000 in the first quarter of 2011, to 19 now. The numbers are up from a record low of 10 in Q2 of last year, perhaps in part a consequence of pandemic disruption and the increasing importance of internet access for work, school and entertainment.
Broadband complaints per 100,000 customers
EE: 7
Sky: 7
BT: 15
Industry average: 19
Plusnet: 21
Vodafone: 24
TalkTalk: 24
Virgin Media: 33
In pay TV, Virgin Media generated 17 complaints against an industry average of 6. Sky performed best with just two. For landlines, Virgin had 19 complaints, eight more than the average, and EE and Sky tied as best performers with five each.
Mobile complaints were largely flat, and at much lower levels. Three performed worst with six complaints, while Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and EE had just one each.
Service reliability, billing, and complaint handling are important factors you should consider when choosing a new broadband provider. Our site contains thousands of customer ratings and reviews that can give you a true feel for how each provider performs. Currently, Zen top our list for customer satisfaction.
If you aren't happy with the service you're getting from your supplier, and you're coming to the end of your contract, it's easy to switch. Use our postcode checker to find the best broadband deal available in your area today.
There are so many well established ideas about broadband and switching broadband providers that get repeated again and again.
The trouble is, many of them are wrong - and they're costing you money.
Switching suppliers can easily save you a hundred pounds or more every year, and if you're stuck on a slow internet package when you need something much faster, it doesn't have to cost you a fortune to upgrade.
So here are some of the biggest myths about broadband, and the truth that you need to know.
"Fibre is fibre - all fibre broadband is the same"
While fibre broadband is used as a catch-all term, it encompasses very different things.
Most of us are using something called fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband. This is where the ultrafast fibre cables carry your broadband signal as far as your nearest street cabinet - that green box down the end of your road. The connection from the cabinet to you house is over the old copper telephone cables. These are a lot slower, and the signal degrades the further it has to travel, which is why a house on one of the street can get very different performance levels to one at the other end.
There's now a big push to roll out "full fibre" broadband, which is also known as fibre-to-the-home. Here, the fibre cables run right up to your house. The result is that the speeds are much, much faster and the service is more reliable.
"There's no benefit to upgrading to ultrafast broadband"
A recent survey found that one of the main things that stopped people from upgrading to ultrafast or full fibre broadband was the belief that it didn't really offer any benefits. But there are many.
The main one, obviously, is that you get much faster download speeds. Our internet use is skyrocketing - Ofcom's recent Communications Market Report shows that the average household now burns through 429GB of data each month, an increase of 36% on the previous year. Even if you think you don't need faster speeds right now, you will do soon.
On top of that, you get vastly quicker upload speeds, which will be essential if the working from home revolution continues. The service should be more reliable, too, as you won't have to deal with line faults on the old telephone cables.
And it's also better value for money: currently, you pay the same price for your broadband as your neighbour down the street, yet you could be receiving a much slower service. That's far less of an issue with full fibre.
"It's too much hassle to switch providers"
By now it's well established that those of us who are willing to switch providers will get a better and cheaper deal than those who stick with the same provider for a long time.
Why don't more people switch? Because it's seen as too much hassle. But it really isn't.
If you move between two providers on the Openreach network - which includes almost all the main providers, including BT, TalkTalk, Sky, Vodafone, Plusnet and so on - then the one you are moving to will handle the entire switchover process for you. You won't have to do anything, and the whole process should be done within a couple of weeks.
Granted, it is a little more complicated to switch to or from a provider that uses a different infrastructure, like Virgin Media, as you may need an engineer to come and install it. But these companies are now set up to make even this part as easy as possible.
"You'll lose internet access when you switch"
Another reason people are reluctant to switch is that they assume they'll be left without internet access while it happens. This is another myth.
Generally speaking, your old service gets turned off as your new service gets switched on and you might be disconnected for a few minutes in between, but nothing more dramatic than that. If you're switching to or from Virgin Media, you can even arrange an overlap where your new service is connected before your old one is turned off.
"You always have to sign a long contract"
Something that puts off a lot of people when they're looking at broadband deals is the prospect of having to commit to a long contract.
In fact, you don't have to. NOW Broadband, Virgin Media, and newcomer Cuckoo are among the providers that offer no-contract deals. You have to pay a little more on the activation fee up front, but this might be worth it for the flexibility of being able to cancel at any time. These deals can be especially worth it for students or anyone who's planning to move house in the near future.
Most suppliers offer 12 month contract options as well. And keep in mind that if your reluctance to sign a long deal is through the worry that you'll be stuck with something you aren't happy with, then there are ways you can quit a contract without charge. If your broadband speed constantly underperforms, for example, and your supplier cannot fix it, or if they put your prices up by more than the amount in agreed in your contract.
"It's too complicated to find a better deal"
There are a lot broadband suppliers in the UK, and they offer a lot of deals between them. Trying to figure out the differences can be tricky, especially if you aren't that tech savvy.
But it needn't be that complicated. We make it easy for you to compare all the latest broadband deals, and you can filter them based on whatever you want most. So, you can see the cheapest deals, or the fastest deals, or just the fibre packages, or those that offer broadband without a contract.
And if you then sort them further by speed or first year cost, you'll very quickly narrow your list of options down to just a few packages.
"Faster broadband always costs more"
While it's natural to assume that upgrading to faster broadband will cost you more, it isn't necessarily so.
If you're in a coverage area, you can get full fibre from Hyperoptic (at the slower 30Mb speed) at a rate normally reserved for the old, standard broadband deals; you can upgrade to a faster 67Mb plan from OneStream for just £22.50 a month; or you can burst through the 100Mb barrier with Vodafone for just £26 a month. These are some pretty keen prices, that make faster broadband more accessible than you might have expected.
So, now you know the truth about broadband and how to upgrade, are you ready to start shopping? Use our postcode checker to discover the best broadband deals available where you live.
Vodafone Home Broadband Buyers Guide - Is Vodafone right for you?
Can I get Vodafone Broadband?
Vodafone uses the Openreach network to provide fibre broadband to customers. This covers a good 95% of UK homes, so unless you're in a remote, rural area you're likely to be able to get it.
Use our postcode checker to see if Vodafone Broadband is available where you are.
Vodafone are a fibre-only provider, and they no longer offer a standard ADSL connection. If you only have basic internet requirements, and don't want to pay extra for a fibre deal you'll need to look elsewhere.
What packages are available?
Vodafone Broadband offers two standard fibre packages with a choice of speeds:
Fibre 1 - a mid-range fibre broadband package with average speeds of 35Mb
Fibre 2 - the high-end fibre package with average speeds of 63Mb
Both deals come on a 24 month contract, with no line rental and a one-off router fee (which is often waived as part of special offers). They're also truly unlimited with no usage caps or artificial slowdowns. You get the high-tech Vodafone Broadband wireless router as part of the package. This incorporates several cutting edge technologies to improve wi-fi access around your home. It can also be controlled and managed via a mobile app. There is the option to add a landline calls plan. Evening and weekend, and Anytime calls packages are available for £4 or £8 extra per month respectively.
Which package should I choose?
With only two standard fibre packages to choose from, both with truly unlimited usage, the same contract length and the same high-end router, you can safely make your decision based on speed and price.
The Fibre 1 deal is the entry-level fibre offer. With average speeds of 35Mb it's on a par with similar services from rival providers, although is priced very competitively. As far as the speed goes, it should be enough for most average households. It'll be able to handle Netflix and iPlayer streaming on a few devices together, as well as gaming and downloading.
Fibre 2 is the high-end service for more demanding households. With an average speed of 63Mb it will be able to handle as much streaming, downloading and gaming as you need. There isn't a huge price difference between the two, so you may feel it's worth paying the extra for the peace of mind offered by a faster service.
Vodafone no longer have a slower standard broadband service that runs wholly over your phone line. So if you only have basic requirements and would be happy paying for a barebones service, you'll need to find a different provider.
If you're in a Gigafast area, then you need to ask yourself if you really need those speeds. Going with this option would future proof you for a while without spending much more. However, the average home user isn't going to see any real life benefit to the higher speeds right now, so you may be better off saving a few pennies and opting for 100Mb or less.
Points to consider before you choose
How many people will be using your broadband connection, and will they be using it for streaming or downloading?
Are you unhappy with paying full price for low fibre speeds at your current provider?
Is being tied into a longer contract a problem for you?
It's important to know what you're getting when you sign up for broadband, as you may need to budget for extras
Free router - the cutting edge router supports several unique features including 'Beam', which uses beamforwarding technology to send a stronger signal to compatible devices, and 'Boost', which enables you to prioritise speeds to a single device for faster downloading.
Access to the Vodafone Broadband smartphone app - the router can be controlled by the Vodafone Broadband smartphone app for iPhone and Android. With this app you can manage your network, turn it on and off on a schedule, set up Guest access and limit access to family members, and change the password.
Six months free anti-virus protection - all customers get access to a free six month subscription to the F Secure SAFE anti-virus package.
Free tech support - Vodafone provides free customer service by phone from 8am to 11pm.
What are the benefits of Vodafone Broadband?
What are the main reasons why you should consider buying a broadband package from Vodafone?
Competitively priced - Vodafone's fibre broadband packages are priced very favourably against the other big name providers.
High-end router - the router supports superfast 802.11ac networking and some unique features. And it isn't just restricted to fibre broadband customers, either.
Smartphone control - the free iPhone and Android app makes managing your network a lot easier.
Smart parental controls - the Family Time feature, available through the app, enables you to tailor broadband access for each member of your household, including how much time they can spend online and what they can see.
What are the drawbacks of Vodafone Broadband?
Nothing's perfect. What potential downsides to Vodafone Broadband should you be aware before you sign up?
Long contracts - all of the Vodafone packages require an 24 month contract. Much of the competition offers 12 month contracts or even shorter.
Few extras - the router's impressive, but you don't get much else for your money.
No standard broadband options - if you don't live in a fibre-to-the-cabinet enabled area or you don't need fibre speeds then Vodafone will no longer offer you a slower standard phone line broadband product.
Phone support not available overnight - Unlike Vodafone's contract mobile phone support, broadband customers can only access telephone tech support between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
Annual CPI increase - prices for broadband (and any other addons, such as line, call plans and call charges) increase by the Consumer Price Index in April of each year plus 3.9%, and then each April onwards