Pro II Full Fibre 900 Experience

Thought it might be worth creating a post as the feedback for Vodafone seems to be pretty thin on the ground and people might benefit from my experiences with the service.

I went into a Vodafone shop to order my Pro II Full Fibre package (900 as I am on Openreach), sometimes it's good to speak to a human and I wanted a Costa anyway.

Was all pretty painless from an ordering perspective, the other benefit being £10 for 100gb 5g sim cards (18 month contract) which is pretty decent when I am paying £70 per month to EE for three sims and £55 Zen.

I went for the Pro II package as I work from home and the 4g backup whilst unlikely that it will be needed is always there if the fibre went down for any reason.

Full fibre kit arrived a week before my switching date by DPD. Switching day morning went without a hitch, simply plugged in their Ultra Hub (yes I removed my Unifi UCG as I wanted to check what the Vodafone kit was like... I have 14 days). I added settings but the hub must have called home and wiped them so started all over again.

If you are looking for a lot of customisation and expert settings like VLANs then you might be disappointed but the question is whether or not there is enough for the average user? Probably...

I was able to configure all of my devices to work as they had been previously, no issues there. Regarding the booster I first paired it wirelessly with the Ultra Hub and let it perform any firmware updates and then attached it using ethernet to guarantee the back haul, seems to be working as expected.

Next up static IP address, spoke to Vodafone on their live chat the day I went live and it was ordered for me (no charge) and I received an email just before midnight the same day to say it was active. On checking in the morning it has been applied and does indeed appear to be static but will update in a few days.

I also asked for two additional boosters, there is a lot of steel work in the house so some rooms get WIFI but the speed isn't as good (I am talking 47Mbps in the worst room rather than the 880Mbps and 14Mbps outside by the Nest doorbell, tests were done on an iPhone 16 Pro using the speedtest app and I am assuming utilising WIFI 6E where possible).

I was able to forward ports for Plex etc, change the DNS servers to Cloudflare and Quad9 and setup DDNS with changeip.com just in case the static IP wasn't static. What I would call basic modern router features.

My one gripe would be having to switch between the phone app to do initial setup and change WIFI settings and then back to the web UI for "expert" options.

There is also the fact you don't seem able to switch off WPS on the main WIFI SSID, only on the guest SSID...

All in all so far not a bad experience if I am honest. I have read the stories around Vodafone support etc and static IP addresses not being actioned but thought I would feedback on what has so far has been a positive experience from my perspective.

Will update in a week on how I am finding it and any issues.

So it's been just under three weeks since I switched from Zen to Vodafone.

Two additional boosters arrived and I can confirm that once you have paired them wirelessly you can indeed connect them via ethernet to get wired backhaul although this is not a documented feature of the boosters that Vodafone supply.

Speed has been consistent as has the ping and I have not noticed any slowdowns etc and it is in use from 7am until midnight each day during the week as I work from home.

Looks like it has fallen back to the 4G backup at some point but I could not tell you when. It's a shame Vodafone don't offer 5G but it hasn't had a negative impact on the service.

My interactions with customer service (via online chat I haven't tried calling) have been absolutely fine. Only one problem with the delivery of the two boosters but this was with DPD rather than Vodafone but was quickly resolved via online chat.

Surprisingly Vodafone sent me a code for an Amazon Echo Show 5 (3rd gen) and also up to £100 for termination fees which was handy as I ended my contract with Zen just under a month early. Whilst the gifts etc weren't and shouldn't be a driving factor when choosing a provider, that plus the reduced cost per month with no perceived degradation in service is hard to pass up!

IP address is still static so all in all a good experience if I am honest. Will pop back in the coming months to give updates, good or bad!

When you say you paid for a Static address, is that because Vodafone use CGNAT? Otherwise is there a reason you needed a static address?
I didn't realise they would pay you to exit a previous contract (I'm currently with Zen)
And, is IPV6 working for you on Vodafone as I've been having some issues here with Zen recently.
Good review. Thanks!

I didn't need to pay for a static IP address they gave it to me for free but I think they do that anyway. I run a number of services in my home lab that I need to access externally so a static IP address made it easier plus there are four Xboxes in the house and it makes using those simpler without having to enable uPnP.

Yes there are exit fees with Zen if you leave within your contract period. I had 23 days left on mine so decided to leave as I could recoup the £52 with the cost savings in a just few months.

I have disabled IPv6 as it seems to cause problems half the time on most providers and to be honest I am a software engineer and glaze over when network engineers start talking IPv6. IPv4 I can understand