Vodafone has a massive worldwide presence as one of the largest telecommunications companies with mobile service in countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even the Americas.
Today, I’m looking at Vodafone UK’s mobile service and how it stacks up against the likes of T-Mobile. Both carriers offer 5G with mid-band coverage, though when it comes to the coverage, T-Mobile is much more invested in 5G. In fact, T-Mobile is one of the best carriers you can get thanks to this network and the plans it enables.
Vodafone offers both limited and unlimited plans, often with speed limits separating the different unlimited plan tiers. Plans are available monthly, or with 12 or 24-month contracts. Naturally, plans with a longer contract have a lower monthly fee, even if not all plans are directly comparable.
What kind of coverage do they offer?
T-Mobile’s 5G is still its best feature
In the US, T-Mobile is known for its 5G coverage and has managed to cover the majority of people in the country with its low-band and mid-band 5G. While T-Mobile’s coverage can suffer in rural areas, it has still managed to become the de facto 5G leader with some of the best speeds, according to reports from Ookla. T-Mobile also got early access to mid-band spectrum through the acquisition of another carrier, Sprint, helping it establish its 5G lead.
Vodafone UK, on the other hand, still very much relies on its 4G service for most of its coverage outside of major cities. The carrier is using mid-band spectrum only for its current 5G deployment, with not too much difference between its 5G and 5G Ultra coverage. Check Vodafone’s coverage map with the 5G tab to see where 5G is currently avaialble with Vodafone.
That being said, a merger with the carrier Three was approved in early December and could have major implications on the network. While it’s not benefitting customers just yet, Three’s 5G network is larger with more low-band spectrum. In fact, Ookla found Three to be the fastest carrier in the UK, with Vodafone coming in second place. With the upcoming network, it is sure to be one of the best carriers for coverage in the country.
Plans are done a little differently at Vodafone
Vodafone is still holding on to contracts
T-Mobile primarily sticks to monthly postpaid plans with no contracts, while Vodafone offers monthly plans, or discounted plans with a one- or two-year contract. The contract plans are also available with more features, and sometimes more data.
Vodafone’s plans can look overwhelming at first with 19 plans with 12-month contracts, but you’re really looking at limited plans: 3GB, 8GB, 20GB, or 25GB. There are also three unlimited plans: Unlimited, Unlimited Plus, and Unlimited Max. It looks a lot more daunting with the entertainment and roaming bundles available, but to get started, you only need to decide how much data you need.
One thing to note is that additional taxes and fees apply to some of T-Mobile’s cheaper plans, while its pricier Go5G plans include them. Vodafone’s pricing includes VAT already, so you shouldn’t have too many surprises when it comes time to pay.
T-Mobile’s plans
If you’re unfamiliar with T-Mobile, it has a selection of postpaid plans as well as prepaid plans both through the main T-Mobile brand, and with other carriers owned by T-Mobile, such as Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile, or Metro by T-Mobile.
Starting with T-Mobile’s main postpaid plans, there are four primary plans, with the most basic being Essentials starting at $50 per month (pounds) for a single line. Moving up, there are a series of Go5G plans with extra international features, more hotspot data, and even some streaming perks, such as Apple TV+.
T-Mobile’s best plans come with unlimited data, taking advantage of its 5G network, as well as multi-line savings. With multi-line savings, what you may think of as a family plan, the price of each plan comes down with the more lines you bring.
For example, T-Mobile’s most expensive postpaid plan starts at $100 per month for a single line, but if you have four lines on this plan, it comes in at $280, or $70 per line. With a current promotion, it’s down even more to $225. With T-Mobile, the best way to save is to bring all of your phone lines to the carrier. If you’re looking for single-line value, prepaid is a better fit.
I’m not going to go too deep into explaining T-Mobile’s prepaid options, but a carrier like Mint Mobile is more suited to a single-line user thanks to its multi-month savings. In short, with Mint Mobile, you pay for three, six, or 12 months upfront with a lower monthly rate when you pay for a longer term. Unlike a contract, you’re paying the total amount upfront, so it’s not something that everyone’s checking account will support.
Vodafone UK’s plans
Looking over at Vodafone, you can get plans for just 30 days, but if you want the best deal, you want a 12-month or 24-month contract. That said, contracts have been all but eliminated in the US in favor of other retention methods, like discounting phones with a two-year payment plan. While this can be a good way to save on a new phone, you’re stuck with the carrier until you’ve paid it off, and bill credit discounts won’t apply if you try to pay it off early.
Starting with the 30-day plans, you can get a limited plan with 3GB, 8GB, or 20GB, as well as three unlimited plans. The unlimited plans are mostly separated by speed, which is limited to 10Mbps on the cheapest plan, 100Mbps on the middle option, and unlimited on the top plan. This is unlike T-Mobile, which mostly uses prioritization to separate the lower plans, with a set amount of premium data. The 3GB plan starts at £26 (dollars) with the top unlimited plans costing £26 (dollars). Tethering (mobile hotspot) is included with these plans.
If you’re looking to save, or for a wider range of features, you’re going to need a 12 or 24-month contract. Keep in mind, a credit check is required for these plans. The plans are largely the same as the 30-day options, though you do get a bit more data on some of the limited plans, the monthly prices are lower, and there are a lot more bundles. The bundles include entertainment options as well as roaming packages for the rest of Europe.
Zone A is included with all monthly plans, which includes the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Iceland, and Norway. If you’re looking for coverage in more of Europe, you’ll want a plan with the Euro Roam feature included. Global Roam adds another zone that includes destinations like the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
If you’re not terribly interested in leaving the country, you may prefer an entertainment bundle with YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime included.
Finally, keep an eye out for the 5G Ultra badge. This indicates that the plan will have access to Vodafone’s 5G Ultra speeds, and will be important for extracting every bit of speed possible out of the network. That being said, most of us don’t need all of that speed, and when we’re on Wi-fi, it’s a nonissue. If you don’t do a lot of larger downloads, or most use your phone at home on Wi-Fi, you likely don’t need this extra speed.
Plenty of phone support on either carrier
Get a new phone with a discount on a payment plan
If you have a phone already and want to bring it to either carrier, you can, and support is strong. Naturally, international models may lack some band support, but anything made for the country you’re in should work fine as long as it’s not locked to another carrier. Both T-Mobile and Vodafone UK work with eSIM, but if you want an eSIM, you can choose that before checking out.
If you’re buying a phone from T-Mobile, it comes on a 24-month payment plan, so you’ll be making payments for two years on it. You can pay it off early, but if you’re getting a discount in the form of bill credits, which is most carrier phone discounts these days, those won’t be applied. While some people will prefer to buy a phone unlocked, it could still be in your best interest to take advantage of carrier discounts, even with a payment plam.
On Vodafone, you can get your new phone on a 24 to 36-month payment plan, though there may be a larger down payment necessary for the shorter plan. This is bundled with a 24-month service plan contract, so you could be on the hook longer for your phone than your plan. Still, you get a decent amount of choice when it comes to your phone payments.
Finally, it’s becoming apparent that the hype of RCS adoption on iOS may have been greatly exaggerated, with many carriers still lacking RCS support. Both Vodafone UK and Three lack RCS support on iOS, so if you’re using an iPhone with these carriers, you’ll still need to use WhatsApp or another messaging app for high-quality images and anything more than basic messaging features.
RCS support is a bigger deal in the US, but it would still be nice to see broad support. On T-Mobile, RCS is supported on iOS, but it works on Android with either carrier.
