Gabriel Vanca | February 16th, 2024

Vodafone Fibre 1 broadband: Speed, price and features

Vodafone is known for offering high-quality broadband at affordable rates, and Vodafone Fibre 1 (aka Superfast 1) is its lowest-speed package, delivering an average speed of 38Mbps.

Key features

Here’s a quick rundown of Vodafone’s Broadband Fibre 1 package:

Price	£26 per month
Download speed	38Mbps
Upload speed	10Mbps
Broadband	Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC)
Home Phone	Line rental included
Parental controls	Vodafone Secure Net, Norton Premium 360
Router	Vodafone WiFi Hub
Packages available	Broadband & phone, Broadband & phone & TV, Broadband & phone & mobile
Contract length	24 months

If you’re an existing Vodafone mobile customer, you’ll get a small monthly discount on your home broadband.

Who is Vodafone’s Broadband Fibre 1 for?

Vodafone Fibre 1 is Vodafone’s cheapest fibre broadband package, delivering an average download speed of 38Mbps and an average upload speed of 10Mbps. This is similar to what other Openreach providers (everyone except Virgin Media) are offering at their lowest fibre tier. This is very definitely a budget package from a price-conscious provider, but it is still going to be suitable for most of the online needs of a small household.

The speed of this package will cover just about everything you need it to. But, as the lowest-speed option from Vodafone, if you're watching high-quality 4K content there won't be a whole lot of bandwidth (speed) left over to share around other members of the household who may want to do their own online stuff.

Here’s a quick rundown of who Vodafone Broadband Fibre 1 is for:

• Households with up to 2-3 occupants – Ideal for a couple with one child old enough to use the internet. 38Mbps may struggle if more people than that are trying to do their own things on the internet – especially at peak times
• Online shoppers – If you are a great fan of online shopping, Fibre 1 is enough to keep you browsing for that ideal pair of shoes for hours on end
• Gamers – Vodafone Fibre 1 will be plenty to play any online games. However, it will take between three hours and half a day to download the latest games, even under ideal conditions
• Streaming – Believe it or not, 38Mbps is plenty for streaming everything from standard definition content, up to 4K HDR. However, if you're streaming the highest quality 4K content there won't be much left over for the rest of the household

How does Vodafone Fibre 1 compare?

Vodafone offers four speed tiers delivered by a few different broadband technologies: The older and slower FTTC (fast fibre cable up to a cabinet on your street, followed by a slower copper cable to your home), the newer lighting-fast FTTP (fast fibre cable all the way to your home), home mobile broadband (which relies on 4G/5G mobile data rather than on cables), and on-the-go mobile broadband (also relies on 4G/5G mobile data, but the routers are on battery and therefore portable).

The main difference between these technologies, aside from speed, is availability. While FTTC and Vodafone 4G are available to over of 95% of the population, FTTP is available to a fraction of that. Also, Vodafone’s mobile broadband packages come with data caps and cost significantly more, so for many FTTC will be the best option.

Fibre 1 is the cheapest (and slowest) FTTC package that Vodafone is offering, but it is sufficient for a small household, very well priced, and it does not come will any data caps or restrictions.

Let’s take a quick look at how Vodafone Broadband Fibre 1 compares to the other Vodafone fibre packages:

What is included with Vodafone Broadband Fibre 1?

The package comes with the Vodafone WiFi Hub, a high spec router with seven antennae that provides rich wireless coverage throughout medium to large homes and low latency.

The Hub also includes the free Secure Net functionality, a set of anti-malware and anti-phishing (scam) website filters with customisable parental control tools.

Finally, the free Vodafone Broadband App can be used to manage the router in a user-friendly manner, adjust the parental control and web filters and change the wifi settings.

Vodafone WiFi Hub Router Specifications

• Current gen WiFi – The Vodafone WiFi Hub uses the modern WiFi 5 standard, but is not compatible with the latest, fastest spec: WiFi 6
• Mobile Broadband Backup – 4G mobile signal can be used as a backup for those rare moments when the fibre broadband goes down
• Full-fibre support – Supports both Vodafone Fibre 1's FTTC broadband, but also full-fibre FTTP technology. If you ever want to upgrade you won't need to change your router
• Dual-band – The Vodafone WiFi Hub uses two bands (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz), giving you essentially two wifi networks. This helps avoid interference with your neighbours' networks
• Smart channel selection – There are different channels your home wifi can broadcast on. This means it will automatically select the least congested
• Seven antennae – More antennae tends to translate to better signal with better range. Seven is a decent number
• Reduced latency when gaming – The router allows simultaneous data streams, which means less latency when gaming
• Super WiFi (Mesh) – If you get the Pro or Pro Xtra packages, you can mesh the Hub with up to three next-gen WiFi 6 boosters, therefore greatly improving wireless coverage
• Gigabit Ethernet ports – There are four ethernet ports (where you can plug in a LAN cable and connect devices via a hard wire)
• Managed via app – The Vodafone Broadband App can be used to manage the router in a user-friendly manner

Extras

For a small price increase, you can opt for the Pro Fibre 1 package which offers the same speed, but as part of Vodafone’s WiFi Guarantee comes with the Super WiFi Plus, a wifi booster that extends your wireless coverage (it also has Alexa built-in). The Pro package also comes with a mobile Broadband Back-up, a 4G USB dongle that enables you to use Vodafone’s 4G mobile broadband through your Vodafone WiFi Hub if the internet connection ever goes down.

The Pro package further brings you 12 months of free Norton 360 Premium, which provides antivirus protection as well as parental control on up to ten devices. Finally, you get access to WiFi Xperts, a dedicated IT team that will help you with wifi issues, 4G Dongle support and can provide two additional free wifi boosters if needed.

Compare Vodafone broadband deals

What we think

The Vodafone Fibre 1 is a very well priced entry-level broadband package that will be sufficient for most online activities. But, as expected with a budget package, there will be some areas where this speed won't offer a great experience. Nonetheless, Vodafone bundles a great router and the Plus package is a highly attractive option for those who are more concerned about wireless coverage and continuous connectivity rather than sheer speed. This package comes therefore highly recommended for smaller households.