Vodafone’s Ultimate Speed Guarantee reinvents Home Broadband for today’s connected families

At Vodafone, we believe that home broadband needs to be simpler, easier and on the customer’s side.

By Susan McClean | Head of Broadband, Vodafone UK

Reinventing home broadband has been our focus since Vodafone entered the market in 2015. We know the market doesn’t always get it right, so we listen to our customers, we hear what their frustrations are, we ask them what they would like to see, and then we do our best to give our customers what they want. We aren’t interested in the status quo: we want to offer something new and different that addresses customer needs.

In 2016, Vodafone was first in the industry to abolish landline rental charges for fibre optic home broadband customers. This meant they still received a home phone service, but they didn’t have to pay a penny for the line rental. Our no line rental offering was a hit with customers, and since then we’ve continued to see strong growth in demand for our service. We saw our best ever quarter in the three months to December 2017[i], and now we’re building on that success with another industry first: a speed[ii] guarantee for all our Home Broadband plans.

Introducing the Ultimate Speed Guarantee

Having surveyed thousands of people, we know that price matters, but that speed is the biggest purchase driver for families. Customers keep telling us they resent paying for speeds they don’t trust or understand.

At Vodafone, we believe that home broadband needs to be simpler, easier and on the customer’s side. We know customers want guaranteed broadband speeds they can rely on, which is why, starting 1^st March 2018, Vodafone UK will offer all new and upgrading Home Broadband customers the Ultimate Speed Guarantee[iii]. This guarantees minimum speeds for all our Superfast plans[iv]:

• Superfast 1 (up to 38Mbps): guarantees a minimum speed of 25Mbps for £21/month
• Superfast 2 (up to 76Mbps): guarantees a minimum speed of 55Mbps for £26/month

To ensure that our customers benefit from the best available technology, from 1^st March 2018, we will no longer offer ADSL. All our Home Broadband plans will be fibre optic only. This uses Openreach Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC) – fibre optic cables that extend to a street cabinet, with copper cables used the rest of the way to link homes to superfast fibre. We can already supply 94% of UK premises with our Superfast plans, so if you’d like to see if your home might be eligible, please click here. Through our partnership with CityFibre, we’re looking forward to extending full-fibre to approximately 12 cities and reaching one million homes across the UK by 2021. You can read more about our progress to date here.

A guarantee that blows away the competition

We’re determined to give our home broadband customers the best guarantee in the market. We’re so confident in our offer, we’ll give customers 15% off their monthly bill if we don’t deliver the minimum guaranteed speeds. All customers need to do is claim at the click of a button via the Vodafone Broadband app – there’s no need to call and explain anything to an agent. We’ll apply the discount immediately to your account, quibble-free. There are no clunky forms to fill in, no paperwork. It’s really that simple.

A broadband speed guarantee designed for today’s connected families

Our Ultimate Speed Guarantee takes into account the needs of today’s connected families. These days many UK families own multiple devices, from smartphones and tablets to smart TVs. Indeed, the average household owns 7.4 devices that connect to the Internet. A home with multiple devices in use needs a broadband speed that’s fast enough to cope with demand, particularly when everyone in the family is using the Internet at the same time. Consider the table below: it shows the typical internet activities of a family with two parents and two teenage children, and the broadband speed that each activity requires[v]:

The needs of a connected family can add up, which is why we’re offering two minimum speed levels to suit different families. Our 25Mbps Superfast 1 package would meet the needs of a family like the one in the table above. If there are more internet users in the family, our 55Mbps Superfast 2 package could be more suitable.

With the Ultimate Speed Guarantee, there’s even more of a reason to choose Vodafone as your Home Broadband provider – whether you’re an existing Vodafone Mobile customer or brand new to Vodafone.

Notes

[i] In the three months to December 2017, Vodafone UK’s consumer broadband service added 39,000 more households, for a total of 316,000 customers.

[ii] We guarantee sync speeds, i.e. the speed to your home router, not the speed you see on your device. This is because the throughput speed is affected by many different factors, such as number of users, types of devices and where you position your router.

[iii] Available from 1st March 2018. 18-month agreement, subject to credit check & availability. Ultimate Speed Guarantee or claim money off your next bill. New and upgrading fibre optic broadband customers only, terms apply: visit vodafone.co.uk/broadband from 1st March 2018 for further information.

[iv] These prices reflect a £2/month discount for existing Vodafone Mobile customers who sign up for Vodafone Home Broadband service, worth £36 over the life of the contract. Customers who are new to Vodafone pay £23/month for Superfast 1 and £28/month for Superfast 2. From 1^st March 2018 until 3^rd April 2018, there is no delivery fee or any other upfront fee. From 4^th April 2018, a £9.99 delivery fee applies.

£60 new line installation and router delivery (£9.99) charges may apply (includes VAT). 18-month agreement. Subject to credit check, acceptance & availability in your area – check speed & availability at vodafone.co.uk/broadband. Vodafone Broadband app & compatible Android/iOS device required for full functionality. Payment by direct debit required. Speeds referred to are maximum download and upload speeds & may vary significantly by location & are dependent on equipment meeting min. specifications, being fully functional & working at full speed.

[v] Based on Vodafone UK estimates.