Thinking of moving from Sky..

Hello

I'm thinking of switching to Vodafone fibre in the next few months (which is when discount with Sky ends), as they are £9 or £12 cheaper . However you've guessed it's one of those post aka I have a few questions first....

- Has anyone made the switch from Sky ? Were you able to keep your number ? Was there any thing different about the set up on the days leading up to or during your going live day, compared to going to any other provider including Sky?
- Did the switch going smoothly?
- Have you had any problems with the service line speed etc etc? If yes were they quickly and easily sovled?
- Whats your overral experince with them like?

Thank you in advance.

Edited by wy2k (Wed 02-Nov-16 22:45:20)

I'm in a similar boat, as my discount with sky had ended. I want to use my own router though, and their less than consistent policy of connection details doesn't help.

I had a mate who was on BT, migrated to Sky LLU and then Fibre, and then to Vodafone. Apparently his number can not be migrated back to Sky (he tried to cancel his Vodafone service and move to Sky, and that is what Sky told a potential 'new/returning' customer)..... So yes, his number moved happy to Vodafone, but now is seemingly trapped with them (if you believe what the sales teams told him, and he questioned it a couple of times).

Switching I believe as smooth, just swapped the routers over.

Performance seems to be fine, he is on 80/20.

I'd imagine their customer service is cr@p, just as it is for their mobile customers. Sky CS has always been brilliant, and I feel pained when I have to call VF with queries about my mobile as they are a bunch of incompetent cretins. However if the service "just works" then you;'d never have to experience it.... sadly there aren't enough customers on VF fibre to know.

ok thanks given me something to think about I've got 2 or 3 months before my sky deal ends. If only sky would get rid of line rental or at least bring prices in line with vodafones..i know not going to happen they only seem to know how to increase prices.

In reply to a post by wy2k:

If only sky would get rid of line rental or at least bring prices in line with vodafones.

Vodafone haven't removed line rental - it's just hidden in the price now.

If only sky would get rid of line rental or at least bring prices in line with vodafones.

They have done this. Thing is, line rental is still in the price, line rental pays for maintenance of the telephone line coming into your home... Vodafone have just bundled it into one big price and said "no line rental." Now Sky, BT etc have followed suit. You will notice the prices are generally the same, or higher, than the old price which was Line Rental + Broadband.

E.g.Sky ADSL used to be 17.70 + 5 for broadband = 22.70
Their new price "without line rental" is 22.40 all in
Notice the overall price is basically the same.

i'am not sure i understand that vodafone line rental is hidden in one price as typical line rental going via other providers is around £17 which would make there broadband around £9 how can they do it that cheap when other providers can't?!

I pay talktalk £0 for fibre and just pay £17.70 total a month = 17.70 total (retentions deal) but it's £27 normally.

I pay BT £19.20 line rental + £10 for fibre optic BT infinity = 29.10 a month

Other providers can and do offer broadband around that price. You just need to get on board during their offers.

BT infinity is £29.99 on their website with line rental

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 08-Nov-16 09:53:58)

Its called competition and a desire to grow a user base from perhaps 150,000 customers to a million and bigger, ie. need to undercut others as much as possible.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Other providers can and do offer broadband around that price. You just need to get on board during their offers.

The difference here is that Vodafone's £25 per month for unlimited fibre and line rental is not an introductory offer, whereas all the other prices you mentioned are.

While the Vodafone price is not an introductory offer, I suspect that as they grow in size and rather than using spare capacity they need to expand the tune may change i.e. price rises

A big difference between a fixed price contract for life and a fixed price for an 18 month term.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

A big difference between a fixed price contract for life and a fixed price for an 18 month term.

Well no-one is offering a fixed price contract for life. Some are offering a fixed price for an 18 month term such as TalkTalk, but their current offer is set to end on 22/12/2016.

I agree it remains to be seen how long Vodafone holds its current low standard pricing, but it's certainly market-leading for the time being at least.

So at £22 pm for Vodafone mobile customers, do you think Vodafone are covering their costs? Do they need their mobile customers to make landline phone calls to break even?

Why worry about that? It's the business decision they've made, and I can see the logic behind it - if they've got you, a customer, on two of their services, and offer you a bundle discount, should you think of leaving them, you'll think twice because it'll be a great hassle: by leaving a mobile service you'll lose the discount on the broadband, and your mobile and broadband contract terms aren't likely in sync meaning they've got a greater leverage when convincing you to renew your contract, plus you can't disconnect both services at once and take a similar discounted bundle from TalkTalk, BT, EE, Virgin or Sky (and Plusnet have just launched theirs). So once they've got you on their home+mobile bundle, you're all theirs and you won't leave. Eventually you'll just get used to having everything Vodafone and won't want to leave eithet. And it's worth more than a couple of pounds they lose by offering you a discounted broadband.
P.S. And if you look at their out-of-bundle charges for mobile... It used to be £1 per minute to call abroad and they've just upped that further - if they're doing that they don't need much to break even

Edited by deleted (Sun 20-Nov-16 18:53:02)

I am curious, though I concede it is a difficult question. If all ISPs could cover their costs at £22pm then there is a chance that their prices will reduce, OTOH if Vodafone can't cover their costs at that price, then they are more likely to put prices up or quit.

The linkage to a mobile contract is not that strong and might easily be outweighed by a better deal with another mobile phone network.

It is a new entry to the market, providers generally make a loss in the initial few years, e.g. Sky in 2006 was launched & made a loss for many years. The consideration is gaining market share ie cheap prices.

Vodafone have the advantage of an extensive backhaul network. As MrSaffron has noted, the offer might change once the already installed capacity is inadequate and costly network upgrades are needed. That said, I'm sure you're right to say the current price is a deliberate move to grab market share.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vodafone launch an IPTV offering and attempt to compete in the "quad play" market (television, landline phone, fixed broadband and mobile).

In reply to a post by David_W:

As MrSaffron has noted, the offer might change once the already installed capacity is inadequate and costly network upgrades are needed.

Vodafone (ex-C&W) have multiple 10gb/s backhaul links to exchanges they've LLU'd, compared to 1gb/s links which TalkTalk and Sky have deployed so I'd guess congestion (at exchange level at least) will be extremely unlikely on Vodafone. Just a shame they don't officially allow you to use your own router, otherwise I'd jump over to them in a heart beat for my second vdsl2 line.

And with just 170,000 customers those will be very empty links most of the time currently.

Another reason for lower price is cost of acquisition is lower as they aren't playing the affiliate game, so missing from a number of comparison sites, the downside is that may mean lower exposure to the public.