Voxi review: The reigning champ of no-frills mobile wins again

Voxi has triumphed in this year’s Mobile Network Awards much as it did in 2023, winning the Reliability award, tying with Smarty for Value, and performing well in every category besides. Its customer satisfaction scores are exemplary: 63% of Voxi customers said they were very likely to recommend the mobile network to a friend, with a further 31% fairly likely. Of all the networks in this year’s survey, only Smarty and Giffgaff posted similar results.

While a sub-brand of Vodafone, Voxi scores higher than its parent network across the board. It isn’t the cheapest nor the fastest option out there, but its combination of great data deals and unlimited video, music and social media features has struck a chord with users. In 2024, it’s still the budget network to beat.

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Voxi review: What do you get?

At a time when other no-frills networks are looking to tie users into longer contracts, Voxi has stuck to competitively priced, recurring 30-day plans without any long-term commitments. These start at £10/mth for 20GB of data, going all the way up to an Unlimited data plan for £35. All plans come with unlimited calls and texts. What’s more, Voxi rarely goes without some tempting double- or triple-data deal. At the time of writing, you can have 300GB – instead of the normal 100GB – for £20, which is an incredible bargain when some networks are offering only 25GB at that price.

The deals look even better when you factor in Voxi’s strongest feature: free data, outside your allowance, for specific activities. On the cheapest £10 deal you can use the major social media services without digging into your allowance. Move up to the £12/25GB plan, and you get free music streaming with the biggest services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal. On the top £15 to £35 contracts, you can have video streaming as well, with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and My5 all supported.

Note that you’ll have to pay for the subscriptions separately, but it’s a great way to catch up with your favourite shows on the move without having to splash out on an Unlimited data contract. Voxi offers one of those, but at £35 it’s more expensive than similar packages from iD Mobile, Giffgaff or Smarty.

Unlike Smarty, Voxi also sells smartphones, with the phone purchased through an interest-free loan over 24 to 36 months. Voxi doesn’t subsidise the cost, but you’ll end up paying prices similar to those you see at Amazon or Carphone Warehouse, so it’s worth checking out if you’re looking to pay one monthly price for your phone and airtime plan.

Voxi doesn’t offer features such as a data rollover or a family-sharing plan, but you’re free to change, pause or cancel your current plan, although not any phone credit plan. Users clearly feel they’re getting exceptional value for money, with 100% of users satisfied. If it weren’t for Smarty getting the same result, Voxi would have scooped our Value award, too. Instead, it will just have to share it.

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Voxi review: Customer service

Voxi didn’t quite make the running for our customer service award, but with 73% of customers satisfied with its customer service and only 9% dissatisfied, the network doesn’t have much to worry about. In fact, it beats no-frills rivals Smarty, Lebara and iD Mobile here, although Giffgaff pulls ahead with 79% of customers satisfied.

Ofcom’s last round of customer service research, published in 2023, doesn’t include data for Voxi, and its latest research on customer complaints also doesn’t cover the network. This may change as user numbers ramp up.

Voxi review: Coverage, reliability and speed

Voxi is a virtual network backed by Vodafone that runs on the same core network. RootMetrics’ latest performance figures (for the first half of 2024), based on more than 600,000 tests conducted across the UK, put Vodafone third of the four major networks for UK-wide median download speeds. In fact, with a speed of 42.8Mbits/sec, it’s only just behind second-placed Three, at 44.5Mbits/sec. Its 5G median download speed of 184.9Mbits/sec has also improved, although at 184.9Mbits/sec it’s still behind EE (207.5Mbits/sec) and Three (210.3Mbits/sec). RootMetrics’ testing shows UK 5G coverage at 47.2%, so it still needs to catch up with EE and Three on that point, but it’s improving.

Certainly, Voxi’s customers don’t seem to be struggling to get a decent connection, either for browsing the web or for streaming their favourite songs, movies and TV shows. In our survey, over 98% told us that they always or often had a fast enough connection for browsing the web, while 94% said the same about streaming audio. Impressively, 90% said they could always or often stream video, with nearly 30% saying always. No other network came close, giving Voxi a win for Reliability for the second year running.

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Voxi review: Roaming

Despite all this praise, we can’t say there isn’t any room for improvement with Voxi, especially when it comes to roaming. You’ll have to pay for roaming even in the EU by purchasing a European Roaming Pass from £2.45 per day up to £17 for 15 days. This allows you to use your existing minutes, texts and data allowance up to a maximum 20GB.

Outside the EU, there are 8-day and 15-day Global Roaming passes, costing £15 for 100 minutes, 100 texts and 2GB of data, or £25 for 200 minutes, 200 texts and 4GB. Pay as you go and costs mount up, but not too extravagantly, at 60p per minute, 8p per text and 60p per MB in most territories.

Voxi review: Other features, services and spending caps

While Voxi has more frills than some no-frills networks, these don’t extend beyond the free streaming features. What’s more, there’s no spending cap as such. Instead, should you run through your allowance, you’ll need to spend £3 or more to buy some extra gigabytes. It’s also worth remembering that the free unlimited video streaming and social media features don’t work unless you have data allowance remaining, and there’s no facility to refresh it early, as you can on some networks.

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Voxi review: Verdict

Judging by its high scores across our survey, Voxi is giving customers what they want with its plans and services. Sure, other networks sometimes offer you more data for less, but Voxi’s generous allowances and streaming features help make up for this, while speeds, reliability and coverage are all up to scratch. Winning our overall Best Mobile Network award is an achievement, and winning it two years in a row is no mean feat. If you’re looking for a new no-frills contract, Voxi is still the brand to beat.