Vodafone is to offer all of its new fibre broadband customers an internet speed guarantee from March 1. Choose either of Vodafone UK's new Superfast broadband plans from tomorrow and the provider will give an 'Ultimate Speed Guarantee' that it meets a minimum speed of 25Mb per second.
If Vodafone doesn't deliver on the speeds, customers will be entitled to a 15% discount off their next monthly bill. The new offer makes Vodafone's broadband deals the only widely available packages to offer such a speed guarantee in the UK.
It's certainly a very welcome proposition. There's currently way too much reliance on consumers having to use broadband speed test tools to find out whether their internet connection is reaching the kind of speeds initially advertised by their ISP.
The new normal
We expect speed guarantees like this to eventually become the norm, and we're hopeful that this will be the first domino to fall.
And if you're worried that means a massive price increase as well, you needn't. Vodafone Superfast 1 with speeds of up to 38Mb will be available for £23 per month, with a £2pm discount for existing Vodafone mobile phone customers. While the Superfast 2 plan (up to 76Mb and a guarantee of at least 55Mb) will cost £28 to non-Vodafone customers. That's really cheap for super fast broadband.
Broadband speed guaranteed
Although BT announced in January that it's offering a new Ultrafast broadband deal with guaranteed speeds of 100Mb (meaning downloads at roughly 19MB per second), this is being rolled out to a small number of postcodes at first. Vodafone's 'Ultimate Speed Guarantee' appears to be available in all areas where fibre broadband is located.
Vodafone's guarantee applies to 'sync speeds' - i.e. the broadband speed that reaches your home router, and not necessarily the speed you see on your device. That's because the throughput speed is affected by many different factors, such as number of users, types of devices and where you position your router.
“Whether running a family or a small business, customers want guaranteed broadband speeds they can rely on," said Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK CEO.
