Vodafone Coverage and Network Review

Table of Contents Coverage 5G Coverage 4G Coverage 3G Coverage Plans 5G Roaming Tethering VoLTE WiFI Calling Data rollover Spending caps Unlimited data Family plans Credit Checks eSIM Unique perks Awards Network Speeds Frequencies Customer Service Conclusion Alternatives

Coverage

Vodafone Coverage

Network Type	Coverage by population
5G	Now available in at least 318 locations
4G	>99%
3G	Switched off in 2024
2G	99%
Check Vodafone Coverage

5G coverage

Vodafone first made 5G available on July 3^rd, 2019, which made it the second UK network to do so (roughly a month after EE’s May 30^th switch on date).

5G from Vodafone was initially only available in seven cities, but many more locations have now had a 5G upgrade, with at least 318 locations having 5G at the time of writing.

So Vodafone offers 5G in lots of locations, and the actual number is possibly a lot higher than 318, as the network hasn’t provided an updated count in a while.

You may well have 5G where you are now then, but it’s worth waiting for if you don’t already have it, as 5G is much, much faster than 4G, as well as offering lower latency and greater capacity, so you can stream, download, and browse faster, more smoothly and in higher-quality – it could for example make 8K or even holographic streamed video viable, among many other things.

To use 5G you will need a 5G plan and a 5G phone, but Vodafone offers numerous 5G handsets. They include the Samsung Galaxy S24, Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone SE (2022), among many others.

4G coverage

Vodafone has over 99% population coverage with 4G, which is in line with rivals. As a result, 4G from Vodafone is now available in over 1000 larger towns and cities.

Vodafone’s 4G service is also available in thousands of smaller villages and other communities across the UK.

3G coverage

At its peak, Vodafone had around 99% population coverage with 3G, however, the network switched its 3G service off in 2024. This freed up infrastructure and spectrum for 4G and 5G use though, so it will improve Vodafone’s network in the long run.

You can use Vodafone’s coverage checker above to find out more about Vodafone coverage in your area, including signal strengths and details of both indoor and outdoor coverage.

Plans

Vodafone offers a range of Pay Monthly and SIM Only plans, or you can opt to Pay As You Go.

SIM Only Deals

	40 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 12 Month Contract	£8.00 a month View Deal
	60 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 12 Month Contract	£10.00 a month View Deal
	6 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 12 Month Contract	£7.00 a month View Deal
	40 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 12 Month Contract	£8.00 a month View Deal
	3 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts 24 Month Contract	£15.00 a month View Deal
View All Vodafone Sim Only Deals

You can see plan durations in the chart above, but note that if you’re buying a phone, you have to choose both the duration over which you pay off the handset (which can be set to anywhere between 24 and 36 months), and the duration of your airtime plan (your allowances), with the latter being 24 months.

Plans are further split into ‘Red’, ‘Xtra’, ‘Unlimited’, ‘Unlimited Plus’, and ‘Unlimited Max’, with the various Unlimited plans in some cases also being ‘Xtra’ plans (meaning they come with special benefits). You can see what you get with each below, but most come with 5G at no extra cost. They also all come with access to VeryMe Rewards, which provide customers with weekly discounts, giveaways, and prize draws.

Vodafone’s Red plans are generally the cheapest, as they’re the only ones that don’t come with unlimited data. However, some Red plans do come with inclusive entertainment, with a choice of Amazon Prime or YouTube Premium.

Unlimited plans of all varieties give you unlimited data, but the speeds vary. On Unlimited they’re up to 10Mbps, on Unlimited Plus they’re up to 100Mbps, and on Unlimited Max they’re unrestricted, which is what you need for 5G speeds. These plans can also optionally come with the inclusive entertainment options above.

Free roaming in Europe is limited to plans that come with ‘Xtra Euro Roam’ or ‘Xtra Global Roam’. Plans with ‘Xtra’ in the name also include unlimited picture messages, and device care. If you’re on an ‘Xtra’ plan that doesn’t have unlimited data then you also get ‘Unlimited Data Boosters’, which let you boost yourself to unlimited data for 30 days a set number of times.

Plans that include ‘Xtra Global Roam’ also let you roam further afield at no extra cost (more on this in the roaming section below).

Vodafone also offers Data Only plans for tablets, MiFi devices and dongles. These come with data but no minutes or texts and are available SIM-only on 1, 12 or 24-month contracts with up to unlimited data. You can also get them along with a tablet or other device on a customisable plan of up to 48 months.

Then there’s Pay As You Go, the details of which can be seen in the chart below.

Vodafone Pay As You Go Plans

	Mobile Phones	Data Only
Plans Available	✔	x
Add-ons available	✔	-
Max Data Allowance	Unlimited	-
Data Rollover	Next month	-
Add-on expiry	30 days	-
Top Up Expiry	180 days inactivity	-
Tethering	✔	-
Free EU Roaming	x	-

Note that tethering is included on Vodafone Pay As You Go, as are VeryMe Rewards, and if you purchase a Big Value Bundle then any unused data rolls over to the next month – assuming you renew your bundle. That said, its newer Pay As You Go Plus bundles don’t include data rollover, and in all cases roaming costs extra.

You can also just use Vodafone’s standard pay as you go rates, known as Pay As You Go 1. This charges you £1 on any day you use your phone for something chargeable. You’re then able to use unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 50MB of data for the rest of the day without paying anything more.

Vodafone Perks and Policies

				Mobile Phones				SIM Only				Data only SIM
5G				✔				✔				✔
Free Roaming				✔*				✔*				✖
Tethering				✔				✔				✔
Wi-Fi Calling				✔				✔				✖
VoLTE				✔				✔				✖
Data Rollover				✖				✖				✖
Spending Caps				✔				✔				✔
Unlimited Data				✔				✔				✔
Family Plans				✔				✔				✔
Credit Check				✔				✔				✔
eSIM				✔				✔				✖
Entertainment				✔*				✔*				✖

* selected plans only

5G

Vodafone offers 5G on many plans, including Pay Monthly ones with a handset, SIM Only, Data Only, and Pay As You Go. However, it doesn’t come as standard on all plans. Look out for the terms ‘5G’, ‘5G at no extra cost’, ‘5G ready’, ‘5G Ultra’, or ‘fastest available’ speeds when buying, otherwise you could be lumbered with slower speeds.

A prime example of that is Vodafone’s unlimited plans, with only the Unlimited Max ones offering true 5G speeds. This is slightly disappointing, especially from a major network. We’d argue 5G should be a standard feature by now, but at least it’s an option on just about every Vodafone plan type.

In any case, the network also offers ‘5G Ultra’, which is Vodafone’s branding for 5G Standalone – this offers better coverage, potentially higher speeds, and less drain on your smartphone’s battery than standard 5G.

Roaming Destinations

Free roaming no longer comes as standard on Vodafone, but for customers on plans with ‘Xtra Euro Roam’ or ‘Xtra Global Roam’ the network offers inclusive roaming (up to a fair use limit of 25GB) at no extra cost in the following 51 locations:

Aland Islands, Austria, Azores, Balearic Islands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France (inc Corsica), French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, St Barthelemy, Saint Martin, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Vatican City.

On plans with ‘Xtra Global Roam’ you’ll be able to roam for free in all the above locations plus 32 more, for a total of 83.

The additional locations include: Albania, Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Mexico, Montserrat, Mozambique, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, South Africa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Northern Cyprus, Turks and Caicos, and the US.

If you have a plan dating from before August 11th, 2021, then you may be able to roam for free in some or all of the above locations without having ‘Xtras’, depending on the terms of your plan.

Customers on basic plans can also roam for £2.42 per day in Europe, or for £12 total if paying for an 8-day European Roaming Pass, or £17 total for a 15-day European Roaming Pass.

If you want to roam further afield than Europe on a basic plan (or further than any plans allow inclusively) then you’ll be charged £7.39 per day in most other destinations.

Note that Vodafone also lets customers roam at 5G speeds in select locations. At the time of writing that includes at least 344 towns and cities across Spain, Germany, Ireland, and Italy.

Tethering

Vodafone allows tethering as standard on all plans and allows you to use as much of your data allowance as you want for tethering, so your only limit is your monthly allowance, which can be as high as unlimited.

Wi-Fi Calling

Wi-Fi Calling means making calls over Wi-Fi. It’s a service Vodafone (and some other networks) offer which works seamlessly, so you can use your normal dialler and SMS apps to keep communicating when there’s no signal.

However, you need a compatible device. Most recent handsets are compatible, but for a full list head here.

VoLTE

VoLTE or Voice over LTE is known as 4G Calling on Vodafone, and it refers to the ability to make calls over 4G.

This means you can make calls in more places than ever, as some areas have a 4G signal but no 3G or 2G. It can also allow for higher quality voice calls.

4G Calling comes as standard on Vodafone’s plans. You also need a compatible handset, but many recent ones are supported.

Data rollover

Vodafone doesn’t offer data rollover on any of its contracts, but you can get it on Pay As You Go. There, if you purchase a Big Value Bundle, it will give you another 30 days to use any unused data rather than it expiring after a month – though you will of course need to buy another Pay As You Go bundle to be eligible for this.

Spending caps

Vodafone offers spending caps through what it calls a Spend Manager. This tool allows you to limit out-of-plan charges on things like premium rate calls and picture messages.

You can enable Spend Manager within the My Vodafone app, and you can set a level of spend that you’ll allow. Set it to £10 for example and you won’t be able to spend more than that per month on the out-of-plan charges that it covers. Note however that some costs aren’t covered by Spend Manager, so it’s worth double checking what you can still be charged for if this is a concern.

Unlimited data

Vodafone offers unlimited data on Pay Monthly, SIM Only, Data Only, and Pay As You Go plans, so whatever plan type you have you don’t need to worry about data limits if you opt for an unlimited data option.

Note however that some of its unlimited plans come with speed restrictions, so look out for that – we’ve detailed that more thoroughly under the ‘plans’ heading above.

Family plans

Vodafone offers what it calls an ‘Additional Plan’ service, which allows you to add additional plans to your account, with a 15% discount on each. So you can add friends or family members to your account and save them some money in the process (or just get multiple plans for yourself).

Up to nine additional plans can be added, for ten plans in total. Note that for Pay Monthly handset plans, the discount only applies to the airtime part of the plan (in other words the cost of your allowances), not the cost of the device itself.

Overall this is a middling family plan offering compared to other networks. O2 for example offers similar but with a 20% discount.

Credit checks

Like most networks, Vodafone will typically check your credit when you apply for any sort of contract. So if that’s a concern you’re best off sticking with Pay As You Go.

eSIM

Vodafone offers eSIMs on both Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go plans, and you can request one during checkout. Or, if you want to switch to an eSIM on an existing Vodafone plan, just go to the ‘Activate my eSIM’ section of your Vodafone account.

Unique perks

The main extra offered by Vodafone is subscription to an entertainment service on some plans. This isn’t free, but it is discounted. We’ve detailed this in full further up, but the options at the time of writing include YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime.

Beyond that, Vodafone also provides its VeryMe Rewards app, which offers discounts, freebies, and competitions from a variety of brands. It’s a similar idea to O2 Priority and Three+.

Awards

Umlaut has rated Vodafone as the ‘Best Network for Voice’ and the ‘Most Reliable Network’ in numerous cities in its Mobile Network Benchmark 2022. It also won ‘Best Network for Business’ at the Mobile News Awards 2024.

Those are among Vodafone’s most recent awards, but the network has been no stranger to awards in the past either. That said, it’s arguably no better on this front than the other major networks.

Network

Network speeds

5G aside, for the most part Vodafone just uses standard 4G, which is around 5 times faster than a typical 3G network. However, it’s also rolled out LTE Advanced in select locations, which is typically 20 times faster than a standard 3G network.

Opensignal – Mobile Network Experience, September 2024, and April 2020

Network	Download/upload speeds	4G latency (ms)
EE	45.9/9.8Mbps	36.0ms
Three	38.0/7.1Mbps	48.3ms
Vodafone	31.1/7.8Mbps	39.0ms
O2	23.1/5.3Mbps	38.1ms

According to Opensignal data from September 2024, Vodafone’s average download speed is 31.1Mbps, putting it behind EE and Three but ahead of O2. Its 7.8Mbps upload speed meanwhile is only behind EE.

Its average 4G latency (based on data from April 2020) is said to be 39.0ms. That’s the measure of how long the network takes to respond to a request, which is vital for things like online gaming, and Vodafone’s latency is better than Three’s but worse than EE's or O2’s.

Note that the latency figure is older because recent Opensignal reports don’t include latency. Also note that for speeds, the data uses a combination of all available signal types (so 5G, 4G and 3G).

As for 5G, Vodafone’s average download speed on that is 138.7Mbps according to September 2024 data from Opensignal, so that’s quite an upgrade. Its median download speed is similarly high at 184.9Mbps according to H1 2024 data from RootMetrics.

That report also put Vodafone’s 95th percentile 5G download speed (so close to the highest recorded) at 458.6Mbps.

Finally, Speedtest in 2024 put Vodafone’s median 5G download speed at 155.90Mbps, its median 5G upload speed at 12.27Mbps, and its median 5G latency at 30ms.

For the most part the various 5G results above are worse than Three but better than O2, and about a 50/50 split on whether it’s ahead of or behind EE.

Network Frequencies

Vodafone Network Frequencies

Frequency			Frequency Band			Network
800MHz			Band 20			4G
900MHz			Band 8			2G & 3G
1400MHz SDL			Band 32			4G
1800MHz			Band 3			2G
2100MHz			Band 1			3G
2600MHz FDD			Band 7			4G
2600MHz TDD			Band 38			4G
3400MHz			n78			5G
3600MHz			n77			5G