Moving House – Vodafone Not Available, Need Advice on EE vs Zen

Roughneck

Roughneck

Roughneck

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Joined
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Location
Aberdeen
I’m moving about half a mile up the road into a 3-bedroom house that already has Openreach installed. At the moment I’m with Vodafone on their 950/950 up & down package, but it doesn’t seem to be available at the new address — only the “usual suspects” show up.

I’m not sure if that’s because my current service runs over CityFibre, or if it’s just because the new build is still being updated in the systems. People on the estate definitely have Vodafone, and one neighbour on the same road even says they’re with them, but I can’t get anything to show up through Vodafone’s website or their call centre.


My partner did speak to a UK-based rep last week who said the line just needed some checks and that it was available, but since I’m the account holder they couldn’t make any changes.


So right now I feel like I’ve got three options:


  1. Try to get through to another UK rep at Vodafone — no offence to the overseas team, but the last call just repeated what the website said, no lateral thinking.
  2. Look at Zen — they’ve got a good rep but they’re on the expensive side.
  3. EE — they’re offering 1.6Gbps plus 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for £71 a month. It’s pricey, but since I already pay Microsoft £23.99 for Game Pass, it brings the effective broadband cost down to about £47 for 1.6Gbps, which doesn’t look too bad.

I’ve checked Trustpilot and EE’s reviews aren’t great (mostly customer service complaints). I do like Vodafone because, for whatever reason, their ISP filters don’t feel as restrictive compared to when I was with Sky.


Any advice or tips from people who’ve been in a similar situation?
 
Not sure if you have it available, I was sceptical at first due to them being punted off comparison sites but OneStream have been absolutely fine since I moved into my new build. I believe they run off the Vodafone network and I'm on 990Mbps package for £32 a month which is more than enough for now.
 
Not my main connection but I've used EE for several years for some 4G and broadband connectivity and haven't had any issues, they are essentially BT these days. Friends/family have found their customer service can be a bit hit and miss if you do have problems but personally never needed it so far.
 
I wouldn't be touching Zen these days, they are not what they used to be and whilst better in terms of support, they no longer warrant the price they charge. Also, they've had network issues, and they still have the Manchester/London gateway dance issue.

I'm with EE, they're perfectly fine. You may also want to consider Plusnet.
 
ChrisD. said:
I wouldn't be touching Zen these days, they are not what they used to be and whilst better in terms of support, they no longer warrant the price they charge. Also, they've had network issues, and they still have the Manchester/London gateway dance issue.

I'm with EE, they're perfectly fine. You may also want to consider Plusnet.
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EE it is then cheers Chris
 
Roughneck said:
EE it is then cheers Chris
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With EE, you also get the option of the 1.6 Gbps option which is frankly overkill and absurd - if you have the kit.

4e66e85e-3004-4c12-af7d-6b97bc46a916.png


But they are pricier than someone like PlusNet. Also TalkTalk have an excellent network and they have very competitive £30 for 900 Mbps at the moment.
 
ChrisD. said:
With EE, you also get the option of the 1.6 Gbps option which is frankly overkill and absurd - if you have the kit.

4e66e85e-3004-4c12-af7d-6b97bc46a916.png


But they are pricier than someone like PlusNet. Also TalkTalk have an excellent network and they have very competitive £30 for 900 Mbps at the moment.
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I’m leaning towards the Gamer package: 1600 Mb (1300 guaranteed) plus 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which I already pay for separately. That makes it effectively £61 for me. At the moment I’m paying £37 for 950 Mbps and another £22.99 for Game Pass, so the value looks good.
 
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Factor in Quidco/TCB and it’s less painful, I was told that with the price change on live, EE were moving to 120 gift card for Xbox Live, but BF is com in my and that’s when deals will be better, usually.
 
robj20 said:
Ping seems high as well for FTTP.
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Hasn’t affected my online gaming — I still stink… haha. Also, the upload speed is maxed. To be fair, I had 950/950 with Vodafone and I never really used the upload feature. I don’t have OneDrive or Google Drive running, so that speed is enough for me.
 
robj20 said:
Ping seems high as well for FTTP.
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Ping to where? The poster is in Aberdeen and the Speedtest server is in London, 20ms is very good.

You can find an ISP in Scotland that breaks out locally if you want, giving you a very low ping to Edinburgh, but the vast majority of traffic will be going via London anyway, so it doesn't make a difference other than to the number appearing on a test.
 
12ms is pretty much the best you'll ever see for Aberdeen<>London and then adding 8ms to that for sub-optimal EAD/in-line BNG routing is quite acceptable.

Very little meaningful consumer network traffic is exchanged in Scotland/Edinburgh - even CloudFlare aren't far off getting rid of their equipment there.
 
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