Vodafone as an ISP

I have been a long term use of Vodafone for my mobile (not the greatest at data speed, but their services work at the important 3 locations - home, parent's house (middle of no where) and work.

They sent me a text suggesting that Fibre will soon be available in my area (Weymouth). Prices look to be much better than than I am currently paying for SKy Fibre (£20+line rental) for an 40Mbps service.

upto 40Mbps = £7.50 (for 12 months, then £15) + line rental, 18 month contract
upto 80Mbps = £15.00 (for 12 months, then £20) + line rental, 18 month contract

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/deals/index.htm These prices include a £5 discount for being an existing vodafone customer "Price includes £5 monthly existing Vodafone mobile customer discount"

Now, I have been with Sky for quite some time (migrated from PlusNet) to Sky LLU and then to Fibre and I've have always been happy with the service. Does anyone know if the Vodafone throttle traffic, or will the experience be as good as that of Sky? I've never had any real issues with Sky customer support either (but I know that people don't speak that well of Vodafone's mobile customer support teams).

Finally are you limited to using Vodafone's router, or can you use your own? Will they supply connection details or will Wireshark be required? To be fair, the spec of the router looks to be quite good, but it won't do some of the things I want (VPN, etc)

Thanks,
Matt

Edited by mbames (Mon 27-Jul-15 09:21:08)

I had a chat with Vodafone on the live chat. So straight from the horses mouth 3rd party routers are allowed and no messing with Wireshark.

info: Welcome to Vodafone! You will now be connected with a service adviser. Your approximate wait time is 3 minute(s) and 30 seconds. . We’re looking forward to assisting you today.
info: You are now connected with Caolan Parker.
info: Please wait while I transfer the chat to the appropriate group.
info: You are now connected with Stephane.
Jon Bradley: Hello there, very quick question. Does vodafone connect allow the use of third party routers?
Stephane: Hi John, You are able to use third party routers however vodafone wouldnt be able to offer any support whilst they are in use though
Jon Bradley: yeah that's not a problem
Jon Bradley: as long as you are sure.
Stephane: no problem, yeah basicaly as long as you are able to get them setup yourself then they will work, but vodafone ideally want their router to be used so if you had any issues they may ask you to plug your vodafone router in to run diagnostics
Jon Bradley: That won't be a problem i can always plugin your router if the line goes down. I have used my own on BT for many years.
Jon Bradley: last question about your top tier
Jon Bradley: is it unlimited
Jon Bradley: ie no throttling etc
Stephane: they will be launching tv services within the next few months so worth keeping an eye for that too as you would be able to upgrade to it if you wished.
Stephane: and yeah no throttling and no fair use policy
Jon Bradley: Ok
Jon Bradley: one last thing actually.
Jon Bradley: line rental. Most suppliers caller display is an extra
Jon Bradley: is it included with VF?
Stephane: yeah caller display is free of charge with us
Jon Bradley: Brilliant stuff. Thankyou for the clear answers.

Caller ID, excellent. I have that with Sky currently.

Popped into my VF shop in town the other day (to get my SS replaced), and they said it was due to be available in the next few days. I am tempted to switch over, but it has an 18 month contract so if it all goes pearshaped I'm stuck with them..... ho hum


38Mbps for £7.50 (where as I pay Sky £20), increasing to £15/month after a year
76Mbps for £16.99, increasing to £20/month after a year

both plus line rental at £16.99. My current monthly bill is £36 is Sky, so like for like I get to save about £10 a month. However Sky's customer service has always been great.

£5/month discount if an existing Vodafone customer (can't determine if the prices are with or without the discount).

Just thought I would ask the same questions, so I hopped onto Live Chat:

Matt: Hi
Chantelle: Good Afternoon you're chatting with Chantelle, one of Vodafone Broadband & Fixed Line customer service specialists. How may I help you today?
Matt: I've just got a couple of questions about your new Fibre Broadband services
Chantelle: OK Matt, what would you like to know?
Matt: 1. Do you supply a username & password so that I can use my own router
2. Is there any content filtering / traffic shaping and is there a fair usage policy
3. Do you offer CallerID for the basic line rental price?
4. Are the prices quoted with or without the £5 discount for being an existing customer?
5. Do you provide a VoiceMail service and is that chargeable?
Chantelle: 1. At the moment we are not providing Username/password - Customers will need to use our router.
Chantelle: 2. We do provide Content control - However this can be added/removed. We do not slow down/limit our customers.
Chantelle: 3. Caller ID can be added to customers landline - this has no charge.
Chantelle: 4. Prices for packages for Current customer (Fibre upto 38Mbps) - £16.99 Landline rental, Fibre £15.00 - Overall £31.99 Per month Current Customer (Fibre upto 76Mbps) - £16.99 Landline rental, Fibre £20.00 - Overall £36.99 Per month
Chantelle: 5. We do provide a free Voice mail service.
Chantelle: Our Broadband Sales team are providing other sales and discounts to customers. If you are interested I can transfer you to the Sales team.
Matt: I have a Vodafone paperwork which says "Upto 38Mbps £7.50 for first 12 months of an 18 month contract, then £15" "Upto 76Mbps £10 for first 12 months, then £16.99 for next 6 months" Both + line rental at 16.99
Matt: the T&Cs also state "£5 discount for existing customers", so I'm a little confused
Chantelle: All discounts for Broadband & landline are being arranged via Sales. I could not comment on any discounts provided by them.
Chantelle: Is there anything else I can help you with today Matt?
Matt: I think you can covered everything I need to know. Shame that I can't use my own router, as it provides features which the Vodafone unit doesn't
Chantelle: I understand, I can confirm our Vodafone connect router does come with several different features - including beamforming, boost, guest wifi and our router can be controlled via an app on your phone.
Matt: Does it support Windows Phone (via the app?) DynDNS, VPN Termination and Port redirection?
Chantelle: I am unsure of this, please give me a moment to check the technical specs.
Matt: ok - many thanks
Chantelle: OK I have checked the Router specs - Dyn DNS cannot be changed, Port redirection can set up through the advanced setting on the router interface . VPN can be used with our router. At the moment Windows phone do not have an app - although this will be released in the future.
Chantelle: I apologise for the time it took to gather this information, I hope you understand these are not regularly asked questions.
Matt: That is fine - I would rather have all the necessary detail in advance - enables me to decide if switching to Vodafone's Fibre service would be a good thing or not.


So: yes to free VM and Caller ID, but a big fat no to using your own router....

Edited by mbames (Tue 25-Aug-15 16:26:36)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/vodafone/package/1...

Not many listing them yet, as not on any affiliate systems, but our listing includes any Vodafone mobile customer discounts.

Will add without mobile pricing once they launch to everyone.

Hah well that's a turn up. Both of them on live chat sound like they knew what they were talking about and yet two completely different answers!

Guess more ppl need to live chat them and find out. I might ask when I am next in town, but I really want to see something in print, direct from Vodafone to confirm either way.

So that suggests the pricing they are showing includes the £5 discount already (would be very cheap otherwise).

Wonder if the Vodafone Employee Advantage scheme will work for Broadband services too?

Dont forget Demon, Tesco ISPs was all C&W wholesale but it will be interesting to see what vodafone has to offer.

The Vodafone Broadband and Home Phone Terms apply to Vodafone Broadband and Home Phone Services
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/vodafone_broadb...

Vodafone Connect Router Specs
· Chipset : Broadcom 63168/6303
· 4 x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45)
· 1 x Gigabit Ethernet WAN (RJ45)
· 1 x ADSL2+ / VDSL2 (RJ11)
· WiFi 11ac: 5GHz 3×3 / 11n: 2,4GHz 2×2 dual band concurrent with MIMO and Beamforming
· 2 x USB 2.0
· DDR3 128MB + 256MB NAND FLASH
· ADSL2+ / VDSL2 (incl. vectoring)
· DLNA Certified
· Fibre compatible WAN port
· Unique status LEDs activated by proximity sensor
· Ambient bottom glow shows device status

In reply to a post by JonBradley:

I managed to get someone on the line who could tell me more about the connect router. It currently doesn't even offer a bridging mode. So you're not able to disable DHCP on it and if you use your own router you'll get double NAT.

Double NAT from the WAN side?? So im guessing is going to be like the Mobile Broadband as thats in range of 10.152.x.x

Also could the Vodafone Connect router be used in other european countries too?
Portugal http://www.vodafone.pt/main/particulares/tv-net-voz/...
Spain http://www.vodafone.es/tienda/particulares/es/intern...
they have vodafone broadband ^^

Edited by francisuk25 (Mon 21-Sep-15 22:05:39)

Unique status LEDs activated by proximity sensor

willy waving on lights now? rather fancy and IMO useless feature.

Might scare the odd cat

I just bought a cat scarer for the garden. I could try them both