Vodafone broadband any good?

Soldato
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The two possible reasons for Vodafone not handing out details were quite simple:
1. They wanted an easy life. Every single user has the same equipment at the end of the connection. This makes technical support 100x easier as you are dealing with known kit on each occasion. Threatening "no support if you're not using our equipment" is just that, a threat.
2. Vodafone's ADSL offering is in fact tiered fibre. So pay for ADSL, use your own equipment at get a 40/10 fibre connection instead.

I did read through the Vodafone forums, not sure of the "tin foil level" theories behind the reason - I couldn't spot any.

The former is accurate, the latter is tin foil territory. Fibre availability is lower and wholesale cost higher, have a look at BTO's wholesale pricing and then explain to me why a reseller pitching at the low end of profitability would shoot itself in the foot by artificially reducing its availability and increasing its costs?
 
Soldato
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Vodafone aren't using anybody else's network, they are installing their own equipment.
So, as a telco, why would you bother installing any kind of ADSL equipment? Keep it simple, roll fibre out everywhere you can.
They aren't artificially reducing availability - right now you cannot get Vodafone everywhere because they haven't installed equipment everywhere.
I'm not the person who made the ADSL/Fibre claims (read it on a couple of boards now - was backed up with testing, but I'd need to look for those threads) - but I can see why Vodafone would do this.
However, I don't work for Vodafone, nor do I know anybody who does - but I can see why the latter could be true.
 
Soldato
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A serious question. What's wrong with the router supplied by Vodafone?

For me personally it was underpowered and connecting more than 20 devices to it led to devices disconnecting and random errors. Lower the device count and it was OK. This was on two different Commect routers. Having said that, I'm sure other ISP routers are similarly under powered. Probably all designed for simple consumer's homes and work fine in 95% of cases.

And until recent firmwares it locked you out of lots of settings. You couldn't change a DHCP range for example. That's changed now though, but it gave it a bad rep.
 
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If you look further (may have been deleted now as it was technically abuse), you'll see it's possible to stack the MSE price and £150 offer/ £110 cash back with a minor URL modification.

Yes I think those comments have been removed, I am new to this how cash back thing. How do you know if you are going to get the cash back, do you have to log in on their sire or something? Also could you tell me more about stacking the offers?
 
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I'm quite interested in their service now I have no internet service provider.

But can't get anywhere with their online form because they require a landline number. I don't have a landline.

I only want 76/20 fibre at £30 per month sigh.

Ok online form is working but a £60 engineer fee and them fitting a landline has me scratching my chin.

I don't want a landline, i only want a decent broadband fibre service.

Also, I use an Asus AC87u router that had been connected to the old virgin superhub via modem mode.

Can I do this with the router Vodaphone supply?
 
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Soldato
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I'm quite interested in their service now I have no internet service provider.

But can't get anywhere with their online form because they require a landline number. I don't have a landline.

I only want 76/20 fibre at £30 per month sigh.

Ok online form is working but a £60 engineer fee and them fitting a landline has me scratching my chin.

I don't want a landline, i only want a decent broadband fibre service.

Also, I use an Asus AC87u router that had been connected to the old virgin superhub via modem mode.

Can I do this with the router Vodaphone supply?

The vast majority of internet connections advertised as 'Fibre' are in fact FTTC (fibre to the cabinet): BT Retail, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, Vodafone, etc etc. It utilises the existing Openreach copper line entering your house which is adapted to provide voice, ADSL or VDSL (FTTC) broadband. With FTTC 'Fibre' connections the only difference is the other end of your line is connected to a fibre street cabinet. This is why the actual speed you get depends on the length of copper line between your modem and the street cabinet. This copper line is owned and maintained by Openreach, a subsidiary of the BT Group. Openreach are testing FTTC 'fibre' connections without voice services. Use the broadband availability checker to find out what Openreach services you could get and estimated speeds.

Remember you could use alternative networks: Virgin Media have their on DocSIS/Fibre network and there are more and more FTTP/H (Fibre to the home/property) providers serving towns and cities, including Openreach (if you're lucky!)
 
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Associate
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The vast majority of internet connections advertised as 'Fibre' are in fact FTTC (fibre to the cabinet): BT Retail, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, Vodafone, etc etc. It utilises the existing Openreach copper line entering your house which is adapted to provide voice, ADSL or VDSL (FTTC) broadband. With FTTC 'Fibre' connections the only difference is the other end of your line is connected to a fibre street cabinet. This is why the actual speed you get depends on the length of copper line between your modem and the street cabinet. This copper line is owned and maintained by Openreach, a subsidiary of the BT Group. Openreach are testing FTTC 'fibre' connections without voice services. Use the broadband availability checker to find out what Openreach services you could get and estimated speeds.

Remember you could use alternative networks: Virgin Media have their on DocSIS/Fibre network and there are more and more FTTP/H (Fibre to the home/property) providers serving towns and cities, including Openreach (if you're lucky!)

Thankyou Meatball.

I was previously with Virgin Media on their top package TV/Phone/Vivid Gamer Internet deal with a box upstairs and down. Household of 5 users with multiple devices in multiple rooms. But still had issues, especially with gaming on WoT, wired with cat6 or wireless with a 5G connection to the AC87 router with an AC68 PCI card. I'm currently using a mobile phone's 4G connection as a mobile hotspot for Wifi and it's not significantly worse to be honest in game. 39.48mb download with 14.98 upload and 30ms ping according to speedtest.

Never actually looked into what cabling is done by other providers and they don't seem to go into it much. That said, there is a phone socket on an inside wall, as you walk into my sitting room. The most undesirable location for any cable. Virgin's phone line is there too on the outside wall.

But at the moment, not sure where we stand with Virgin, we had the Tivo boxes with a Superhub 1 and 2. And Vivid 350/20 has came out since I had Vivid.

Biggest problem remains. Supplying a decent enough internet to serve a pretty demanding family of 5 with trouble free online connection across all devices. As peeved as I was with Virgin, I wonder if going back to their internet only is better than Vodaphones top package.

Wife isnt going to set up another direct debit with Virgin though, just peeved with their sevice during and since she closed up.
 
Soldato
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Well Vodafone ended up cancelling my order (three times!)... Apparently they don't have enough capacity on their kit in my cabinet/exchange. Personally I don't believe that but whatever.

Sticking with Plusnet then! I went back to them and they've redone my deal. Managed to keep my Fibre Extra plan for £30pm plus £50 cashback which was apparently a 'defence deal' due to Vodafone's offering. Then because of a **** up they'd made earlier in the year got a £20 refund on top as a goodwill gesture, not bad I guess!
 
Soldato
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Well Vodafone ended up cancelling my order (three times!)... Apparently they don't have enough capacity on their kit in my cabinet/exchange. Personally I don't believe that but whatever.

Sticking with Plusnet then! I went back to them and they've redone my deal. Managed to keep my Fibre Extra plan for £30pm plus £50 cashback which was apparently a 'defence deal' due to Vodafone's offering. Then because of a **** up they'd made earlier in the year got a £20 refund on top as a goodwill gesture, not bad I guess!

It seems highly unlikely any ISP will refuse to take an order and your money if they are capable of giving you the service. I mean, think about it. What exactly would Vodafone have to gain by telling you that they are at capacity when they aren't?
If it's a physical lack of ports to plug you into or a bandwidth capacity issue - sounds like the best thing was to cancel your order rather than show-horn you in.
No ISP is going to refuse to take your money if the other option is take it.
 
Soldato
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It seems highly unlikely any ISP will refuse to take an order and your money if they are capable of giving you the service. I mean, think about it. What exactly would Vodafone have to gain by telling you that they are at capacity when they aren't?
If it's a physical lack of ports to plug you into or a bandwidth capacity issue - sounds like the best thing was to cancel your order rather than show-horn you in.
No ISP is going to refuse to take your money if the other option is take it.

I couldn't be bothered to post the full backstory as to why I doubt this explanation originally.

In short: been trying to switch ISPs since May. Tried moving to BT they put through 8-10 orders all auto-magically cancelled and they have no idea why. Have previously switched over the years without issue from Sky to BT, then BT to Plusnet. Escalated to Openreach confirmed no stop/cease on my line, no issue with local exchange or cab plenty of capacity and ports. Despite already on a live fibre service anyway, there was no reason. In the end BT give up, gave me £50 to say sorry and told me to try another provider.

So I went to Vodafone - again tried 3 orders with them and all cancelled. 1st time was told cabinet full but would retry order. 2nd order failed the agent claimed there was no capacity issue or why they originally said this, so would redo the order. 3rd order failed and went back to original story, sorry no available ports for us.

Ironically the executive complaints handler at Plusnet stated it was a known Openreach fault on some takeover line orders. The solution was to ask the new ISP to place a broadband transfer only, followed by a line transfer 2 weeks after. Vodafone were so inept they believe can only place full transfers, all or nothing! So I give up.

Now do you see why I was very dubious that 'cab is full'? I know it's tosh as well as I'm on a new estate and we even had a 2nd huge fibre cab fitted, I know there is plenty of capacity even OR confirmed. So, hence I give up and stuck with Plusnet and renewed my contract. I've spent 3-4 months trying to switch ISP and it was draining, I was wasting so many hours each week on the phone, debating the toss and logic behind the order cancelling. No one had a clue not even Openreach.
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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I think I might just give vodafone a call tomorrow, I'm paying like £37 a month for a 55/10 package with plusnet ATM :O

When did PN start offering 55/10? BT adopted 52/10, PN were 38/10 then 38/2, now 38/10 again but 55/10 doesn't sound right even if a line speed, I doubt people pay 76/20 money for such a modest increase in downlink?
 
Soldato
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When did PN start offering 55/10? BT adopted 52/10, PN were 38/10 then 38/2, now 38/10 again but 55/10 doesn't sound right even if a line speed, I doubt people pay 76/20 money for such a modest increase in downlink?

Its probably 52/10, I was typing it from memory.

I used to be on the 38/20 package, but then they then changed it to a 52/10 package. There have been price increases here and there, and before you know it you are paying silly money lol
 
Caporegime
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My ping to google.co.uk is the same as when I was on plusnet around 12ms with fastpath. Not too bad for being in the north east.

It's been just as solid as plusnet fibre for me which was to be expected anyway, far cheaper though and the Vodafone modem/router seems to work surprisingly well somehow with better wireless range than the ASUS DSL-AC68U I was using before.
 
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