Dan Howdle | May 3rd, 2022

Vodafone broadband review 2022: Is it any good?

Vodafone broadband is cheap. It offers a great service that's good enough for all, but at a price that is in many cases cheaper than rivals.

Results of our broadband survey

We interviewed 6,000 household broadband decision makers. This is how Vodafone broadband customers rated their service:

Installation/switching
Speed satisfaction
Reliability

Equipment/routers
Value for money
Likeliness to recommend

View the full survey

Our review of Vodafone broadband

Once exclusively a mobile phone provider, Vodafone has now established a firm foothold on the home broadband market, offering some of the cheapest fibre broadband deals available in the UK, accompanied by one of the very best routers.

Here’s everything you need to know about Vodafone broadband – what’s on offer, whether the provider is right for you, and what to expect in terms of equipment, installation, customer service and more.

Reasons to buy

No upfront costs
Great value for money
Fast enough for most homes

Reasons to avoid

Not as fast as Virgin Media
Among lowest-rated for reliability
No TV bundles

While most UK broadband providers are either set on offering higher quality broadband and faster speeds or cheap, accessible services, Vodafone broadband pulls off the surprising feat of offering both. The brand offers high quality broadband provision at affordable rates, making it a popular choice, particularly for cheap fibre broadband deals.

Vodafone offers speeds that are fast enough to suit most households, and there are no upfront costs when having your new connection installed.

As with any broadband provider, there are some downsides. The brand doesn’t offer any TV bundles, so you can’t combine your broadband and TV as you can with the likes of Sky, NOW Broadband and BT. The only exception to this is for customers who sign up for any Vodafone Broadband Pro Xtra plans, which include a free 3-month subscription to Apple TV.

Vodafone offers customers an array of ways to get in touch, from customer service support by phone, live chat and via social media using Twitter or Facebook. You can also consult Vodafone’s online community or use their TOBi chatbot for support on their website.

Overview

Here’s a quick look at what you can expect to find included in a Vodafone broadband deal.

Download speeds	36Mbps-200Mbps
Upload speeds	9Mbps-27Mbps
Broadband	Fibre, full fibre
Home Phone	Yes
Freebies to look for	Free upgrades
Packages available	Broadband, Broadband and landline, Broadband and mobile, Broadband and Apple TV 4K
Router available	WiFi Hub
Contract lengths	24 months
Prices from	£19 per month

Broadband speeds

With more of us needing faster internet speeds than ever before, Vodafone no longer offers standard ADSL broadband deals like other providers. Instead, the ISP focuses on fibre optic broadband, with a handful of different packages widely available.

Vodafone Superfast 1

With this package, you’ll get an average speed of 36Mbps download (9Mbps upload). This is comparable with basic fibre deals from most other UK providers on the Openreach network (that’s everyone except Virgin Media).

This option is suitable for a household of three to four people who use the internet on a daily basis – whether for online shopping, web browsing or social media. This speed should also be suitable for households where online gaming and streaming HDTV happens regularly, but if you stream in 4K or download video games and large files often, you may need to upgrade to their faster package.

Vodafone Superfast 2

Vodafone’s next level up is Superfast 2, which averages 67Mbps for downloads, with a 18Mbps upload speed, putting it in line with most other UK providers at time of writing. It’s best suited to larger households with multiple internet users.

67Mbps is perfectly respectable and adequate for most households, even if you enjoy watching 4K TV and gaming on a daily basis.

Vodafone Superfast 100

Vodafone’s top level package with superfast speeds is known as Superfast 100, offering download speeds of up to 100Mbps, and upload speeds of up to 18Mbps. Superfast is ideal for larger households with simultaneous streaming needs, for those who do everything online on their own devices – meaning several people may be vying for a connection at the same time.

Vodafone Ultrafast speeds

Along with many other providers. Vodafone now also offers ultrafast internet connections to select properties across the country within ultrafast-enabled areas. Customers can choose from 200Mbps or 500Mbps. You can visit Vodafone’s postcode checker to find out if ultrafast services have arrived in your area yet.

Vodafone Gigafast speeds

Vodafone offers another tier of ultrafast internet, though it classifies it separately as ‘Gigafast’ to select areas across the UK, again, where ultrafast-enabled broadband is available. Customers can get up to a whopping 900Mbps where available. Vodafone’s postcode checker will tell you if it's available in your area.

Upload speeds

Download speeds describe how fast you can copy information from the internet to your device - things like video games, music and movies. Upload speeds, on the other hand, describe how fast you can copy information from your device to the internet, cloud storage or other devices.

Most of us do a lot more downloading than uploading, meaning we’re more concerned with the download speeds advertised by broadband providers than the upload speeds.

Superfast 1 has an average upload speed of 9Mbps compared to the 18Mbps upload speed of their Superfast 2 and Superfast 100 deals. If you copy a lot of information from your device to the internet or other devices, it’s probably worth making the upgrade and investing in Superfast 2 or Superfast 100. If your upload data usage is exceptionally high, it might be worth considering the Ultrafast 200 with upload speeds up to 27Mbps.

Packages

Vodafone offers combined broadband and landline phone deals, where you can bundle together the two services in one. As you’d expect with a mobile provider, the brand also offers combined broadband and mobile phone contracts. You can even save some cash and make life super-easy by getting the three services together.

If you want to add a TV package to your broadband deal, Vodafone offers a free 3-month subscription to Apple TV 4K with their Pro Xtra deals. With Apple TV, you can watch Freeview channels, stream movies, TV shows and much more from free streaming apps like BBC iPlayer, TV Hub, All 4 and more. You can also use Apple TV to access your other subscription streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and of course, content from Apple.

Vodafone Pro and Pro Xtra Broadband

Vodafone offers a premium service with some deals, known as Vodafone Pro. Vodafone Pro Broadband offers you WiFi in every room, or you can leave your contract for free – guaranteed. Plus a host of other features like 4G Broadband Back-up, UK-based expert technical support, and Gigafast broadband speeds up to 900Mbps to ensure you’re always connected. At the time of writing, Vodafone is offering Alexa Built-in for free, so you can manage your broadband and devices, and ask Alexa questions using their new Super WiFi Plus Booster. Vodafone Pro Xtra is essentially the same broadband package, but includes a subscription to Apple TV 4K for 3-months and anytime landline and mobile calls to most UK numbers.

Router and installation

When you sign up for a Vodafone broadband deal, you’ll receive the Vodafone WiFi Hub. This hi-spec router has seven antennae to provide a powerful, far reaching WiFi signal, along with 4 gigabit ethernet ports for fast wired connections.

Vodafone’s latest router is twice as fast as its predecessor, able to support up to 50 devices. Customers with the Vodafone Pro plan will receive a Super Wifi booster that acts as an extender to ensure you receive a good wifi signal throughout your property. In addition, Pro customers will get 4G Broadband Back-Up that automatically switches your connection to the Vodafone mobile network if your cabled connection goes down for any reason.

The router also offers something called ‘Device Boost’ that allows you to ask it to make an extra-special effort to contact a device. This would be useful if your bedroom, for example, was at the other end of your house from your router and your wifi signal didn’t quite reach. If you wanted to watch your tablet in bed, you could use Device Boost to achieve this, focusing your WiFi signal on the device.

All in all, Vodafone’s router is an impressive piece of kit. For more details, see our Vodafone broadband router guide

Installation

Vodafone broadband should be easy to set up and does not usually require an engineer visit, unless you haven't had an Openreach FTTC connection installed or you are installing a full fibre connection. Installation typically takes around ten days weeks from order to connection.

There are two ways it works, depending on whether you already have a home phone line. If you do, you’ll be sent a Vodafone router in the post with instructions on how and when to self-install it. If you require a new landline connection, however, an engineer will need to visit your property to install one – which usually takes a couple of hours.

Customer service

The provider came in fourth place in our last customer survey – a respectable result out of 20 popular providers. If you need to contact the Vodafone customer service team, you can call 191 for free using a Vodafone mobile or 0333 304 0191 from any other mobile or landline number (charges will apply).

Our verdict: Very good

Overall, Vodafone offers affordable deals with perfectly adequate speeds, and is also now slowly rolling out ultrafast speeds comparable to those of Virgin Media, although they are not yet widely available. With the exception of Apple TV for those prepared to pay extra for a premium deal that includes a 3-month subscription, the brand doesn’t offer a comprehensive TV service as standard, which may disappoint those customers that like the simplicity of getting their internet, home phone and TV deal from one provider.

Compare Vodafone broadband