Vodafone says broadband now available to up to 22 million UK premises

Vodafone UK has widened access to its top-level broadband services to a potential 22 million premises in Britain, it claims. The telco is bundling its ‘business grade’ 76Mbs with a free one year subscription to entertainment service Netflix.

The service, which has only been available to existing Vodafone mobile customers, is now available to all potential customers, Vodafone said. Vodafone’s network currently reaches exchanges which pass around 22 million premises across the UK.

The offering includes a new router which can prioritise specific devices on the network and offers easily configurable family controls to manage access to content on wifi. Controlling the supply of home broadband from smartphones and tablets will be a major differentiator, according to Vodafone’s UK consumer director Cindy Rose. “The introduction of Vodafone home broadband and our ultrafast 4G make Vodafone well positioned to satisfy all of our customers’ connectivity needs, both at home and on the go,” said Rose.

The new ‘plug-and-play’ Vodafone router will be easy enough for subscribers to use to self manage new features via the updated Vodafone Connect mobile app, it says. New customer service offerings include Boost, which allows customers to improve the performance of any device by configuring the network to prioritise traffic. Another option, Beam, uses Beamforming technology to focus Wi-Fi signals towards any compatible device in the home, concentrating the power of the signal.

Grouped settings are now available and one of which, the Family setting, allows the most technically literate family member to customise the experience of the group. Controls include allowing users to manage and set time limits on certain devices and controlling the supply of when wifi is available. In theory, this could allow parents to set limits on their children’s use of wifi, if the parents’ technical know-how exceeds that of their children.

Another feature allows for Guest wifi access to be granted. The Connect app also creates the potential for devices such as printers, speakers and phones to be managed by the head of the house. The Vodafone Connect companion app is only available for Android but Vodafone said it will be available for iOS ‘shortly’.

Vodafone said it will thank its existing customers for their loyalty by giving them £5 off their standard broadband, regardless of their current package.