Is Vodafone At Home for you?

COMMENT: With the arrival of each new broadband service comes further confusion for the British consumer. And that’s quite a lot of head scratching around the country when you consider that up to 2.5 million people are expected to sign up for broadband before the summer.

Such is the variation of specification between most services that comparing one with another is usually impossible. It used to be a simple case of how fast versus how much, but today’s packages throw mobile contracts, TV and landline calls into an already complicated equation.

Vodafone today opens its broadband service, called Vodafone At Home, which yet again throws new considerations into the decision process for the unfortunate consumer. The first alarm bell is that the headline £25 a month price is only available to those with a monthly Vodafone mobile contract. But that shouldn’t immediately put it out of the running.

On the positive side it’s pretty good value for money at that price, which includes landline rental, for up to 8Mbps downstream (depending on where you live) and unlimited monthly usage. A similar service from AOL would cost around £30 a month plus line rental.

Vodafone’s other big bonus is that you’ll get free calls to UK landlines at anytime, not just weekends like some other broadband deals. And there’s 25 per cent off mobile calls to boot. Set up and modem is free, while an optional wireless router will cost just £25.

Unlike last year’s broadband newcomers Sky and TalkTalk, Vodafone’s service is available from every ADSL-enabled phone exchange, which accounts for around 97% of UK households.

So there are plenty of positives, but a few fundamental negatives – you’ll have to sign up for a minimum of 18 months both for the mobile and broadband. You can expect many more attractive broadband deals in the next 18 months, so remember you’re going to be locked in or face a hefty exit penalty.

If you’re not already a Vodafone customer then switching mobile provider is a hassle you might want to live without. Lastly, there are cheaper deals out there, especially if you live near an unbundled phone exchange. UK Online for example will give you 1Mbps for £9.99 a month, while Sky offers 8Mbps for £10 a month if you take its TV service.

So Vodafone is cheap but not a bargain bucket offering, which has to be a good thing when you look at some of the problems experienced by many who signed up for so-called free broadband last year. The fact Vodafone is using BT Wholesale’s network rather than local loop unbundling should also ease the pain of joining or leaving the service.

If you’ve already got a Vodafone mobile and make frequent landline calls to UK destinations, you should probably have your credit card handy, while others should weigh up the hassle of switching mobiles against the benefits of this good-value offering.