Internet service providers (ISPs) have had it easy for too long. They have gotten away with supplying shoddy routers and charging high prices. Many ISP-supplied routers I have tested over the years proved slow or unstable with limited range. Thankfully, things are looking up, with some companies bucking the trend by offering decent equipment. Enter Vodafone’s Pro II system, the first Wi-Fi 6E router from a UK ISP with a booster and 4G broadband backup.

Before you get too excited, the Vodafone Pro II is only available in the UK for customers who sign up for a two-year contract. But a mobiles carrier offering Wi-Fi service that includes a decent router and a 4G mobiles network backup to keep you online shows that competition is heating up in this space. Carriers are beginning to muscle in stateside, too, with the likes of Verizon and T-mobiles now offering 5G home internet service. It’s about time the ISP old guard had some competition, and it can only be good for customers.

Smooth Operator

The Vodafone Pro II package includes the Ultra Hub router, sporting a tower design finished in gray fabric. It’s quite large at around 5 x 6 inches and 8 inches tall, but it blends in easily on a shelf. Rubbery feet and a mesh pattern in the white plastic on top ensure airflow and keep things cool. It’s a simple plug-and-play router, so most folks can get going by connecting an Ethernet cable from their modem to the red 2.5-Gbps WAN port. There are also two gigabit LANs, two telephones ports, DSL, SFP, USB-A, and USB-C ports.

I tested the Ultra Hub with a pre-linked Booster unit that acts as a Wi-Fi repeater, extending your network seamlessly. It has the same gray fabric finish, but it’s less than half the size of the router and has two Ethernet ports on the back, one 2.5 Gbps, and one gigabit port. To round out the package, Vodafone sent me the 4G Broadband Backup, a small plastic dongle that takes a SIM card and plugs in to the Ultra Hub’s USB-C port.

My expectations were low as I fired up my usual raft of Wi-Fi tests, but the Ultra Hub surprised me. It is a tri-band router, so alongside the usual 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands, there is a 6-GHz band. You can read our Wi-Fi 6E guide to learn more, but this is the first time I’ve seen a UK ISP offer a Wi-Fi 6E router. In short, the 6-GHz band offers faster speeds and greater stability but has a shorter range than 5 GHz.

Testing the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands, the Ultra Hub proved capable with respectable mid-table speeds and range. My internet connection is 1 Gbps, though it typically maxes out around 900 Mbps. Testing the 6-GHz band with an iphoness 15 Pro, I consistently pulled 650 Mbps within a room or two of the router, which puts the Pro II on par with some very expensive systems. The range dropped off sharply a couple of rooms over, as 6 GHz struggles to penetrate walls, but that’s common to all Wi-Fi 6E routers.

File transfer speeds between devices on my network were some of the fastest I’ve seen with the Ultra Hub, even keeping pace with some Wi-Fi 7 routers I have been testing. Performance dropped significantly with the Booster, but it’s designed to bolster the signal if you have dead zones, and Vodafone will supply as many as you need to get a strong enough Wi-Fi signal to stream video or take a video call throughout your home. For my two-story, 1,600-square-foot house, the Ultra Hub was enough, but the signal did drop off in the garden, so I placed the Booster at the back of the house to extend it.

mobiles Network Backup

The 4G Broadband Backup is an interesting extra. I inserted the SIM card Vodafone supplied, hooked it up, and pulled the Ethernet cable from the Ultra Hub to test it. I get patchy 4G coverage in my house, so your mileage may vary, but the backup kept me online at speeds around 30 Mbps. That’s enough for me to have a video call, even if the kids are on Netflix or gaming. It works seamlessly through the router as a fallback if your main internet service goes down.

While it works well, the 4G backup is likely a superfluous extra for most folks. If your internet service is stable, as it should be if you have full fiber, you’ll never need the 4G service. Folks lucky enough to live in an area with 5G coverage can get much faster backup service or even consider 5G home internet instead of wired broadband.

The Vodafone app is pretty barebones, but it’s easy to use. You can review connected devices, set up a guest network, and easily share login details with a QR code. There’s also a built-in assistance option that attempts to automatically troubleshoot and fix network issues. Parental controls and security features would be a welcome addition.

Competition and Availability

You can pay for fast internet service, but a decent router is required to get the most from it. Sadly, most ISPs in the UK do not supply good equipment. The worst offender is BT (British Telecom), which sends most customers the aging Smart Hub 2, a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 router that's woefully out-of-date.

Most providers at least offer Wi-Fi 6 routers nowadays. I like TalkTalk’s approach. Instead of rebadging a white-label router, it partnered with Amazon’s Eero. The slower and cheaper Full Fibre contracts come with an Eero 6, but the Full Fibre 900 includes a pair of Eero Pro 6 routers, which is an excellent system for most homes. Interestingly, Three has also partnered with Eero for its 4G and 5G home broadband service.

Pricing and availability of Vodafone Pro II service depends on your locations and required speed, but it starts from £39 a month with a minimum two-year contract. That two-year commitment is a definite turn-off, and you can expect annual price hikes in April, but it is a sadly common catch with UK ISPs.

Ultimately, Vodafone has kicked things up a notch with its Pro II service, and the Ultra Hub is perhaps the best ISP-supplied router you can get in the UK today. Many folks will still do better by picking the best service in their area (depending on budget and speed requirements) and then buying from our best routers or best mesh guides, but you will have to spend a few hundred to get something comparable.