Fed up with slow BT broadband? Vodafone has the solution for millions of UK homes

BT and Virgin Media might be the two biggest providers in the UK broadband market, but they’re about to get some serious competition from Vodafone. The company, which is best-known for powering smartphones, has promised to bring a full-fibre internet boost for some eight million homes nationwide by 2025.

The roll-out of this improved connection is thanks to a new partnership with CityFibre, which is currently investing around £4 billion into its network. This upgrade will see some 285 cities, towns and villages across the country unlock speeds in excess of 500Mbps. For comparison, the current UK average sits at just 70Mbps.

Vodafone already offers some users access to 1Gbps downloads, which enables users to download a feature-length film in High Definition in just 40 seconds, but this latest upgrade from CityFibre will see more homes gain access to this ultra-fast technology.

Vodafone says this deal makes it the UK’s largest retail provider of full-fibre broadband to consumers. It should also encourage rivals to up their game and provide faster connections to home across the UK.

The new partnership with CityFibre will see Vodafone become less reliant on the BT-owned Openreach network, which is used by many of the biggest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country, including Sky and TalkTalk. While Openreach has great coverage across the UK, it has been slower to upgrade its network to gigabit-capable speeds compared to rivals like Virgin Media.

Speaking about the upgrade Ahmed Essam, Chief Executive Officer at Vodafone UK, said: “We want to see a competitive market that brings the benefits of full fibre to more people. We’ve had a very successful partnership with CityFibre since 2017, and we look forward to continuing working together to connect more of the UK to Full Fibre. Through our partnership with wholesale providers, we’re going to be bringing Full Fibre to more homes than any other retail provider.”

And Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre, added: “Through our strategic partnership, Vodafone has made a powerful decision to back CityFibre and help establish wholesale infrastructure competition for the UK.”

This latest news from Vodafone comes as both BT and Virgin have made big claims about their broadband speeds.

BT recently confirmed that it has now connected thousands more of its customers to faster full-fibre broadband. In its latest progress report, BT-owned Openreach confirmed that it has connected an additional 620,000 customers to next-generation broadband in the last three months. That brings the total to 5.78 million premises nationwide

Virgin Media also says it’s now within touching distance of upgrading all of its customers, roughly some 15.5 million homes across the UK, to gigabit-capable broadband.