Vodafone Simply Broadband Max.

J. Marston

Has anyone used this or is using it? I'm looking into broadband deals and looking for opinions on it.

Don't know a huge amount about the difference in quality between providers but it seems decent to me: No telephone, no line rental, unlimited data allowance, €35 a month and up to 70/20mb download/upload speeds (I know it probably wouldn't get near that speed really).

Anyone know if it's good or not?

Location is East Cork/Youghal. Thanks for any help.

paulski999

+1

apophis

Hi Guys, i am on this product in the Sligo area i live about 500 to 600 yards from the cabinet,and i have had no trouble with it at all (touch wood), speeds are reliable and stable, and the price is also very attractive, i would recommend it to anyone, but that's based on my personal view and experience of this product in MY place of residence.

Distance from cabinet is what dictates your line speed.

Speeds i get are, Ping - 25ms or less, Download - 47Mbps, and upload is - 10Mbps or better, consistently.

hope this helps,

apophis :cool:

wheresmybeaver

My parents are in youghal and they upgraded to a fibre product (although eircom, its practically the same as the Vodafone offering above) and its brilliant. Even though theyre miles away from their closest cab they get much better speeds and reliability. When it comes to fibre broadband your two main choices are eircom or fibre.

paulski999

Anyone with the "http://www.vodafone.ie/home-phone-broadband/simply-broadband-max/" Broadband only option, am thinking when do I actually use the house phone, as Viber / Skype would suffice via broadband only. Any views on the Vodafone router v Eircom Router, from looking around the Eircom modem seems to be more configurable, but seems people have been able to access the advanced features of the vodafone one and enable bridging / NAT / UPnP (for PS3 online gaming) etc. Views anyone? Many thanks

gooner99

paulski999 wrote: »

Anyone with the "http://www.vodafone.ie/home-phone-broadband/simply-broadband-max/" Broadband only option, am thinking when do I actually use the house phone, as Viber / Skype would suffice via broadband only. Any views on the Vodafone router v Eircom Router, from looking around the Eircom modem seems to be more configurable, but seems people have been able to access the advanced features of the vodafone one and enable bridging / NAT / UPnP (for PS3 online gaming) etc. Views anyone? Many thanks

Can't help you on this exact offering. But we changed from Eircom to Vodafone on an offer that didn't include a new modem, just used the existing Eircom netopia router with the new Vodafone settings. The box packed in last year and Vodafone wanted €30something to replace it with theirs. But I wasn't convinced theirs would have a great wireless range due to the lack of external antenna (I could be wrong). So I just bought a TP-Link router and configured it with the Vodafone settings. So your not restricted to their router. Although I'm not sure if it means they will not be as helpful in solving problems if your using a 3rd party router.

Anyone else get an offer from Vodafone of installing a free line for this broadband only package. My brother who is using a Three dongle was offered a free line installation if he signed up for their broadband only package?

It seems like a good deal. As you say most people use mobiles and services like skype and viber now, so reliable broadband only could be a very good option.

wheresmybeaver

gooner99 wrote: »

Can't help you on this exact offering. But we changed from Eircom to Vodafone on an offer that didn't include a new modem, just used the existing Eircom netopia router with the new Vodafone settings. The box packed in last year and Vodafone wanted €30something to replace it with theirs. But I wasn't convinced theirs would have a great wireless range due to the lack of external antenna (I could be wrong). So I just bought a TP-Link router and configured it with the Vodafone settings. So your not restricted to their router. Although I'm not sure if it means they will not be as helpful in solving problems if your using a 3rd party router.

Anyone else get an offer from Vodafone of installing a free line for this broadband only package. My brother who is using a Three dongle was offered a free line installation if he signed up for their broadband only package?

It seems like a good deal. As you say most people use mobiles and services like skype and viber now, so reliable broadband only could be a very good option.

if you are getting fibre-based broadband (up to 70mb down) then you will have to use their modem as its is vdsl. These aren't really available at retail right now and are custom programmed for individual operators.

but if you're using non-fibre (adsl up to 24mb) then you can get your own modem / router.

in my own case i have the Vodafone vdsl modem hooked up to a tp link router in bridge mode as i have some local network issues with the Vodafone box. Best of both worlds.

5starpool

Sorry to bump a thread, but better than starting a new one for a fairly simple question, and I couldn't see the answer anywhere when I searched here.

The Vodafone site says that with Simply Broadband (€35 a month) you can't access sky services. I assume this is correct? If I changed to this and removed the voice service from my package will I not be able to access Sky anytime, boxsets etc? I don't use them a lot but would like to still have them anyhow as they are used occasionally.

Thanks.

guil

Where does it say it can't be used for sky?

5starpool

guil wrote: »

Where does it say it can't be used for sky?

https://support.vodafone.ie/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1003&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=ie&USERTYPE=1&ARTICLE_ID=1388731

guil

5starpool wrote: »

https://support.vodafone.ie/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1003&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=ie&USERTYPE=1&ARTICLE_ID=1388731

That's just for connecting phone line to the sky box. Sky used to require it to make sure you weren't using multi room in another house.

You don't need it for sky on demand.

LFCFan

5starpool wrote: »

https://support.vodafone.ie/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1003&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=ie&USERTYPE=1&ARTICLE_ID=1388731

What they mean is you won't be able to connect your Sky Box to a phoneline which is supposed to be required for certain services like Multiroom, interactive services like checking your bill on the box etc but you will still be able to access any of their online services like on demand etc.

5starpool

Ah good stuff. I was hoping it was something like that. Phone service can go then.

Thanks for the clarifications.

LFCFan

Pretty sure Vodafone's 'Unlimited' broadband is actually capped at 300GB and people are being charged for usage over that. I could be wrong. If this is the case then surely it's false advertising? Unlimited is unlimited, not limited to 300GB no matter how large a cap Vodafone think that is.

5starpool

Ya, they seem to have started enforcing that for people who have signed up in recent months. I am with vodafone for years though and while I'll get stuck with the cap when I (hopefully) move to fibre soon when the cab near me is enabled, I never go close to the 300gb limit anyhow with my usage so personally it doesn't bother me.

LFCFan

5starpool wrote: »

I never go close to the 300gb limit anyhow with my usage so personally it doesn't bother me.

You may never get near it now but on Fibre with a much faster speed that could change. I used never get anywhere near 300GB but since moving to Fibre I've constantly gone over it and one month almost hit 1TB

5starpool

I'll be keeping an eye on it anyhow, but the fact that I'm not a gamer and don't have kids should help anyhow in that regard.

XVII

Could anyone from Dublin share feedback on this please (I believe, this is now called just Simply Broadband)?
How stable is it? What speed do you get? Any issues with it? Is it really just 35 a month, or are there any additional charges?
How is it in comparison with UPC 60MB Limited?

Cantona's Collars

Been on this since launch,never a problem and was on 50Mb/s until recently when I got it bumped up to 90Mb/s.

@XVII,the price is €35 including VAT,so the advertised price is what you pay.No extra or hidden charges.

bk

zerks wrote: »

@XVII,the price is €35 including VAT,so the advertised price is what you pay.No extra or hidden charges.

Not true, they have a 300GB cap, they charge €10 per 100GB you go over this cap!

XVII wrote: »

Could anyone from Dublin share feedback on this please (I believe, this is now called just Simply Broadband)?
How stable is it? What speed do you get? Any issues with it? Is it really just 35 a month, or are there any additional charges?
How is it in comparison with UPC 60MB Limited?

It is "upto" 100Mb/s, but the speed depends on how far you are from the cabinet. It can be as low as 5Mb/s. You can find out what speed you will get by using the following URL (note replace the XXXX's with your area code (021, 01, etc.) and phone number:

https://www.vodafone.ie/utility/broadband/linecheck.shtml?perlico_areacode=XXX&perlico_number=XXXXXXX

You should get a result like:
{"response":"Yes 95.37MB"}

Which means the phone number I just tested can get 95Mb/s.

UPC on the other hand is not limited by distance, you will get the speed of whichever package you buy (60, 120 or 240).

Vodafone is €35, but watch out for the catch with the cap that I mentioned above, you could get a bill for hundreds of Euros!!

The UPC 60Mb/s catch is that it has a 30GB cap, but UPC are much fairer with this then Vodafone IMO. What happens with UPC if you go over the cap for two months, is that they automatically bump you to their unlimited 120Mb/s package with has no cap, for just €5 extra, which to be honest is a pretty great "punishment" IMO

To be honest, if you can get UPC, I'd just go for their 120Mb/s pckage for €40. For the €5 extra you get a higher, guaranteed speed then Vodafone, no cap and thus piece of mind and unlimited national anytime calls (the Vodafone €35 package doesn't include any phone service).