Vodafone Business broadband review: Top marks across the board

It’s incredibly rare for a company to sweep every category in an Expert Reviews awards survey, so full marks to Vodafone Business, which claimed victory in each of Best Business Broadband Awards – customer service, value for money, reliability and speed – to emphatically take the overall crown.

While it was close in all four – particularly to the runner-up, BT Business – as far as Expert Reviews readers are concerned, there are few, if any, chinks in Vodafone’s armour.

Customer service turned out to be a particular strength for the company, with 92.5% of the Vodafone customers we surveyed saying they were satisfied with the service, and just over half declaring themselves very satisfied.

A reliable broadband connection is absolutely critical for businesses, so prospective customers will be pleased to learn that more than 9/10 Vodafone customers were happy with the service’s stability. Finally, more than 8/10 Vodafone customers said they would be likely to recommend the company, a resounding endorsement of the service. So, let’s dig deeper into the Vodafone offering.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Essentials Fibre 1, 2, and 100

The cheapest of Vodafone’s business broadband tariffs starts at just over £20/mth, so it’s easy to see why customers are impressed with the value.

These Essentials packages are largely based on slower fibre-to-the-cabinet connections, although there is a 100Mbits/sec offering for those within reach of a full-fibre network (see “Coverage”, below). Yet, even on these cheapest deals, Vodafone can offer static IP addresses upon request (at an extra £4.17/mth). But it should be noted that you’ll only be offered standard support on the Essentials tier.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Pro Fibre and Full Fibre

The Pro plans not only increase the speeds on offer – to those who are within reach of full-fibre – they bring with them several additional features that businesses may appreciate.

At this grade, Vodafone offers 4G backup, should the fixed-line connection go down. The company can also offer mesh router extenders, to help the Wi-Fi reach remote parts of the home/office, as well as a dedicated technical business support team, which should have shorter queues on the telephone lines than the standard support you get with Essentials deals.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Pro Fibre II

The more expensive Pro Fibre II deals offer all the Pro benefits and better router equipment, along with access to the company’s Ultra Hub with Wi-Fi 6E. While Wi-Fi 7 is starting to creep on to the market, Wi-Fi 6E still gives you the benefit of the 6GHz Wi-Fi band, ideal for transferring files at high speed across your network, or for rock-solid videoconferencing streams.

It’s also worth noting that all of Vodafone’s Essentials, Pro and Pro II tariffs are available on shorter 18-month deals that are little more expensive per month, or longer 36-month deals that are slightly cheaper.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Coverage

Vodafone claims to have the “widest full-fibre footprint in the UK”. That’s because it doesn’t only have wholesale agreements with Openreach – the country’s biggest broadband network – but also with CityFibre, which has full-fibre deployments in many of the UK’s biggest towns and cities. CityFibre, alone, hopes to reach eight million premises. 

For those who are still outside of full-fibre areas, Openreach’s fibre-to-the-cabinet coverage now connects 96% of the country’s homes and businesses, so only a slender minority will be outside of Vodafone’s reach.

Obviously, for the 4G backup available on the Pro plans, Vodafone relies on its own mobile network. You can check your 4G coverage here.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Performance and customer satisfaction

As we noted at the top, when it comes to performance and customer satisfaction, Vodafone Business can do little wrong in the eyes of Expert Reviews readers.

That dual partnership with Openreach and CityFibre appears to be paying off, with 91.6% of Vodafone Business customers declaring themselves satisfied with the speeds on offer, and less than 1% unhappy – the best scores of any of the major broadband providers in our survey.

With more than 90% of customers satisfied with their customer service and reliability, you could forgive Vodafone for bumping up its prices, but, in fact, it offers some of the best deals around – its fastest, the Pro II package, is around £15 less a month than Virgin Media’s equivalent, for example – which helps explain why 81.3% of Vodafone customers are satisfied with the value for money.

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Vodafone Business broadband review: Verdict

It’s a hugely strong all-round performance for Vodafone Business broadband, with untouchable scores in our survey and a wide range of good-value packages. If you’re in the market for a new business connection, Vodafone should be at the top of your shortlist.