In our five-part UK network review series, we take a look at the UK’s major networks and major virtual network operators (MVNO), including the plans and services they offer and whether they’re about to be snapped up or buying a rival in the biggest shake-up of the UK market in a decade. Today’s entry is Vodafone.
The world’s largest network by revenue, Vodafone made the UK’s first phone call in the 1980s and sent the world’s first text on Christmas Eve in 1992.
Related: EE Network Review (2015)
For the first few decades, Vodafone was the largest network in the UK, but recently, the company has seen its subscriber base affected by increased competition from its main rivals. The company’s already shaky position could be affected further in the biggest changes to the UK telecoms industry in nearly a decade.
Let’s take a closer look at Vodafone and what makes the elder statesman of the market tick.
Network technology
Vodafone currently uses the following frequencies:
Frequency
Protocol
Class
900MHz
GSM / GPRS / EDGE
2G
1800MHz
GSM / GPRS / EDGE
2G
900MHz
UMTS / HSDPA / HSPA+ / DC-HSPA+
3G
2100MHz
UMTS / HSDPA / HSPA+ / DC-HSPA+
3G
800MHz
LTE
4G
2600MHz
LTE
4G
Vodafone’s network encompasses over 99% percent of the population and its 4G LTE network is the second largest in the UK, behind chief rival EE.
4G LTE
Although Vodafone launched its 4G network nearly a year after EE, the carrier has rapidly expanded its coverage while also making promises over the quality of its LTE offering. On a recent trip to test Vodafone’s new network in the sunny seaside town of Bournemouth, we had the chance to discuss LTE with Dr Rob Matthews, the company’s resident expert. As we discovered, Dr Matthews can tell you where any mast in the country in and understands the network inside out.
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When discussing the company’s stance on LTE, Dr Matthews told us that while it was initially about rolling out the coverage, the company is now focusing on making sure the network is right before switching it on. Rather than switch on the network as soon as the first cell site is ready, the carrier ensured that enough cell sites were in operation by testing both indoor and outdoor coverage throughout the popular resort town.
Vodafone signed a network sharing agreement with O2 – through the Cornerstone project – in 2009, to share their UK infrastructure. Unlike other projects however, the two networks share the structure the masts are located on but not the antennae themselves. In Bournemouth, Dr Rob also pointed out two examples of where Vodafone antennae were on the same site as O2.
The Cornerstone project is crucial to Vodafone’s LTE network in the UK as it means the carrier doesn’t have to bare the costs of deploying thousands of masts to improve its coverage. Alongside Cornerstone, Vodafone has also been repurposing its existing masts to improve 3G coverage (on the 900MHz frequency), while adding more capacity using the 800MHz (indoor coverage) and 2600MHz (long-range, high-speed outdoor coverage).
Like EE, Vodafone offers Double Speed 4G using carrier aggregation and while EE were first to offer the service, Vodafone’s double speed network offers faster real world speeds; across a series of tests on both networks, we found that Vodafone was on average, 10-15Mbps faster.
Vodafone’s double speed network however isn’t as widely available as EE’s and the rollout is likely to be a lot slower given the company’s focus on quality of network over faster rollouts.
Pay Monthly Handsets
Vodafone’s Pay Monthly (PAYM) handset plans are split across three plans, all offering 4G as standard; the standard plan is the entry level plan, while the Red plan offers unlimited minutes and texts with large allowances and the Red Value plan comes with unlimited minutes and texts, large allowances and inclusive calls to the UK from Europe with EuroTraveller Plus.
Vodafone currently offers a maximum of 25GB 4G data with its handsets and the Red Value plan also comes with a choice of inclusive allowance; depending on the tariff you choose, you get either 6 months or 24 months access to Now TV, Spotify Premium or Sky Sports Mobile TV included free of charge.
As an example, the Galaxy S6 Edge costs £54 per month on Red Value with 4GB 4G data each month and 6 months’ inclusive allowance but upgrading to the 8GB plan costs an extra £5 per month and gives you double the data along with 24 months’ access to your chosen allowance.
Vodafone is also the only network to offer 12-month handset contracts in the UK and while these are incredibly expensive compared to their 24 month counterparts, the plans are definitely useful if you like to change your phone often. 12-month plans are available on either the Red or Red Value plans and come with either 6 months or 12 months inclusive allowance, depending on the tariff you choose.
Using the same example as above, the Galaxy S6 Edge costs £59 per month with a £279 upfront charge or £64 per month for the 8GB plan with a £229 upfront charge. Calculating the overall cost of each plan, the 24-month 4GB plan costs £1296 while the 12-month 4GB plan is significantly cheaper with a total cost of £987. The 24-month 8GB plan costs £1416 while the 8GB 12-month plan is again significantly cheaper at £997.
While some handsets are significantly cheaper with a 24-month contract, the high price of the Galaxy S6 Edge and other flagships means paying the upfront cost (and slightly more each month) can actually save you a lot of money over the life of the contract.
Pay Monthly SIM Only
While most customers buy their phones as part of a contract, a small (but growing) subset of customers are buying handsets and contracts separately, as it will often work out significantly cheaper overall than buying the handset on contract.
For these customers, Vodafone offers SIM Only (SIMO) plans with either 30-day or 12-month commitments and if you go for the latter, you can upgrade to a handset after just three months (but you’ll need to honour the whole commitment if you want to leave Vodafone).
Here’s Vodafone’s current SIMO pricing (subject to change, we’ve included the standard price and the current promotional price):
Plan
300 Plan
900 Plan
Red Starter
Red
Red L
Red XL
Red XXL
Minutes
300
900
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Texts
500
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Unlimted
Data
250MB
500MB
1GB
3GB
6GB
10GB
20GB
Network Type
3G
4G
4G
4G
4G
4G
4G
Monthly cost (30 day)
£11.50
£16.00
£19.00
£24.00
Not available
Not available
Not available
Monthly cost (12 month)
£9.50
£14.00
Now: £15.30
Was:
£17.00
Now: £19.80
Was:
£22.00
Now: £24.30
Was:
£27.00
Now: £27.20
Was:
£32.00
Now: £30.00
Was:
£40.00
Inclusive benefit
(12-months only):
None
None
None
6 months
12 months
Pay as You Go Plans
Unlike some of the other networks, Vodafone offers access to 4G on some of its Pay As You Go (PAYG) plans. The company has two types of PAYG plans offering inclusive allowances for 30 days; the Big Value Bundles offer minutes, texts and up to 6GB 4G data while Freebie Minutes is designed for calling and texting without any inclusive monthly data.
Here’s Vodafone’s PAYG options:
Pack Cost
Minutes
Texts
Data
Duration
Rewards/Benefits:
Big Value Bundle
£10 (3G)
150
Unlimited
500MB
30 days
100 Reward Points
£20 (4G)
500
Unlimited
2GB
30 days
200 Reward Points
£30 (4G)
Unlimited
Unlimited
4GB
30 days
300 Reward Points
30 days of Now TV, Spotify or Sky Sports
£40 (4G)
Unlimited
Unlimited
6GB
30 days
400 Reward Points
30 days of Now TV, Spotify or Sky Sports
Freebie Minutes
£10 (you keep credit)
150
None
None
30 days
100 Reward Points
£20 (you keep credit)
500
None
None
30 days
200 Reward Points
Freebie Data
£10 (you keep credit)
None
None
500MB
30 days
100 Reward Points
£20 (you keep credit)
None
None
1GB
30 days
200 Reward Points
Vodafone Perks
With the UK market becoming ever more competitive, networks are offering additional services to customers in a bid to persuade them against joining a competitor. Unlike its rivals, the perks you get with Vodafone do depend on which type of package you have with them.
Pay Monthly Perks
For Pay Monthly customers, Vodafone offers a range of perks but the main one is 3 months unlimited data when you buy a 12-month SIMO or 12/24-month PAYM handset package. This lets you fully test your smartphone without worrying about data allowances and can be incredibly useful if you’re not sure how much data you actually use.
Another key perk for Pay Monthly and SIMO customers is Vodafone’s roaming offers; for customers travelling in Europe, Vodafone EuroTraveller lets you use your UK allowance (minutes, texts and data) in the country you’re travelling to for £3 per day.
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While EuroTraveller is certainly impressive, the World Traveller service lets you use your allowances in selected countries outside of Europe for £5 per day, which can be really handy if you’re going away for only a few days on business. Given that Vodafone has 4G roaming agreements in lots of countries around the world, EuroTraveller and World Traveller mean you will be able to experience superfast 4G even whilst roaming aborad.
Pay as You Go Perks
For PAYG customers, the perks are slightly different; Vodafone EuroTraveller lets you use inclusive minutes and texts along with 100MB data whilst roaming abroad for £3 per day and the limited data allowance (regardless of your UK data allowance) means EuroTraveller on PAYG is only particularly useful if you plan to call back to the UK often while on holiday.
The other perk for PAYG customers is Vodafone Rewards, letting you claim 10% of the value of your top up in Reward points every time you top up. Once you collect enough points, you can claim your reward, which varies from a selfie stick (that costs 800 points) to a 30 days Spotify Premium voucher for 1000 points, a £25 iTunes voucher for 2500 points or a new phone (starting at 3500 points). There’s a wide range of rewards to choose from so there’s likely to be something for everyone.
Quad-play
The rise in demand for mobile services has meant that mobile networks are beginning to challenge traditional fixed service providers in a bid to become the sole “Quad-play” supplier for customers. The Quad-play market is becoming ever more competitive as mobile carriers branch out to also offer traditional fixed line services such as TV, Broadband and Landline (does anyone even use a landline anymore!?) to their existing customer base.
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Vodafone have been long rumoured to be entering the quad-play market and a few years ago, the company offered broadband services through a partnership with Pipex but this was cancelled after Pipex was bought by TalkTalk. Vodafone also acquired Cable and Wireless for £1 billion in 2012 but despite owning the company’s extensive broadband infrastructure, Vodafone are yet to launch their own consumer broadband offering.
For the past twelve months, rumours have abounded that Vodafone were set to enter the quad-play market and in February this year, the company announced plans to launch its own quad-play offering by the end of the year. Vodafone was also rumoured to be interested in buying BSkyB, which would give it an existing broadband and award-winning TV service but this seems less likely, with the network planning to instead launch its own cloud-based TV service.
As chief rival EE is set to be bought out by BT (which will turn the latter into a true quad-play provider), Vodafone are under immense pressure to ensure they enter the quad-play market as soon as possible otherwise they may find that their quad-play ambitions fall short.
UK Outlook: Who’s Buying Who?
The UK telecoms industry is about to undergo its biggest changes in nearly a decade and with companies buying each other, what does the shake up mean for Vodafone?
Related: EE Network Review (2015)
As the UK’s oldest mobile network, Vodafone is used to being the biggest in the market but since the merger of Orange and T-Mobile to create EE back in 2010, the network has struggled to regain its dominance. With many customers opting for EE’s 4G network (before Vodafone and others could launch 4G) or Three’s Unlimited 4G data offering, Vodafone has seen its market share steadily drop.
The shake up in the market will also hurt the network as the two key moves will mean Vodafone become the smallest network in the UK (despite the global group being the biggest in the world by revenue). BT buying EE won’t really affect Vodafone’s market share drastically (mainly because EE is currently larger than Vodafone) but Three’s acquisition of O2 will mean the two smaller networks combine to form the UK’s largest network.
There have been plenty of rumours that Vodafone would have been interested in acquiring O2 but given the buyout by Three (which is still subject to approval by the competition authorities), Vodafone finds itself on the verge of becoming the smallest network in the UK.
Final Thoughts
While the Vodafone Group has seen large growth over the past decade in its dominance of the global communications market, it has faced increasing pressure in its home market. A series of acquisitions in Europe and a €19 billion investment in the network through Project Spring has allowed the Group to offer quad-play services in several European markets but ever increasing competition has meant Vodafone’s dominance has waned considerably in the UK.
The network has improved its UK offering – in terms of both coverage quality and packages – over the past two years and managed to slowly increase its market share, but the upcoming shake up will mean Vodafone becomes the smallest network in the UK. The company has access to a large amount of capital – following the sale of its share in Verizon Wireless – and it may need to use some of this to offer competitive prices in a bid to attract customers away from the competition.
Vodafone certainly has something to offer for everyone
I have been a Vodafone customer for many years – and even worked for the company for nearly two years, giving me a special perspective into the world’s largest network – and I’ve first-hand experienced the improvements the company has undertaken. Its network is one of the best in the UK and on par with EE, while its customer services has improved dramatically in response to customer feedback.
Vodafone is by no means perfect but the network has made massive improvements over the past few years and if you’re based in the UK – or travelling to the UK and need a local SIM – Vodafone certainly has something to offer for everyone.
Are you a current or former Vodafone UK client? Let us know your opinion!