Vodafone 4G now available for new customers

New Vodafone customers finally have access to the telco’s fledgling 4G LTE network, putting the struggling company back in a position to gain some new subscribers.

Last month Vodafone’s 4G network went live in 7 Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle and Wollongong.

Unfortunately for new Vodafone customers, access to the 4G network was restricted to existing customers until now. As such, anyone coming to Vodafone from another carrier received, at best, Vodafone’s 3GPlus speeds, which operates a dual-channel 3G HSPA+ system capable of up to 42Mbps.

Voda’s 4G ready phones

When the 4G network launched last month the 4G-ready phones on offer were the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy S3 4G, Nokia Lumia 820, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One SV and the HTC Windows Phone 8X. Since then Vodafone has added the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Express and Sony Xperia SP to this list.

Sooner than later

Currently Vodafone’s 4G network offers great speeds, thanks largely to the lack of congestion. Things are sure to slow down a bit once more 4G customers join up, but not to a worrying degree. The same thing happened to both Optus and Telstra in their major 4G centres. So if you’re going to sign up to Vodafone 4G then it’s advisable to do it quickly and enjoy those uncongested speeds for as long as possible.

Thanks to Vodafone’s Network Guarantee, any new customers can cancel a new contract within 30 days with no cancellation fee. All that’s required is that you pay for what you’ve used.

No one can claim that Vodafone’s reputation hasn’t been suffering in recent years, but this Network Guarantee should hopefully get more customers on board by relieving any potential risk of being locked in to a 2 year contract in a potentially poorly supported service. Customers can judge for themselves, rather than relying on 3^rd party opinions.

If you’d like a bit more info, pop on over Vodafone’s coverage map.

Check out Vodafone prices, plans and deals.

Alex Angove-Plumb

Digital Content Editor

Alex Angove-Plumb is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut and an award-winning journalist. He's been in the tech publishing industry since 2010, putting him a few short years away from the title of Grizzled Ancient in his chosen profession. He was an original WhistleOut-er before running NBN Co's corporate blog for two years, then moving on to a lengthy stint at CHOICE. Now he's come home.

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