Vodafone reaches 26 million UK homes with broadband as new 5G service bridges fibre gap
Key Points
- Vodafone 5G Broadband launches today for 3.7 million UK homes without full fibre access.
- Plans start at £21 a month on 24 months for up to 50Mbps, rising to £22 for 150Mbps.
- Existing Vodafone mobile customers save £2 a month through Vodafone Together bundling.
- Entry price rises to £24.50 in April 2027 and £28 in April 2028, baked into the contract.
- Service excludes households already covered by Vodafone branded full fibre.
Vodafone has launched 5G Broadband for 3.7 million UK homes without full fibre, starting at £21 a month.
The new service from VodafoneThree targets households reliant on part-fibre or copper connections, offering up to 150Mbps over the operator’s mobile network with no engineer visit and no upfront kit cost.
Customers choose between a 24-month contract or a 30-day rolling plan, with unlimited data on every tier. Existing Vodafone mobile customers can get £2 a month off through Vodafone Together bundling.
The launch follows the Vodafone and Three merger, which created VodafoneThree last year and committed the combined business to an £11 billion network investment plan.
VodafoneThree consumer director Rob Winterschladen said millions of households still pay for connections that average only 74Mbps.
Winterschladen positioned the launch as a faster alternative without installation or waiting, with the 150Mbps headline figure roughly three times the typical part-fibre speed Vodafone cites.
The operator also opened a new postcode checker on Vodafone.co.uk that recommends either full fibre or 5G Broadband, based on which delivers the higher speed at the address.
Pricing and what each plan includes
| Plan | Speed | 24 month | 30 day rolling | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Up to 50Mbps | £21 a month | £30 a month | Unlimited data, no upfront cost |
| Top | Up to 150Mbps | £22 a month | £32 a month | Speed depends on local 5G signal strength |
| Vodafone Together | Any tier | £2 monthly discount | £2 monthly discount | Requires existing Vodafone mobile plan |
Eligibility and what the postcode checker shows
Customers can only subscribe if their address lacks Vodafone-branded full-fibre coverage. Telecoms.com flagged this as a notable restriction, since Vodafone markets the service to renters, students and households wanting flexible contracts but blocks anyone already inside its fibre footprint from choosing it.
The integrated checker on Vodafone.co.uk takes a postcode and returns one recommendation rather than two prices to compare.
Combined with the operator’s existing 23.2 million home full fibre footprint, Vodafone now reaches around 26 million UK homes with one technology or the other, the largest combined footprint of any UK provider.
Price rises already scheduled
The headline £21 entry price holds only until spring 2027. Vodafone’s product page confirms the monthly fee rises to £24.50 on 1 April 2027 and £28 on 1 April 2028, a 33% total increase across the two annual price events.
Customers signing a 24-month contract today will pass through at least one of those rises before their minimum term ends. The 150Mbps tier follows a similar uplift pattern, though Vodafone has not published the exact stepped figures for that plan on the public product page.
Fixed wireless performance depends heavily on local signal quality. To address weaker indoor reception, Vodafone will launch an outdoor hub that customers self-install externally, locking onto the strongest available 5G signal and connecting back to the indoor Power Hub router. Vodafone has not yet confirmed a launch date or price for the outdoor hub.
Customers ordering by 10 pm on weekdays or 8 pm on weekends receive next-day delivery of the indoor kit.
A broader 5G push
The launch sits inside VodafoneThree’s £11 billion network investment plan, which targets 99% 5G Standalone population coverage by 2030 and 99.96% by 2034.
At merger completion last year, the combined operator committed to extending fibre or fibre-like coverage to 82% of UK households by 2030, blending full fibre and fixed wireless access under one Vodafone-branded broadband portfolio.
The 5G Broadband service runs across more than 10,000 sites using Multi Operator Core Network technology, which lets the former Vodafone and Three networks share capacity rather than duplicate it.
