Mobile operator and UK ISP Vodafone has today launched a new home broadband Xtra bundle, which adds an Apple TV 4K box, a 24-month subscription to the Apple TV+ streaming service, as well as inclusive anytime landline calls – all for just £12 a month, saving customers over £200.
Just to be clear, the figure of £12 per month is the cost of the aforementioned extras, but this excludes the cost of the broadband package itself. For example, in areas covered by CityFibre’s full fibre network, Vodafone’s 100Mbps (symmetric speed) package typically costs £25 per month on a 24-month term, or £40 if you go for their PRO II upgrade (this adds a Wi-Fi 6E router, Wi-Fi coverage booster, automatic 4G backup and support via dedicated Wi-Fi “Xperts“).
In addition, customers who already have a Vodafone Mobile service can add broadband to make a further £3 a month saving, which is known as the ‘Vodafone Together’ discount.
Max Taylor, Vodafone’s UK Chief Commercial Officer, said:
“Vodafone is teaming up with Apple to bring this unique package together for UK families. Apple TV 4K, 24 months of Apple TV+ with the UK’s most reliable Broadband technology, all in one package. Now is the time to switch and save with Vodafone Home Broadband.”
For context, an Apple TV+ subscription usually costs £6.99 per month, while adding Anytime calls to a package by itself would be £8 per month (total £14.99). Put another way, just the subscription fees are about £2.99 per month cheaper under the new bundle. On top of that, the Apple TV 4K box typically retails for around £149 when purchased separately.
Don’t forget you may be losing some of those savings with the annual price increases.
If I were to go for this, I’d probably wait until April/May next year to reduce their impact and only have the 2025 price increases to deal with.
Also, for calls AFAIK you have to use their router.
Nope, not interested. The calls aren’t worth much, most people use mobiles with unlimited mins and for those who don’t (like my wife), a chepo 3rd party VoIP service is cheap as chips. I use sipgate for incoming calls (free) and localphone for outgoing calls (extremely cheap). No need to port number when changing isp. Happy with my Roku stick for watching TV. Most folks will have a stick / smart TV these days I would think?
Really, this feels like a strategy to tie you into a broadband contract.
I’m not criticizing vfe for offering this, and I’m sure it will suit some, just feels poor value for money to me. And those killer mid-term price hikes to top it off.
You might want to look at moving from Sipgate, they’ve been moving away from home users.
There are still relatively cheap options though for incoming calls.
Maybe, been using Sipgate for many years and as long as the phone keeps ringing when somebody calls I’ll stick with them. But like you say, there are other options. My least favoured option is tie my landline service to my broadband ISP.
Sipgate forced me without warning from their paid home tier (I like inclusive minutes) to their commercial tier, so I’d at a minimum have an alternative on standby just in case.
I have been using sipgate for years as well, as long as I stay as I am, they will not disconnect my service.
I was a happy Voipfone customer for many years however the fact that 95% of incoming calls were coming from Indian scam call centres or US based boiler rooms, I decided to cut the phone off recently and just use my mobile. I hardly know anyone with a land line these days except old people. If I speak to anyone under 40, they laugh when you mention a land line.
Correction.
“Alternative in mind” might be better phrasing.
Apple TV is awful, I had 3 months free when I got my MAc and never watched it once as nothing worth watching on it
How do you know there’s nothing worth watching if you’ve watched none of it?
It is a big corn you buy upfront and go a cheap Internet deal