Vodafone guide
Is Vodafone down? Live outage tracker
Vodafone has become the UK's biggest full-fibre provider by reach, and it gets there by riding more than one network. Depending on your street, your Vodafone line might run over CityFibre, Community Fibre or Openreach, and it also sells older part-fibre and 5G home broadband. On top of all that sits Vodafone's own core, the routing and systems that carry your traffic once it leaves the access line. That mix is why a Vodafone outage is one of two things: a fault on whichever network reaches your home, or a problem in Vodafone's own systems that hits everyone at once.
Most reported Vodafone problems are one of two kinds.
The first is a line fault, on the CityFibre, Community Fibre or Openreach connection into your property. These are usually local, a single home or a postcode area, and which network you are on decides who physically fixes it, though as the retailer Vodafone is your point of contact either way. The board above and your neighbours are the quickest tell: if only you are down, it is your line or your kit; if the street is dark, it is a local network fault.
The second is a Vodafone-side incident, on Vodafone's own core. These are the ones that take out broadband nationwide at once. The clearest recent example was 13 October 2025, when a major fault left thousands of Vodafone customers without internet for hours; Vodafone confirmed it was a technical failure rather than a cyber attack and restored service the same day. When the problem is in the core, there is nothing to fix at your end, and it comes back when Vodafone fixes it.
Vodafone signed Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds, so it has to quote you a minimum guaranteed download speed at sign-up. If your line consistently falls below that minimum and Vodafone cannot restore it within 30 days of your fault report, you can leave the contract penalty-free.
That figure is the guaranteed minimum, which is usually well below the headline speed in the advert, so check the number on your contract before you escalate.
For a total loss of service, Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme pays £10.34 for each day you are completely offline beyond two full working days from when you report the fault, credited to your bill automatically. Mid-contract price rises on Vodafone deals taken out after 17 January 2025 must also be set out in pounds and pence before you sign, so any rise above the agreed figure is itself grounds to leave without penalty.
Vodafone's support runs a scripted check, and the way through it is evidence. Run a speed test on a wired ethernet connection rather than wifi, and if the result is below the guaranteed minimum on your contract, say so: that moves the case from general support into a fault investigation. Packet loss on a wired connection is stronger still, because it points at a line or sync fault Vodafone can often confirm remotely.
If you have been round that loop and Vodafone still cannot fix it, you can escalate to alternative dispute resolution. Vodafone is a member of CISAS, the independent ombudsman scheme, and you can take a complaint there after six weeks without resolution, or sooner if Vodafone issues you a deadlock letter.
If you have had enough of Vodafone, your alternatives depend on which networks reach you. Because Vodafone often runs over CityFibre or Community Fibre rather than Openreach, your address may have more full-fibre choices than you expect, including Openreach-based providers, other altnets or Virgin's cable. The address-aware deal finder above shows what actually reaches your home, not the "up to" figures in the adverts.