cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
1

Ask

2

Reply

3

Solution

Questions about Vodafone's Gigafast service from a potential customer.

Anonymous
Not applicable

I am currently with Virgin Media on their Gigabit product. 1.Gb/50Mb. I use my own router a GT-AX11000. VM allow their modem/router to be switched to modem only mode to allow folk to use third-party routers.   I live in Coventry, a Vodafone/City Fibre Gigafast city. Their FTTP network is being laid in our street as I type so, naturally, I am interested in a possible move to Vodaphone. A nice symmetrical 900Mb sounds perfect.

 

Firstly, is Gigafast a decent service with good reliability, low ping and close to advertised speeds. VM always provide slightly more than the advertised Broadband. Before I switched to modem only mode the SamKnows app measured my download speed at 1.17Gb. What is the typical ping? VM's ping is about 13ms, rather slow. Are speeds and ping worse at peak times? 

 

Secondly, can the Vodafone modem/router be put in modem-only mode to allow for my Asus GT-AX11000 to function in full router mode?  If not, is there an officially countenanced work-around?  This issue is a potential deal breaker.

 

Thirdly, is customer services any good?  In normal times, are waiting times reasonable and are the operatives well-enough informed to get you the help you need. Do engineers attend promptly? 

 

Fourthly, I know that a proper TV service isn't offered, but that TV boxes with useful apps such as Apple TV and Netflix are available. If I had two boxes do the boxes talk to each other like VM's TV boxes do? Programmes recorded on one box can be watched in a different room on another box. 

 

Finally, at the time of installation and activation, is fibre brought all the way from the pavement into the house, or is coax used on the property? Does the cable merely go to the nearest point of entry or will it be extended to the point in the house one requires it? VM brought their coax from the pavement to the room I required and connected our two V6 boxes by TV coax back to the internal terminal. 

 

Thank you, in advance, for any information provided.

 

 

27 REPLIES 27

Reposting my reply as the last one went missing... I'll remove the links.

 

Well, I have had a shocking last 4 weeks and I am being forced to cancel the Gigafast 900 service, other post in Internet speed forum.

 

My honest view is that for the first 11 months of the service, it worked very well. Some drops in download over that time but put it down to congestion but nothing bad. Pings were 5 and most days, I could get close to 900 down and up. A month ago I would have (and did) recommend it.

 

I used my own Asus AC86 router directly connected to the ONT. It worked well and speeds were all good.

 

A month ago, my ping dropped to 15 and many sites max out at 12MB down! I can constantly reproduce and am certain it is not the remote server as they are supplying good speeds to colleagues who have tested for me at the same times.

 

Tech Support have constantly been unable or unwilling to look at my actual issue and just constantly push me to take screen shots of Speedtest.net. they are not prepared to acknowledge the fault I can constantly reproduce. 

 

Customer Relation have in a 30 minute chat decided that I am not able to cancel this faulty product and will need to pay a termination fee. So I'm left with the Deadlock and CSA ombudsman. Very sad that I am unable to speak to someone at VF who knows how to fault find to at least a point where we can say where the fault is even if it is not fixable.

 

So, as for the company and service, please dont go anywhere near Gigafast if you would ever need someone to help you if there are problems. If that is not an issue, go ahead, when it was working, it was good value.

 

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

My feelings about Vodafone entirely, when its working, great. Have a problem and you are on your own.

It's such a shame that it's let down by this attitude of "well, it's just one problem customer". 

 

All it would take in my case is to have a reasonable person take part in an open technical discussion. Even if the end result was that VF say they are not able to fix, at least I wouldn't feel like they are treating me like a liar and making this issue up.

 

I understand the majority of issues are "sorted" by waiting and perhaps rebooting/resetting/wifi etc. etc. but when they are not, I've been left with zero support.

 

After saying all this however, have you been with a ISP that has this sort of service in the last 5 years? I have not.

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Until I came to Vodafone, I have not needed support at all. It has always just worked.

I was on ADSL with Sky and came here for the low price, unfortunately the fibre they put me on had a fault but getting it resolved by Vodafone was a nightmare.

I think Zen are the only ISP with decent support, but it does cost more.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks. VLAN where VLAN should be. That makes sense.  I will look forward to that, perhaps on the next firmware update. 

 

I use the AX11000 as a VPN server for a couple of trustworthy mates abroad and for when I go, so that we can access regional UK services like iPlayer. I also use it  for security when checked in via public networks like in shopping malls.  Regarding throughput,  whilst clients are logged on, I have never detected a drop in performance here, even when someone is streaming a BBC programme from Greece or wherever. My generous bandwidth and the router's spare capacity in terms of processor speed  and throughput are designed to cope, even if someone at home is caning the connection. 

 

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks again,

 

Lol at Live Chat. "Brain-dead Chat" would have been a better description. 

 

I am very attracted to having 900Mb up, as well as down. I run a Plex server for family and friends, so the additional BB would be very welcome, but unless VF Gigafast can sort out their issues, they could cause more problems than they are worth.

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Anonymous wrote:

When you say that the connection is provided as ethernet, are you saying that that the Vodafone hub provided is really just a switch that converts the optical signal to Ethernet, and with ethernet and WiFi output? 

If so, all I have to do is connect my 3rd party router to it? Presumably I can also switch off the WiFi, to prevent any interference with my own router's WiFi.

On Gigafast the Vodafone hub does exactly the same job as your router so you simply won't use it.

The only caveat is that your router has to have the ability to specify the VLAN. I'm pretty sure most Asus's can.

The fibre to ethernet conversion is done in the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) or CityFibre's equivalent, (the box screw to the wall)

 

I understand what you are saying about most of the TV being being a streaming service, but I would be connecting the TV boxes provided to my rooftop aerial so I can get regular free digital services. Are you saying that the boxes are unable to record those? TV boxes for receiving Freeview etc normally have storage for TV programmes and often have more than one tuner.  Do you know anything about Vodafone's box?

Vodafone doesn't have a box (unless you count the Apple TV 4K supplied with Pro Xtra)


Edit, Oops I didn't notice most of the queries had been answered already. LOL

purrbox
4: Newbie

Pings are the same regardless of the time of day. I've never noticed any congestion.

 

The service is very good however there is a kicker. The pings on FTTP are higher than standard FTTC fibre, this is because you have to go through city fibres network to get to Vodafone. This adds between 8 - 15ms depending on where you live. Just to give you an idea, my ping to bbc.co.uk is 10ms (on FTTP gigafast), whereas my friend (on FTTC) is 6ms. If you want the lowest pings, go for Vodafones FTTC package. I know, crazy, but it's just the way it is. Not a lot of people realise this but it is the reality of how the UK's FTTP network is being built, ISP's partnering with 3rd party infrastructure owners, that means higher latency.

 

Vodafones network is a lot better than Virgin Media with more stable traffic routing to popular services. There doesn't appear to be any speed throttling, you get 900mb/s regardless of what time of day it is. Vodafone FTTP definitely has much lower pings than Virgin Media.

 

Vodafone has really low latency to Google and Quad9 DNS, if you want to ditch voda's DNS for a little extra boost you can. I've never really found Vodafones DNS to be noticeably slow so i stick with them.

 

Gaming on Vodafone FTTP is fluid with no lag spikes or jitter. I'm sure what it's like on FTTC.

 

The FTTP vc FTTC ping does annoy me a bit, but the service is still very reliable and that's what you want from an ISP.