Review: Vodafone Broadband

Vodafone Broadband Review

In a nutshell: Vodafone are one of the most expensive of the mobile broadband networks, but they are also the fastest - up to double the download speeds of 3-Mobile or T-Mobile. A key advantage of the Vodafone service is the ability to roam in over 100 countries. This is our recommended option for business users. Vodafone were found to be the fastest and most reliable mobile broadband network according to independent trials carried out by LCC international, the largest independent wireless engineering company in the world (June 2008).
Best buy: Vodafone Mobile Broadband (from £15 per month) or Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi (from £15 per month).

Vodafone offer mobile broadband services via a USB modem that plugs into your PC or laptop and enables you to access the internet via Vodafone's 3G network. You will need a PC running Windows XP or Vista, or an Apple Mac running OS X Panther 10.3.9 or higher. The Vodafone service is the fastest in the UK at present, offering download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps.

Like the other mobile broadband providers, the Vodafone service is very easy to use. You simply plug the USB modem into your computer and connect to the internet. With a Wi-Fi modem, you can connect up to 5 devices wirelessly to the internet.

The monthly cost is £15 for 3 GB per month or £25 for 20 GB of data per month. If you choose a 24 month contract the monthly rates are reduced to as low as £5 for the first three months.

One of the benefits of using the Vodafone service is that you can use it in over 100 countries, using the international Vodafone network of operators.

Vodafone Broadband Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile network? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the mobile broadband network that's best for them. Please do not review this network if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 118 reviews:

Reviewed by Vlad from Dublin on 1st Sep 2010
Vodafone Broadband Service is the most terrible service I've ever experienced. I'm currently in a contract with them with Vodafone at Home Brodband pack. I ended up to have my broadband with Vodafone after Vodafone took over Esat BT, and I never was happy with their service since then. Esat BT was great, even thought the provided speed was almost 3 times lower - only 3Mb/sec versus Vodafone's 8Mb/se - the actual speed I permanently got, no mater what hour of the day, the internet speed was 100 times faster than Vodafone. The maximum speed I could get was 0.9Mb from 8.0Mb they say they provide. I did not use their wireless broadband, but it seems from the reviews that is even worse. It doesn't surprise me at all. With regards to the Customer Service Team in Vodafone, - I agree, is the worst in all world, I think. When finally I got to speak to someone explaining my frustration about the service I'm receiving from Vodavone and paying for by Direct Debit - the guy who took the call just said - if you are not happy - you can cancel the contract. That was it. I wanted to speak to a manager to put down my complain about this, but I was told there is no manager available. I asked him after- is this the way the Vodafone customers deserve to be treated? He did not answer anything. Therefore, after these terrible experiences with Vodafone - I will never ever by again any of their products. Now I'm looking for a new broadband provider - probably UPC ( a good one on the market) and I will cancel my contract with them, because enough is enough. My advise is to stay away from Vodafone. May be they are good with Mobile phones, but with regards to broadband - I think they are in wrong Business. SHAME on you - Vodafone!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by George from England on 24th Aug 2010
How well the dongle works seems to be dependent on the population density in your neighbourhood and where you live. Even with a strong signal if hundreds of people are competing with you for a connection you're going to get poor performance; conversely, in an underpopulated area a relatively weak signal might give you good performance. I live in Falmouth, Cornwall and get really good service from my K3565 Vodafone dongle. Pretty much everything I could possibly want to do on the internet I can do, e.g., streaming video, YouTube, bittorrent, skype as well as really big http/ftp file downloads plus less intensive "ordinary" internet surfing. I can even enter virtual 3D worlds like Second Life to meet virtual friends and socialise virtually when I am bored! Incredible really! So as far as I'm concerned Vodafone Mobile Briadband works brilliantly with a download speed very close to the maximum possible for the device. As I say Mobile Broadband works well in areas where there is a reasonable signal and not too many people competing for connections, e.g., rural or seaside locations like the one I'm lucky enough to live in. But I bet in big metropolitan cities the service would be rubbish.
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Reviewed by t from London on 23rd Aug 2010
North London area literaly no coverage at all (I'm using the latest dongle and software), 2G signal picked up but e.g. google if it loads at all, takes about 3 min - yes, the starting page! Checking my emails involves a short walk - not to get a signal - just to the next hot spot! Never had such a bad experience, stay away from Vodafone if you can. I can only agree with ALL the negative reviews! It is a shame how this company operates.
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Reviewed by S from Norfolk on 21st Aug 2010
Vodafone was terrible. I never got 3G inside the house, and I had to stand by the window, balancing my laptop on the sill, and the dongle hanging outside the window to get a decent signal, and even then, Vodafone kept switching between GPRS and EDGE and 3G with breaks in between. Now I've switched to Three. The internet service is much, much better. It's not fantastic, but it's certainly steady and reliable inside the house. The other shocker about Vodafone was that they had disabled access to the McAfee anti-virus update server as part of their Content Control. I went for a month without updates until McAfee stopped working! Vodafone sure are crazy! I've suddenly got over a month worth of Anti-Virus updates after I switched to Three. Shame on you Vodafone! And a thank you to Three.
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Reviewed by SSB from Norfolk on 21st Aug 2010
I am a foreign person working in the UK for a short time on a company assignment. I can't get into a BT contract as I won't be staying in the UK long enough for a 12 or 18 month contract. I need to the use the internet because I often work from home. I trusted Vodafone mobile broadband, pay-as-you-go, because they seem to have the most number of stores wherever I go, and also, because I have a Vodafone mobile connection in India. But thanks to the hopeless and inconsistent Vodafone broadband here in Norfolk, almost none of my work has been done in a month. Even my mobile connection from Vodafone is hopeless here in Norfolk! Interestingly, back home in India, the Vodafone service is far better in India, and I don't just mean the big cities! And I get a fantastic mobile broadband connection on a USB dongle (which is from Tata, the same guys who bailed out Land Rover and Jaguar, and not from Vodafone). Now I've always assumed that UK services would be at least twice as good as those in all those non-Western, poor, under-developed, third-world, backward countries like mine, filled with half-naked dark-skinned babies, countries that only seem to survive on Western charities, because the UK was supposed to be a developed capitalist Western economy and everything! I have been proven completely wrong.
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Reviewed by Gaz from Leeds on 19th Aug 2010
Vodafone Mobile 'Broadband' ...... Broadband, with an average upload/dowload speed of 7.7Kbs. Customer servic is just as bad ... If you manage to get through at all. I can almost gurentee I will have to copy and paste this messgae from a word document as when I click submit it will lose connection. As soon as the remainder of my contract is up I will without a shadow of a doubt be switching to another provider. Vodafone ..... SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by ray from dorset on 17th Aug 2010
I live in a rural area in North Dorset and have never had any luck with my Vodaphone dongle. I often have have to wait 2 mins or so to view a web page and sending emails are impossible. I took the laptop into town and tried to use it and It still was as bad and within view of a vodaphone mast!
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Reviewed by Turner from England on 13th Aug 2010
I bought a Vodaphone dongle and did not realise that top up usage only lasts 30 days. Having read all the other reviews complaining about this what's going to be done to rectify it. Like many I like to take my net book on holiday and on occasional weekends away and I don't wish to keep losing money due to expiry. Surely a change can be made? The reception is excellent when it's in use.
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Reviewed by Mat from England on 11th Aug 2010
After vodaphone did me over by not explaining how the pick up from shop method worked, as I thought you could just go get it, when it turned out they just posted it to the shop, therefore i went to change it to home delivery by phoning them up, they said they could do that but put me on hold for 30 mins before I gave up and they didn't even answer the second time. After some intial software hiccups and an unnecessary restart I was up and running. I got a decent speed even in the secluded workshop where I security guard, generally around 1.1mbs which is good for what I want to do and I have no problems with youtube or online games at all. I have only had signal problems once so far where it would only pick up the dial-up slow GPRS connection but that fixed itself eventually. I have to say that their program is absolute trash and windows has picked up a network is available and you can connect to it at least 3 minutes before hte program does and youll be connected and browsing while the program is still saying 'looking for device' Overall i woudl say it is as good as mobile broadband can get and I am lucky to get away without serious signal problems.
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Reviewed by Dave from UK on 3rd Aug 2010
Vodafone... Mobile ""Broadband?"",,,,, not even close
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Reviewed by phiz from england on 27th Jul 2010
Ive been trying to use my vodafone mobile broadband dongle for two months. The average upload/download speed is 4.8kbs, thats right, kilobites. If youve been thinking of buying, dont waste your money on vodafone.
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Reviewed by alang from England on 26th Jul 2010
Shaun "this dongle works great, pitty (sic) the rest of the noobs on here are giving it a bad name. brill for mobile surfing", going by the amount of negative comments there seems to be an awful lot of "noobs", over the years I have used almost every flavour of connection from POTS, ISDN, T1's and Fibre, domestically from the early days of dial-up for BBS, through BT, Tiscali, Orange, NTL and on wireless used O2,3, T-Mobile and now Vodafone, its safe to say it is the poorest network I have ever used, much of the time even slower than dial-up despite living in a densely populated urban area with a lot of antennas within a mile radius, it's not the computers (tested on many in a lot of places using different OS's) it's the network, the point is "I pay a service provider for a product I acquired promoted to me in a way that makes it a worthwhile purchase" Vodafone Mobile "sub-Broadband" does not meet that criteria by any stretch and I will leave the court to decide the legality of that claim.
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Reviewed by Julie from England on 24th Jul 2010
Further to the comment i wrote with regards to the K3570 & K3565 the PROCESS of REGISTRATION for TOPPING UP and registering with My Account is fairly simple. You DO NOT NEED to put the BROADBAND SIM into your phone for you to RECEIVE the SECURITY PIN NUMBER. All you have to do when you have the registration screen up is enter the BROADBAND PHONE NUMBER (which is SHOWN on the left hand side of your screen when you are logged onto the network) onto the MY ACCOUNT screen and fill all other details in....you will AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE the Pin Number on your normal mobile phone..the details of which will have already been input at some point. I hope this answers any problems you may have on this point. Just to review I LIVE in THE STICKS (Rural Area) using the K3565 Dongle PAYG on a LEAD and yesterday watched STREAMING the Grand Prix Qualifying sessions. There is not a PROBLEM with the SIGNAL or QUALITY of the MOBILE BROADBAND VODAFONE is offering maybe if you have Bought the K3570 take it back and BUY the K3565 it has the better software than the newer version. I am quite happy to post my telephone number if anybody has problems setting this PAYG Dongle up. They can phone me and i will talk them through it. Julie
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Reviewed by Julie from England on 24th Jul 2010
I purchased the new K3570 PAYG dongle 3 days ago (Having bought a new laptop 4 days earlier and having got that settled down) and then spent ALL DAY (or nearly)trying to get it to work. In desperation i phoned Vodafone and eventually got a "Techie" who knew what i was talking about...to cut a long story short and 50 mins later when he realised it was the K3570 and had all the product references he stated that some wouldn't work because the software on them was not compatible with networks in this country!! His advice was to go and buy the K3565 which i promply did and HEY PRESTO 15 minutes later i'm online and streaming, even though i live in the sticks in a rural area. One thing i found is that the DONGLE is BETTER on a LEAD rather than being plugged straight into the USB port.
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Reviewed by Dominic from UK on 23rd Jul 2010
I agree, vodafone used to be good, much better than 3 mobile broadband - but now it's SO SLOW. I got a dell mini 9 laptop bundle with my vodafone - that just overheats and has blown 3 times now. Dell have fixed it but when it's warranty expires in Feb 2011 it's going in the bin, as is vodafone so called 'broadband' My advice is DON'T get ANY mobile broadband! It's just awful. I'm trying to set up a website and it's totally useless, even dialup on my landline is faster at 46kb/sec. My vodafone only manages about 14kb/sec but mostly it runs at 14kb/sec or worse 360bps - and browsing the net is like trying to run through treacle. AVOID if at all possible, or get a PAYG so at least you can bin it if it's no good. For god's sake don't sign up for TWO YEARS like they are trying to get folks to do now!
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Reviewed by David from Australia on 23rd Jul 2010
LoL, it sucks, I almost never get 3G connection, almost GPRS all the time and it even only have "Poor" or "Very Poor" signal. Besides that, if u forced it to be "3G Only", when the signal goes down, its the same as disconnecing. what the hell, Broadband disconnecting? It is no better than 3G Moden/HSDPA...
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Reviewed by K. Jarvis from England on 20th Jul 2010
The Vodafone mobile broadband dongle worked well when I first entered the contract, but over the last 4 months or so the speed has dropped to the point of stopping on many occasions. I have just bought a pay as you go version, again vodafone, and I have the same problem with speed on that one. For this reason I will be giving up the Vodafone broadband and sticking with my Blackberry for emails and light browsing. i don't recommend the product in it's current state. July 2010
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Reviewed by Paul from England on 19th Jul 2010
Regarding my last post, I managed to register by simply phoning customer services. It took me 5 minutes. Why don't Vodafone tell you you can register this way, instead of making you run round in circles! Now, I have to find a way to turn off Content Control
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Reviewed by Paul from England on 18th Jul 2010
I swithed from the appalling PAYG 3 Mobile Broadband to Vodafone a PAYG dongle. The connection, so far, is far better than 3, but the procedure to register an account with them so as to top-up is overly convoluted. As I understand it from an email from Customer Services, there are 12 steps I have to take to register an account: 1) To register your pay as you go broadband number you need to first insert your broadband SIM card in a mobile phone and then follow the registration steps. 2) Once you'll receive the security PIN on your phone. You can complete your registration process by entering your security PIN and then you can put your SIM card back to your pay as you talk stick. 3) To register your broadband number you need to access the Internet from different source. e.g. Cyber cafe. 4) Go to www.vodafone.co.uk 5) Click on "My Account" 6) Click on "Register" 7) Enter Mobile Telephone number. Click Submit. 8) A proof of ownership security code is sent as SMS. 9) Enter security code 10) Enter Account details to confirm Account Holder. Click Submit. 11) Enter user details - name, DoB, username, password and secret question. Click Submit. 12) Confirmation message shown and confirmation email sent. Not having registered an account yet, I have the feeling that these steps won't work anyway, and I'll end up ditching their dobgle and finding a new provider. Does anyone know of a simpler way to register?
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Reviewed by yan from uk on 16th Jul 2010
I got a 30 day contract with a 7.2MB dongle from vodafone, but on a speedtest the connection only just reached speeds of 1mb so although vodafone claim speeds of "upto" 7.2, they fall far short. I quickly cancelled my contract as Three PAYG was much faster.
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Reviewed by dave wilkinson from england on 14th Jul 2010
same as everyone else, when it works its good, but majority of time vodafone throttle the bandwidth to the point where you give up trying to use the darn thing dont touch
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Reviewed by Derek from England on 8th Jul 2010
I recently bought a cheap K3565 Vodafone dongle from Maplin Electronics. (About £25.00 with a 3Gb data allowance preloaded.) According to Vodafone 3G was "Very Good" at my postcode location. Plugged the dongle (on a lead) into my Windows XP box and within a few minutes Voda's "Mobile Connect" software had installed itself and I was able to access the internet. Now, here's the odd thing... despite Vodafone predicting a "Very Good" signal where I live the software reported that my signal was "Very Poor" (one bar) and yet everything seemed to be working perfectly. I did a speed test (Mobile Broadband Genie) and noted that: Download speed : 2.3 MBs. Upload speed : 300 kBs. Not bad. Utorrent works! VPN works! Skype works! And all with a "Very Poor" signal. Don't quite understand what's going on here but as long as everything stays like this I'm going to forget about signal strength!
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Reviewed by lb4406 from UK on 7th Jul 2010
Bought a Vodaphone PAYG Broadband SIM as a backup for my 3 SIM, because on that particular SIM the credit stays active for 270days instead of the usual 30. Reception has been rubbish, sitting here typing this according to Speedtest.net I get 3meg on 3 on 0.75 on Vodaphone. (Both in the same dongle). I've not found usable 3g signal anywhere on a Vodaphone dongle, interestingly my mobile phone on Vodaphone in front of me has a full bars on 3G signal and if I do I wireless tether to it I still only get 1meg
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Reviewed by esther daniels from london on 5th Jul 2010
i think that vodafone should take in to account that they have given me full range to children site no questions asked i am in my 30s and have asked for content control to be removed from my phone and broadband stick i have been into there shop to have this done and still no i cant get in to adult zones why does vodafone want me to talk to children they are prmoteing it
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Reviewed by Nigel from UK on 4th Jul 2010
Unbelievable seeing so many others with exactly the same problems as I'm now getting with Vodafone. Contract for one year ended 2+ months ago. Was perfect for that time and useable for daily internet. In the last 2.5 months the speed has deteriorated massively and for the last monthish it is hanging, disconnecting etc., unuseable and frustrating most of the time. (I have the black USB Pro on monthly contract (now month by month roll on)). Have reported this a number of times to Vodafone. Did the SIM swap and 'put it in a Vodafone 'phone' rubbish. I suggested they can't cope with all the new (eg. iPhone) users in my heavy use area (Bristol) but they denied this. My other synical view is that all contract-finished users have their service drastically reduced to make them go and buy a new one. I suspect a bit of both (or a lot of both). I too have had the story that the K3760 dongle is notoriously unreliable and I can go and upgrade to a newer, reliable service from Vodafone ! Didn't mention I had to have a new long term contract until I went to the shop though! No way I would do that if this is the service I will get and they indeed can't cope with the user data demand anymore. Speed even got to superb levels earlier this year, often 3 to 5 mbps in my area. Can't believe all these dongle are suddenly self destructing. Would say steer well clear of Vodafone mbb now. So many people can't be coincidence. Just wrote all the above, signal connection and timer ticking away, then got blank page and 'Can't Open Page - Server has unexpectedly dropped connection'. Luckily I copied it all before pressing send, so the Vodafone despicable unusable service didn't get me!! Will try again now..
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Reviewed by John McCulloch from UK on 30th Jun 2010
Internet access using the Vodafone dongle is barely usable. I travel all over the UK and have found the data rate to be universally awful wherever I have been (including Central London, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow). God help you if you're out in the sticks. Rural coverage is next to none. Vodafone mobile broadband is an expensive service and fails to deliver on every front. Just avoid it.
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Reviewed by AndyHop from UK on 23rd Jun 2010
Bought PAYG dongle rubbish cant download anything as always being timed out.Got parent control turned off in shop FOC (take proof of ID).Thought that might improve speed but no.Only good for email.
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Reviewed by Peter from UK on 22nd Jun 2010
The promised speeds are nowhere near what one actually receives as download speed, try 0,4Mb as norm
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Reviewed by PD from UK on 17th Jun 2010
I bought the wireless pay as you go mobile dongle, as I need net access when I am in the UK. When I tried to top up after my first month, I found out they would only accept UK registered credit card payment. I tried to use the online service, but it never made it, it downloaded megs of data but the site was so bad, in the end I had to go to a shop to get a top up card. I tried to call their customer serices and after 5 minutes of being bounced around a call waiting system, given long lectures on how I could top up on the web, or at a bank machine etc..etc.. I finally got the option to talk to someone... or rather..." Customer service is now closed" message! The connection sometimes is good, but if your hoping for downloads, forget it, the service is continually interrupted for minutes at a time. Im just very glad I didnt sign up for a contract!
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Reviewed by dale from midlands of england on 11th Jun 2010
a year or so ago i started acontract with vodaphone untill that point i had a 3 dongle and every week it was a new problem , after explaining this to vodafone the nicly set my dongle up as a buisiness user as there helplines are much better for a whole year i havent had to use the help l,ine but.....in the last few days after 6pm the dongle will connect to the 3g network but will not connect to the internet , iif i manually swap over to gprs it will connect fine (if very slow) my point is the signal is there but vodafone need to ramp it up to cope with all the new customers as said this is the fgirst problem in12months but its a biggie !!!
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Reviewed by paul jones from england on 7th Jun 2010
Vodaphone recently sent me a bill sayin i had gone over my monthly download limit,when i checked my downloaded data it said that i had not.So i wont be buyin no more products from vodaphone as they simply cant supply me with equipment that actually works.People need to be careful and question every bill.I have phoned them several times asking for a solution as the bill i received has an extra £141 added on,which im not going to pay caus i spoke to a voda engineer and he said the software supplied with the "dongle" is corrupt.
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Reviewed by Robbie from Ireland on 6th Jun 2010
All those people who are saying vodaFAKE and that they are cods and criminals need to calm down you just picked the wrong mobile broadband servce.Get a life.Just switch to another network. Anyway I found Vodafone to be brilliant. Nearly always 3G+.Hardly ever GPRS.Somtimes it's even faster than my old broadband!
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Reviewed by helena from gb on 4th Jun 2010
new to vodafone dongle struggles to get signal and downloads constantly interrupted by loss of connection so why am I so disappointed????
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Reviewed by Doug from UK on 2nd Jun 2010
Very poor speeds and unreliable connection especially in London. The software's poor too, necessitating a reboot every time the connection drops (which is often.
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Reviewed by Chuck from Ireland on 22nd May 2010
Just got prepay. Extremely slow even with a "very good" signal. Very dissappointed especially after all the "award winning" hype.
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Reviewed by Richard from UK on 22nd May 2010
Not good
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Reviewed by ellen from robb on 18th May 2010
was excelent a year ago now its the worst of all networks 3 and a half hours to load a simple game un usaable.rating zero
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Reviewed by James from UK on 8th May 2010
Vodafone customer services suck - they just ignore you... After over a week of sending emails, cause I ain't paying cross network charges to ring them, and 3 actually ring you back within 48 hours, I give up... Will not ever ever ever buy anything from this company again... If you want cheap dog excrement then vodafone are for you!!!!
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Reviewed by MarkC from UK on 4th May 2010
My experience is the same as James Taylor's... "over the past couple of months the service in central London has been unusable between around 8am and 7pm. My modem will connect up but beyond that there is no service. Nothing works: DNS lookups, web access, email access." Customer service told me to put the SIM in my 3G phone for a while... I suspended disbelief and tried it... absolutely no difference of course. When are they going to sort this out (:-|) Looks like '3' of T-Mobile are the people to move to... DO IT NOW, EVERYONE!!!
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Reviewed by Phil from UK on 3rd May 2010
I just switched from monthly to PAYG (because with monthly you pay through the nose for more than 5Gb whereas with PAYG you can just top up). However, my download speeds have gone from 1.5 Meg to 400K. Ping times increased from 100 ms to 300 ms. Same signal strength (excellent) just the PAYG SIM rather than the contract SIM. I think Vodafone must be throttling the ppbundle.internet access point that is used by the PAYG SIMs.
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Reviewed by simon from uk on 29th Apr 2010
vodaphone broadband is a total shambles, the worst aspect being the "content control", and their customer service is awful, untrained staff who seem to know little or nothing and on most occasions are rude. My advice? go to 3 mobile, hassle free mobile broadband.
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Reviewed by Ian from UK on 28th Apr 2010
I live in accomodation where everyone in the whole residence depends on mobile broadband for internet. I bought a PAYG dongle from vodafone. The shop assistant did say that speed would depend on how many other users were online and I could get a refund if I wasn't happy. In usage, I did on one occasion get over 3Mbps - this was at about 3am one morning. Every other time I tried, it would only connect at 56Kbps, I could barely even check my webmail. I returned the USB and took out a T mobile dongle; I get 3Mbps or more no problem now.
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Reviewed by Mark Rutherford from England on 28th Apr 2010
STAY AWAY FROM THESE BANDITS. I CANCELLED MY DIRECT DEBIT AND THEY SENT MY PAYMENTS TO A DEBT COLLECTOR SERVICE. I HAVE RUNG THEM, WRITTEN TO THEM AND THEY ARE STILL TAKING MONEY FROM ME.
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Reviewed by James Taylor from UK on 28th Apr 2010
My experience for a long time was positive. However, over the past couple of months the service in central London has been unusable between around 8am and 7pm. My modem will connect up but beyond that there is no service. Nothing works: DNS lookups, web access, email access. When I get on the train at Waterloo in the evening, at some point after Vauxhall it often starts working. Clearly, their internet servers (rather than the mobile network) are saturated and I guess they're giving priority to iphones since they started selling them. When I finally got through to customer services (they wouldn't reply to my emails) they told me I was a liar. They also demanded 30 days' notice to cancel even though they're providing zero service. Great.
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Reviewed by sam from england on 26th Apr 2010
Connection....at the moment pretty much non existant....go over ur allowance and u may have to sell your house in order to pay the ridiculous charges added on top....altogether absolutley rubbish...i would prefer not to have internet at all than go through the hassle i have with this pile of rubbish....luckily my contract is about to end and i couldnt be happier...
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Reviewed by JAMES from LEEDS on 24th Apr 2010
PAYG Mobile Broadband is a joke... A 56k dial up with a crank on the side would be quicker and more reliable... Customer services in store are useless and online is obviously somewhere in the 3rd world that doesn't use the same software that the poor sod who is a customer is using. Try 3 at least they have the common sense to call you if you email them unlike VF. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by Anabaric from Colchester, UK on 22nd Apr 2010
Pay as you go Dongle, works well enough at home, use the flying lead and have dongle away from PSU etc. I manage to play some MMO gaming over connection so can't be that bad.
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Reviewed by lisa from england on 19th Apr 2010
I have just bought a voda dongle, (reading the reviews i wish i had not bothered) when i am on the move in car etc it works fine but as soon as i come home the signal goes to very poor, has anyone any idea if there is anything i can do to strengthen the signal whilst im at home? Thanks
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Reviewed by shaun from england on 16th Apr 2010
this dongle works great, pitty the rest of the noobs on here are giving it a bad name. brill for mobile surfing
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Reviewed by huskyboy from UK on 15th Apr 2010
Vodafone Broadband is the absolute pits! It is expensive and the service is dire. If you are unlucky enough to exceed your monthly allowance you will get buttfucked by Vodafone on the extra charges. £12 per Gb!!!! Connecting is a joke and staying connected, when you finally get on, is also a joke. Customer service is none existent. Call centre staff are all numptys and don't give a toss about you, the mug, who is paying their wages. I can't wait until the contract is up so that I can change.
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Reviewed by LiverpoolDave from UK on 2nd Apr 2010
Looking through these comments it looks like the Liverpool Branch are particularly nasty ... I'm not the only one to have had a problem with them, I see.
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Reviewed by Kim from UK on 31st Mar 2010
Bought a Vodafone dongle yesterday was told that it would give me really good connection! Yeah, right! It took us ages to get on it, then we couldn't connect and it wouldn't take parental controls off! I am taking this back to the shop a.s.a.p and getting my money back!!!!
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Reviewed by Dior from UK on 31st Mar 2010
I purchased a vodafone dongle today after I was told at the shop that it was excellent, all I can say is that it is absolute terrible, it is slow, and it has just taken me over an hour for a page to load and when it did load only half of the page came up, I have also been having problems in watching music videos as it just cuts out even though all the bars are full and is showing good connection, I will be taking this load of rubbish back to the shop tomorrow and I will get my money back, please do not buy this product as you might as well flush your money down the toilet, I have only had the damn thing for less than a day and I feel that I need a course of anti-depressants or something along those lines as it has driven me crazy.
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Reviewed by Raivis from ireland on 23rd Mar 2010
i hate ,hate, hate it keeps on cutting out every 5-10 minits
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Reviewed by craig from uk on 21st Mar 2010
i have vodafone dongal and its slows as out pure rip off takes ages to upload pages and doese not upload vidos or music and its says verry cood signal every time i connect. i also have t-mobile dongal and its mint uploads in a flash so if your vodafone dongals lyk myn get t-mobile best one you can get
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Reviewed by Toby O'Brien from United Kindom on 19th Mar 2010
Vodafone Dongles are a con. I have one, and 2 months later I have decided to break the contract taht I have no prove of becuase they never sent me one. They never told me that sending a text usign this device is chargeable to me. I have found this out today after getting a £63 bill. They are the biggest con artist going. I am cancelling the contract and I am going to refuse to pay them, they can take me to court if they wish but for £400 would you bother??
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Reviewed by Lucy from UK on 18th Mar 2010
Is any one having a major issue with Vodafone dongles or is it juts me. Mine never wants to be dected...the lights are flashing but I keep getting a 'USB not recognized' pop up , on the off chance I do get connected after unplugging and pluggin the dongle into my lap top like a million times , it only stays connected for 5 mins max ! When I complained to vodafone they say its a nationwide issue and they are aware of the problem ! I plan to take my dongle into a store this weekend ( along with a dodgy phone ) to see if they can do anything , but I am not holding my breath ! I'll be glad when I am rid of the thing !
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Reviewed by grant from scotland on 16th Mar 2010
i have a 3gb voda monthly dongle cannot fault the speed .i have installed d100 router and runs 2 notebooks wireless fine for emails etc...better than being a land line slave.....
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Reviewed by A. Parkinson from UK on 11th Mar 2010
Extremely hit and miss performance, and coverage indicator (GPRS vs 3G) bears no relation to actual download speed whatsoever. It's not just Vodafone. I have an 02 sim and a Three sim, they're all as guilty of overstating their performance before you buy. Conclusion: mobile broadband in the UK is a total con.
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Reviewed by Graham from UK on 10th Mar 2010
While not as fast as Vodafone claim, I have been completely satisfied with my mobile broadband. I live on the outskirts of Brighton, virtually in the country, and yet I consistently get an excellent 3G signal - fast enough to stream I-Player with only occasional pauses (maybe once or twice in an hour's program, sometimes none at all). Downloads are consistently fast and fuss-free. I also found it worked very well in Edinburgh and Stirling, when I tried it there.My only gripe is that it is too easy to go a little over the 3 GB limit and get stung for double the bill the next month (because it's £15 for the first 3GB and then another £15 for every GB thereafter), but that's because I'm watching so much TV with it! Highly recommended.
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Reviewed by Alyson from UK on 8th Mar 2010
£30 waste of money.. slow internet and a lot of web pages just wont load..
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Reviewed by Wooie from UK on 5th Mar 2010
The Vodafone mobile dongle does exactly what it says on the box. All things considered it`s not bad as long as you are patient. It will never be as good as home broadband but you get what you pay for.
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Reviewed by Martin from UK on 1st Mar 2010
I've been trying to get my fathers PAYG modem to work properly for over a fortnight. It worked (slowly) for about 6 months but now websites simply don't load. The following is part of an email from Vodafone technical - "Just to confirm that the issue with the homepage re-directing to top up page – and other websites not displaying at all is a known issue, and we can confirm that this is under investigation with no fix at this time". To be fair they supplied a replacement modem but that's just the same.
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Reviewed by storey ann from UK on 27th Feb 2010
ium narked ive got parental guidance on my dongle with no idea how to get rid of it help please
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Reviewed by Brianc from uk on 24th Feb 2010
I use Vodaphone PAYG. It's been ok, reliable so far, I'm in London SW8, nothing special. But the figures above are all wrong. You do NOT get 20Gb for £25 you get 5Gb and a 24month contract is compulsory. If you look at mobile broadband sites lately it is getting harder and harder to figure out the real costs.
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Reviewed by Me from UK on 21st Feb 2010
I would advise trying the 1 month contract 3GB option. That way if it doesn't work for you it can be cancelled at a months notice. On the Website it says my coverage is excellent in reality I get 1 maybe 2 bars. In usage the speed varies from 0.1 to about 2.5Mb (normally about 0.5 to 1.5Mb. For the £20 one off cost for the dongle and £15 a month rolling one month contract it seems good value and if the service goes downhill just cancel with a months notice. It would not be suitable for on line gaming or streaming media compared to a fixed line ADSL connection.
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Reviewed by G LANDER from UK on 14th Feb 2010
For the last few days my vodaphone dongal has not been working right other people have had the same problem the connection is strong but its unable to locate any web pages its download speed has always been slow wanting 24 hours to download a 45 min program do any of u no the problem vodaphone arnt saying owt and they are still chargeing even though after 2 hour it still hadnt found a web page thanks
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Reviewed by Ian from UK on 12th Feb 2010
Checked area for coverage. Was told excellent,but in truth I am lucky to get one bar.Very dissapointing.
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Reviewed by ken scott from uk on 2nd Feb 2010
I live in Central London and I can't seem to get a connection to Vodafone 3G and when I do it only lasts for a few seconds or so. The GPRS is a more reliable connection but it takes forever to do anything and my patience has usually been drained after 10 minutes or so anyway. I think I'll go back to having a home connection. Vodafone broadband is very disappointing, extremely frustrating and a complete waste of my hard-earned money. I would have given it no stars but the minimum is one so...
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Reviewed by ant from uk on 2nd Feb 2010
very slow
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Reviewed by Claire from London on 27th Jan 2010
I have exactly the same problem as harry (posted 9th Jan) I have no connection in my area and have not done for 12 days with no news of it getting fixed, spent £40 on dongle and paid £15 for net,what so now I have to spend another £55 to get a connection elsewhere! that cant be right!
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Reviewed by Carole Virgo from UK on 27th Jan 2010
I have a pay as you go dongle which I bought last year. So far I have only been able to use it once, on holiday, as there is such a problem accessing a mobile mast where I live, and it is not an isolated area!
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Reviewed by Paul from UK on 22nd Jan 2010
Ive found Vodafone PAYG broadband is useless for anything more than basic email, and pray no-one sends an attachment. Never connected to 3G, often only connects to EDGE and is so slow its not worth the effort. Cant even check the lottery results due to "content control" and have to go back into town to cancel this. Why not make turning it ON the option? Glad I didnt go for the contract option.
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Reviewed by Chris from UK on 21st Jan 2010
Vodafone 3G Network is good. As the normal 3G speed i get is like 4.8MB on my iPhone. But last time i speedtest it again and had 6.2MB. The only reson people say the service is slow becuase they are in a GPRS area and needed to be in an Vodafone 3G area. There are also good coverage in the UK as they are currenly the fastest at 14.4MB. 2010 will be upgrading to 28.8MB. They are also increasing the coverage every month.
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Reviewed by Wendy from Merseyside UK on 21st Jan 2010
Well I was duped into having the stupid BB dongle & totally mis-sold this, as I was told it wasnt a new 18 month contract, now they want £107 off me now that I've realised the lies after viewing my NEW plan online and I want to cancel. They keep saying its in the notes that I accpeted the new contract, but I know I specifically asked if it was going to be a new contract & the advisor lied. They are criminals, liars and thieves!!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by RMH from UK on 20th Jan 2010
Skodafone? What an idiot 1. Vodafone are not the biggest network in the world for nothing. 323,000,000 customers don't just appear from out of the blue. 2. I don't own a Skoda but you obviously know nothing about cars. If your trying to hint that skoda cars are bad then your calling the whole Volkswagen group poor which also own Audi which also own Bugatti. KNOW YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU SPIT YOUR TRAP...
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Reviewed by LBD from UK on 20th Jan 2010
Haven't experienced any drops at all. I took the time to check out the coverage map before I bought the dongle, and was satisfied that it would meet my requirements. It did what it said on the tin. Signal strength varies between 1 and 3 bars, but as I want to string my 1 gig allowance out as far as possible (4 months almost to the day, last top-up) I stay clear of graphically heavy sites. As a result the "slow" speed is perfectly acceptable. I never remember dial-up reaching the speeds the dongle gives me, though my home broadband blasts it out of the water. The benefit of the Vodafone pay-as-you-go MB is that your allowance doesn't expire. At any other of the big providers I would wasting money every month, so it suits me fine. The content control is big brother, though, and is the same insult to personal integrity that any kind of imposed censorship is.
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Reviewed by claire from england on 19th Jan 2010
cant stand vodafone its so slow and i can hardly get online and when i do i get cut off not long after
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Reviewed by Mike P from England on 14th Jan 2010
Skodafone- enough said.
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Reviewed by Harry from London, UK on 9th Jan 2010
To: 'customer.care@vodafone.co.uk' Subject: Complaint Vodafone Service Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to express my disappointment in the service that your company is providing. I have entered in an 18 Months contract for Vodafone Broadband, On the 27th of March, my internet has ceased to work, there is a strong signal on the dongle, but nothing is being downloaded. Now, on the 30 March, I phoned and complained about this situation. I been told that there is a problem with the Mast (network) in my area and the engineers are working on the issue. On 2nd of April, as there was still no internet connection, other than for a few minutes, now and again, I phoned again customer service, and again, been given the same reply: the engineers are looking into the matter, but no fixing date has been given. On 6 April, I phoned once again, and been told that you’re migrating the systems therefore nothing can be done at that stage. Today, 7 April, I phoned once again, and after being put through from one department to another, after 1hour and 23 minutes on the phone, I got the same message, this is 12 days later, “we are aware of the issue, our engineers will add your number to their date of base and will let you know when the issue is going to be fixed”. This is absolutely ridiculous. I am paying a service I don’t receive, and I strongly feel that you’re in breach of your contract with me. In the same conversation, I have asked to cancel my contract with Vodafone, and I have been told that I cannot cancel unless I pay the remaining of my contract. Could you please explain to me how this works? Have you conned me to get into a one side contract only, are you only protecting your interests? What about customers interests? If you cannot provide me with the service that you have promised, why are you holding me down to a useless contract? I have read through your terms and conditions and I cannot find any articles that mention the procedures that must be followed when service is not being provided. I am extremely disappointed with the service I received from Vodafone, and with the way your customer service staff deal with the customers. I would like you to look into this matter and cancel my contract, without any further payments, or I’ll have no alternative to take this matter further. Look forward to hearing from you Yours Sincerely This was sent in March 2009, now in January 2010 I cannot take their dogs of me, Debt collection company FPC has been chasing me ever since for £80, when I paid Vodafone for 12 mths of service over £460. My advice to anyone reading this: Avoid at all costs. It seems that I have no optoion left but to take them to court.
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Reviewed by Aiden from Birmingham on 8th Jan 2010
I'm a long - standing Vodafone contract customer with a mobile dongle. No connection issues, no problem disabling content control, great customer service and i get 3GB for ten quid a month. Getting rid of my Pipex landline/broadband was a good move.
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Reviewed by gregory from new zealand on 8th Jan 2010
vodafone is absolute rubbish god i would never deal with them ever why doesnt a company come along and wipe them off the playing field god there is a dam market for it
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Reviewed by LiverpoolDave from UK on 7th Jan 2010
Vodafone: Lies and Mis-selling - then they try and wriggle out of it and deny they EVER told you there was good coverage. Shop staff go from patronising to nasty and abusive if you go in and complain.
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Reviewed by andrew from australia on 5th Jan 2010
vodafone is rubbish and the only reason it gets one star is because i cant give it zero stars
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Reviewed by sarah from lincoln on 4th Jan 2010
Although vodafone bb sort of works ok. I am concerned about privacy & security. This content control thing (that other people coment on, on this site) just seems to prove that vodafone is monitering everything that we do.I will not be passing any sensetive information whilst i am accessing the internet through my vodafone dongle.I wonder if they will block me from sending this!.
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Reviewed by DONALD from SCOTLAND on 3rd Jan 2010
djt with regards to the content control on your vod payg stick go to a vodaphone shop with proof you are over 18 such as passport or driving licence and they will unlock it for you dont forget to take a note of the phone number before you go to the shop i did this and it worked without the restriction only drawback i have found is it wont download webcams properly as the speed isnt fast enough unless my flashplayer isnt working properly anyone else had this problem with trying to download music etc any help much appreciated
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Reviewed by djt2009 from uk on 2nd Jan 2010
Absolute con. For starters 1Gb costs £15.Way too expensive.Then theres the "content control".Tried to go online to disable to be told"Sorry not possible".Then tried the link to customer services and guess what?no such page exists so I'm stuck with Content Control.Absolute terrible service. Then there's the "timed out" on large files.Totally dissapointed with Vodafone and changing to another vendor who are cheaper,give 3 times the allowance and no Content Control.
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Reviewed by jim from chesterfield,uk. on 29th Dec 2009
works quite well where i live, fairly reliable & reasonable speed, but it's far too expensive for what you get & vodafone content control is very restrictive & i would only ever have any mobile broadband on pay as you go & never have a contract, at least until the cost comes down.
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Reviewed by John from UK on 26th Dec 2009
Vodafone is absolute rubbish. I was caught between glowing references for vodafone and other references which said vodafone was awful and not to touch it. Well i really needed mobile broadband and went for a Pay As Yo Go option so that I would not be tied to a contract - and am i glad i did. Vodafone mobile broadband speeds are so low and erratic that it is unusable except for anything more than the most basic of use eg email.
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Reviewed by alex broom from uk on 24th Dec 2009
i hate it its slow, keeps on cutting out and the customer service staff havnt got a clue when you phone them. dont waste your money
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Reviewed by Sean from UK on 23rd Dec 2009
I am in charge of IT for a company using 100 Vodafone Mobile Broadband Dongles, we have field based personal all over England Scotland and Wales, operating Nationally we find that the 3Gnetwork is fairly hit and miss, Vodafone did state at inception that it was only launched in 7 major cities with plans to roll out to more area's in action. As with all emerging technologies there are teething problems and one of HSDPA Mobile Broadbands biggest issues regardless of which network you choose to use is that of contention of bandwidth. Consumer uptake has outstripped demand for a service which barely meets the requirements of a modern business let alone the demanding always on socially networked streaming media whores that consumers have become. Things will get better but essentially for early adopters well, you'll just have to put up with it. :) I think Vodafones service is as good as can be expected, remember what fixed telephone broadband was like in the early days, over priced and slow, and now look at it 50MB connectivity from Virgin etc.
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Reviewed by annette from england on 17th Dec 2009
i was sold a vodafone mobile broadband 12 month contract back in september before travelling to NZ for 3 months, and was assured by the sales assistant that it would work at the same rate as it does in the UK. being a complete technophobe, I believed him. 3 weeks into my trip, it stopped working and I was faced with a £400 bill, which I haven't yet paid and keeps increasing. Numerous phonecalls and emails have gone unanswered, only one prat said i didnt read the small print. i hardly think ASKING ABOUT THE RATES is SMALL PRINT. absolute nightmare.
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Reviewed by Peter from uk on 16th Dec 2009
Vodaphone broadband is total rubbish. Incredibly slow and what the hell is this content control? I am an adult and think for myself. I changed to 3 mobile, much faster and their customer service is excellent unlike vodaphone whose customer service staff are rude and incompetent, and thats when they can be bothered to answer your call!
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Reviewed by georgie from england on 13th Dec 2009
never ever get this joke of a dongle
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Reviewed by Liam from UK on 13th Dec 2009
Aggressive selling of fastest/best coverage and a 'special 12 month deal' for students away from home. **Assured** that in the city I live it has at least 3G coverage - in fact as I type this I look sadly at the solid green light of 2G connection - never got anything better, despite all the assurances. My complaints to the shop where I bought it and to Vodafone directly have been met with nothing but rebuttals and rudeness. As I was away during the ludicrously short 7-day return period, I have no recourse despite this mis-selling and lack of fitness to purpose. And the myth of the '3G bedding in period' allows them to wriggle out if, after 7 days, it hasn't 'bedded in' and improved. Lies, misinformation and mis-selling.
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Reviewed by Sandra from Greece on 5th Dec 2009
Got mobile broadband stick after falling for their ad about how fast they were compared to the competion. Only available with contract here in Greece. Installed and worked first day, after that will not connect have called tech services everyday - no joy at all, now nearly a month and all they say is we have to wait, Wait for what I ask. Stick has been back for service butwhen returned my laptop just says "no device". Can't get any help. worst service ever, they often hang up when I call now, plus they will never connect you to a manager. I would give them no stars at all.
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Reviewed by Pierre from UK on 4th Dec 2009
I have been reading a lot of forums before I decide which mobile broadband to choose. I was desperate as I read that ALL the providers had problems. Eventually I decided to give Vodafone a try on PAYG after everybody had advised me "3". I was worried of disconnections and stability problems but so far so good (a couple of hours). It has been flawless, connecting directly to 3g+. When I was in the Vodafone shop, I specifically asked the saleman to remove the parental control which he did directly on his computer. I plugged the dongle directly in my Mac and it worked straight away. There is nothing worse than having the feeling of being swindled, I am not working for Vodafone nor having shares but I can recognise when the service is there. So far so good, I will definitely come back here if suddenly the connection is not working properly anymore...
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Reviewed by Gina from UK on 2nd Dec 2009
Vodafone are absolute CRIMINALS. My mobile broadband bill went from £15 p/m to £250 p/m with no explanation. When I phoned, all I got was a rude prat telling me that was my monthly usage. Oh. One word: EXTORTION
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Reviewed by nicky maclaren from uk on 29th Nov 2009
my dongle is so slow if i wanted to watch a video he will take ages to load it up and also other pages of the web, my mate who lives below me has a 3g dongle it is great this is what i would recommend to anybody
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Reviewed by Mark Richardson from Manchester on 21st Nov 2009
Absolutely fabulous coverage and coverage and speed in Manchester after a poor experience with 3. Regular speeds of around 3Mb download/0.8Mb upload. I never use one of their dongles as my netbook has a bulit in 3G modem. Using pay as you go at the moment but considering a £15 per month contract. Really can't fault~~Vodafone at all. The service is excellent and reliable with a good top-up online service.
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Reviewed by jw from sheffield ,uk on 21st Nov 2009
Hitler's dead, but we've still got vodafone content control,why? who do these people think they are?
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Reviewed by John from UK on 17th Nov 2009
Got to say it's done me pretty fine. It's fast enough to watch you tube anyway although as mentioned elsewhere it can be slower at peak times. My only gripe (other than the stingey £15 for 3gig) is mainly the slightly untrustworthy usage counter. Although it's reasonably accurate I've been charged for over usage when the counter clearly shows slightly under the limit, so it should only be used as a rough estimate. Oh, and also it took a couple of weeks of being very slow before it bedded in and now I get broadband speed. Maybe suggests why there's so many poor reviews...
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Reviewed by Javed from uk on 15th Nov 2009
Absolute rubbish
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Reviewed by mark par from uk on 13th Nov 2009
Vodafone !!!! more like vodaFAKE ! please just dont bother paying for this .This message is brief because signal may be lost any second.
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Reviewed by Cathy Taylor from UK on 11th Nov 2009
I have a Vodafone Mobile Connect Model K3565 provided for me by my employer (I am a contractor). Basically, I was given the device and told "use this to access our database." Not a problem to install, after I stopped it from trying to connect via telephone all of the time, it is not even very irritating to use. I have a problem because the install has changed something on my laptop and Vodafone won't talk to me because I am not their customer. I don't want to pester my new employer because I don't expect them to take responsibility for my own lap-top. So does anyone on the planet know what I have to change to make my internet access come back (Internet Explorer / Toshiba that also has wireless)? Vodafone is no good to me; I don't think I will spend any of my own money on a Vodafone (they weren't even very nice).
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Reviewed by Barbara from UK on 9th Nov 2009
Rubbish!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by shelley from scotland on 26th Oct 2009
well i bought the vodafone broadband for 45pound and top up 15pound when i need to, i have never had a problem with it i get 4bars at all times and the only thing that dosnt work is utube but i dont use that anyway, so i have no problem with it atol, its fast and reliable.
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Reviewed by Greg from UK on 21st Oct 2009
had for 4 months, pay £7.50 for 1GB allowance. Doubt i'll ever get over 5Mb per month as it's incredibly slow (at full signal). Absolute rubbish!! It may be mobile but it's not broadband!
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Reviewed by jon from UK on 21st Oct 2009
I bought the 1 year contract with 3gb per month limit. I've used the dongle in Wiltshire in an area I was assured would have good reception and also in central London where I live. Lots of dropouts and slow speeds. I had been using O2 mobile broadband and this was reliable and fast but didn't give me the coverage in Wiltshire I needed. The latest problem is that as of yesterday my Vodafone dongle won't connect [the dreaded RAS 619] and I've been told by support that because the network went down my sim is corrupted and I must take it back to the shop for an update - Vodafone need to work on their delivery because they won't be able to keep their poor service quiet for long!
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Reviewed by Matt from UK on 15th Oct 2009
Got Vodafone mobile broadband for my business laptop and it has never been a problem. Connects at the full speed of 7.2Meg in central Nottingham and London and downloads large files as fast as my 8Meg home broadband. Content filters can be easily removed by a quick call to Vodafone. They never asked me for credit card details. I called up about something completely unrelated and when they asked my date of birth for security, they asked me if I wanted the content control removed as I'm over 18. It was removed right away.....
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Reviewed by Lawrence Williams from UK - London on 14th Oct 2009
This is a joke! top10-broadband.co.uk/news/2009/08/vodafone_mobile_broadband_gets_speed_upgrade/ I have a terrible experience with the Vodafone service. I have 'ok' signal. usu 3-4 bars. I'm in an 'excellent' covrage area. Download speed 0kbps...to 200ish maybe. Often fails to connect, disconnect. I don't know HOW they can say 7mb. You can't even get half a meg! RARE to get (4am) 1meg. I could understand an advertised 'max' 7mb, but a realistic max of 5mb. Yet, NOBODY really gets even 56kbps. Dial up was FAR better. Those people putting 5 star work for Vodafone, or are joking, or clicked the wrong button by mistake. This is a CON. How do they get away with it??
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Reviewed by Chris Francis from Essex, England on 12th Oct 2009
I got mobile broadband on vodafone with the samsung nc10 netbook as I have a mobile phone contract with them with good 3g signal and since first day nothing but problems (on phone to them now while I do this to get it cancelled). When it's worked its been fine even on Youtube which I noticed some have had problems with. But then all of a sudden comes up with page not available which would then take upto a hour to sort out. They have sent me out 2 sim cards to change and a new netbook and still no joy (still waiting to talk to someone so I suspect we are not only ones) I have excuse after excuse faulty sim card, faulty netbook, poor signal and even wrong price plan???????? The mobile phone service has been brilliant even when it went down for 2 weeks when I had just joined they refuneded full month line rental but as for the broadband avoid at all costs!!!!!!!! still on phone waiting lady just said still on hold very busy probably with people wanting to cancel
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Reviewed by Andrew Brindley from Leeds, England on 11th Oct 2009
We have Vodafone business account for our mobiles and two contract mobile broadband dongles. The signal for the broadband is at best unreliable. I have just started working at home I am in the process of switching landline broadband providers. As we have two dongles thought this would be great to cover the gap as we have to go back to BT and will have no BB at home for a week. Trying to use it to connect to our vpn is joke. You sign in it says 2g or 3g or 3g+ but then the signal with go to any of these for no reason at all. I realise 3g coverage is only based on population centres but it’s not good enough for business use. Heard a debate on the new high speed rail line London to Edinburgh the other day and someone said that the money would be better spend on a super fast broadband network for the whole of the UK and I can’t agree more. The government and opposition need to wake up as what we have is stifling business. It seems to me in the world of communications we are trying to run a network without the infrastructure. It’s a bit like driving down the M1 to London from Leeds only to find the bit outside Nottingham is still a cart track and they are waiting to upgrade it to a turnpike road!! You wouldn’t put up with it in your car so why do we with our communications systems?
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Reviewed by Andrew from London, England on 7th Oct 2009
This is "broadband" only if you live in a world where words don't mean anything. I was told I'd be getting a 3g connection with download speeds up to 3.6 mbps. I know that ISPs lie as a rule and to divide their advertised download speeds by two to get a realistic idea of what you'll actually be getting, but in this case, dividing by two has proven unrealistically optimistic. I almost never connect to 3G. Maybe that's because I live in rural central London. I almost always connect to GPRS at three bars with download speeds of 5-40 kbps. At the lower end, which is where I typically am, the connection is so slow it takes 10-15 minutes, numerous clicks of the refresh button and multiple ERROR 0 messages just to load the google page. As others have noted, the connection frequently cuts out as well. On the rare occasion I connect to a 3G network, I can still forget about streaming video. Download speeds on 3G for me have been, at most, 100 kbps regardless of where I am. I have never managed to log onto my Gmail account and be able to use the chat function because bandwidth is simply to low to allow that feature to work. Even dial up would accommodate that. And just getting to my e-mail is often an exercise in futility. I elected to get wireless PAYG from vodafone because I live in a rented flat I won't be staying in for more than a few months, and I didn't want to pay a large sum of money to have a BT line put in and have to enter an expensive long term contract I'd only have to pay even more to get out of. This seemed like a cost effective solution. Instead, it turns out I've handed Vodafone £40 and gotten next to nothing in return. I'm sure I can find nothing somewhere else for less money. If this is the best mobile broadband in the UK, then the UK doesn't have mobile broadband. It barely has mobile narrow band. Don't do business with these people. They don't deserve your money. It's hard to believe they are allowed to get away with selling something they are incapable and have no intention of providing.
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Reviewed by eric from england on 6th Oct 2009
absolute rubbish slower than dile up every where i go its on one or two bars it never goes on 3g or higher
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Reviewed by gemma from norfolk on 4th Oct 2009
Me and my boyfriend signed up for vodafone broadband back in march (09) We were sold the laptop on the understanding that the connection speed would be at least 5 times faster than dial up based on the area that we live in ... we thought that this would be ok as we r only recreational internet users, but we never anticipated the poor connection that we were about to endure!! We suffered it a couple of months and even tried driving around to pick up a good signal! Put it this way, u know you have been conned when your parked up next to a vodafone mast and the damn thing still doesnt work!! You cant watch videos, or browse popular sites like facebook, because it just takes too long. After offering to hand the laptop back to the vodafone store and ringing up and complaining and writing two letters, we have still not heard anything. The only thing left to do was cancel my direct debit, since then a payment should have been made, but all they did was send a text message, (which we ignored) and since then we havent heard anything, its now been a week...... watch this space. Do not even think about buying one, the bad reviews by far outweigh the good ones. If you want broadband at home.... stick to something like BT. Ive given it 1 star, but its not even worthy of that.
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Reviewed by des from matlock ,uk on 30th Sep 2009
how stupid is vodafone content control?.i'm not that bothered about looking at porn on line,but why can't i buy a steam stripper(for stripping wallpaper)on line & why does it block anything that has the slightest hint of alcohol related to it.this is just going too far & i need to change to another service provider very soon.
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Reviewed by dogzz from preston, lancashire, uk on 29th Sep 2009
I bought my Vodafone broadband usb dongle as part of the £15 per month pay as you go deal - went through Quidco and got a further £10 off it, so for initial cost of £25 with 1 gb already charged to it, I thought it was a no brainer - especially as I've been a Vodafone contract customer for the last 7 years with no problems (phone) - Well, what can I say...... this USB broadband dongle is the biggest piece of mis-selling I have ever seen in the entire industry!!! What an absolute load of rubbish this is.... It comes up with a signal strength of 5 bars (max), then I press 'connect'..... I go to browse, or catch up with my google mail..... and it just disconnects me.......... no explanation... no warning.... the connection is gone..... I don't use this to watch videos, or download mp3's..... In fact, I'd bet my mortgage to anybody that you can't use it for that no matter how hard you try... I just want to run my ebay business remotely... (checking mails, etc) and it lets me down in spectacular fashion... My opinion is: 1) Vodafone are mis-selling this product... It does not give you mobile (3g) broadband as it states it does. Mine has only ever given me a GPRS connection! 2) The actual GPRS connection drops out with alarming regularity - NO MATTER WHAT THE SIGNAL STRENGTH IS?? 3)When I called Vodafone Tech Support, I actually encountered one guy who referred to this service as " Pay As You Groan Broadband" - ..... This pretty much says it all.... and that's from the company Vodafone itself!!! In summary... you'd be better of sending binary messages via smoke signals, or flashing a torch or mirror into the sun - this would at least give you a reliable connection.... and the speed would probably be faster. Don't buy this worthless piece of rubbish - life is too short to go down the vodafone wireless broadband route... trust me!! PS - I've been a communications consultant for a major blue chip for the last 10 years, and even I was fooled by their claims..... My only salvation is I got the pay as you go option..... I fell really sorry for the people that got this on contract.... IF THIS WAS THE US, WE'D HAVE VODAFONE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT BY NOW FOR THIS.... THINK ON!!....
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