[3GScottishUser]

When I saw that Vodafone were introducing a new broadband service for £25 a month i was slightly underwhelmed!

They have just announced the details and the deal is a lot better than first appears.

Its £25 a month for up to 8Mb/s Broadband with unlimited use (FUP Applies)

Your Landline rental is Included!

All calls to Landlines (up to 60 mins) are included Free

Caller Display and vodafone Divert are included Free

Technical Support is Free 24/7 from UK call centres

Norton AV free for 6 months

Free Netgear broadband modem or Wif-Fi router for £25

Subject to 18 month contract and price rises to £35 a month if Vodafone mobile contract is terminated.

Full details: http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template11&pageID=VA_0012


I think the above will make any customer think twice about going anywhere else for either mobile or landline/broadband services. Consolodation is looking like a better deal every day!

A lot will depend on usage but as a comparison lets look at Orange + Vodafone's offers:

Orange Canary £30 = 325 mins X/Net and 150 SMS + Promotional SMS. Free broadband (2GB limit) and free router + free VoIP calls off peak. £5 extra buys free Voip calls to 100 countries UK landlines anytime and unlimited broadband. You still need a BT line and pay BT £11 a month line rental.

So Total for Orange Canary 30 + Unlimited Broadband = £46 a month Total cost over contract period = £828

Vodafone 200 anytime includes 4 'extras' at £30 a month = 300 X/Net mins, 250 SMS and Stop The Clock + Passport Roaming. Vodafone at Home broadband as detailed above.

So Voadfone Mobile Anytime 200 = £30 + Vodafone at Home Broadband = £25 = £55 a month. Total with Wireless Router over contract period = £ 1015

The main difference would be calling patterns and if a user has a preference for standard voice calls with Vodafone or VoIP with Orange.

Traditional non-bundled deal as comparison:

3 Talk, Text and Video 700 at £35 a month (Inc 400 X/Net mins, 250 SMS, £5 downloads, video calls and messages)
BT Line Rental = £11 a month (inc caller display)
Tiscalli Max Unlimited Broadband with Free inclusive landline calls = £ 21.99 a month + Free Modem - Wireless Router = £59.98 Extra

Total for separate services = £60.21 monthly (Discounts available on VTT700 Average 8 months 1/2 price line rental) So total for all services + Wireless = £1143.76 over 18 month contract period.

The above are typical deals but there are others including CPW's Talk Talk BB deal but it has a connection fee and a cancellation fee so the above have been chosen as popular standard deals for comparison.

It looks like Orange currently have the cheapest deal on converged telecoms for now but I suspect the price war for you total loyalty is in its infancy.

[solo12002]

On the other hand.


One could just use T-Mobile Web Flex 35 which gives up to 900 mins, might be enought for most users? add in web and walk at £12and do away with anything other than your mobile for calls and web access.

Now then how much is that??

[3GScottishUser]

You could but you'd not be able to get much in the way of streaming video etc as Web'N'Walk is capped to 1GB fair use and you need the Pro version to use your mobile as a modem.

I think it'll be a long time before wireless manages to replace broadband for most home users as we are getting more bandwidith hungry every year.

[Ben]

Vodafone's offer is indeed a bit better than we first thought, which is good news. Including line rental really makes Vodafone's solution a truly converged one rather than the stuck-together-with-tape-and-tacks offering I was expecting.

So, Vodafone gets a 'Good, but must try harder' sticker from me.

[3GScottishUser]

The Inclusive calls are worth £14.99 a month (BT Option 3) and you also get Call forwarding free. Calls to mobiles are priced at 10% below BT rates too.

There is a lot more in this offer than expected and it has to be worth consideration for those on Vodafone who have Broadband from another supplier and a BT line with a calling package.

I bet Vodafone will further reduce their contract churn by luring foks into this deal and when put together with Family, Passport and STC you could imagine that you could cap all your telecoms charges with one supplier.

[Hands0n]

An interesting offer from Vodafone and stands well in the light of Orange's also. Vodafone customers should be pleased with the prospect - I will have to take yet another look at my own situation as this could well bring me in a huge saving of over £50 a month against my current voice/broadband package with Telewest.

As always, being a cable user, the difference between Teleweset's 10Mbps and ADSL Broadband's "up to" 8Mbps is significant. One is guaranteed, the other is not! But with such a large £ variance between the two it is compelling to consider a shift to Vodafone seeing as I am already a customer of theirs.

To refer to the notion of wireless broadband taking on terrestrial - this has to happen sooner or later, despite anything the mobile operators say. If they leave this market open it will be snatched up by the WiMax alliance. The mobile operators do not have very long to convince the Students and Rented Accommodation users of the merits of going wireless broadband with them. But the [data] tariffs are all way out of whack at the moment.

I would not be at all surprised if T-Mobile were to break through with this concept of wireless broadband across their HSDPA-enabled network. They have the "line" speed, do they have the capacity to sell off at terrestrial broadband prices? Time alone will tell.

[3GScottishUser]

It will be interesting to see how this consoldation develops.

02 have bought Be and have yet to make their play but I'm sure they will respond with something similar.

T-Mobile are a big telco and their problem is that BT in allience Vodafone might not be keen on letting them into the UK broadband market. T-Mobile's parent company solution might just end up solving that issue by buying BT as it's undergoing a transition currently from a telco to an 'entertainent' provider.

Is'nt it strange how telcos threatened by rising levels of competition try to remodel themselves and in the process open the door to being swallowed by bigger rival telcos!!

[Hands0n]

It all rather depends on what exactly T-Mobile want to be. A mobile network operator or something more generic. The history of firms diversifying and thus weakening their proposition before being acquired or going bust is legend.

I do recall Norton motorcycles, rising from the original ashes like a Phoenix they did well initially. Then they bought into the diversify notion and acquired a furniture company! Not long after they collapsed and went into oblivion having taken their eye off the ball of core business, i.e. manufacturing and marketing motorcycles. They weakened themselves and paid the ultimate price.

The notion that BT, a former state monopoly, could weaken to the point where it becomes eligible for sale or hostile acquisition is staggering. How does an organisation that was once predatory and went to buy AT&T become a target for acquisition? We can't put all the blame on OFCOM and its predecessor OFTEL.