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Talk Talk Broadband UK
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TalkTalk
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BT
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Tiscali
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NTL / Virgin
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| Call plan |
£8.99 (Talk3) |
£9.95 (BT Option 3) |
Included in package price |
£14.00 (XL) |
| Line rental |
£11.00 |
£11.00 |
£10.99 |
£11.00 |
| Broadband |
FREE |
£8.95 for 1st 6 months
and £17.99 thereafter |
£17.99 |
£9.00 (M) for 1st 3 months
and £18.00 thereafter |
| Monthly total |
£19.99 |
£29.90 for 1st 6 months
and £38.94 thereafter |
£28.98 |
£34.00 for 1st 12 months
and £43.00 thereafter |
| Download
speed |
Up to 8 Meg |
Up to 8 Meg |
Up to 8 Meg |
Up to 2 Meg |
| Usage
allowance |
40GB |
5GB |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
| Optional
modem |
£29.99 |
£30.00 |
£0.00 |
£0.00 |
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TalkTalk is the home telecommunications branch of
the mobile phone retailer The Carphone Warehouse.
Launched in 2003, TalkTalk has more than 2 million
customers in the UK. It is one of BT's largest
telecommunications rivals, holding more than a 10%
share in the UK telecommunications market, having
acquired both Tele2's fixed-line customers (£8.5
m) and One.Tel (£132 m) in December 2005. The CEO
of TalkTalk is Charles Dunstone.
Originally solely a fixed landline provider,
TalkTalk now operates several MVNOs such as
TalkTalk Mobile, which led to the company allowing
all calls between any TalkTalk landline and any
TalkTalk mobile, or vice versa, free to consumers.
It also offers "Fresh Mobile" and "Mobile World".
TalkTalk also offer a high-speed broadband
internet service to their home phone subscribers.
On 11 April 2006, TalkTalk started offering a free
broadband service (up to 8 Mbit/s with a 40 GB
monthly download limit) for life to all
subscribers to their Talk 3 international
telephone tariff at £20.99/month. Soon after this
move, they began to offer free broadband on their
cheaper Talk3 tarrif. The Advertising Standards
Agency (ASA) challenged TalkTalk on thier free
broadband offer. This allowed people to have
telephone, broadband and line rental for just
£19.99 a month, which is much cheaper than any
alternatives. It is available to new and existing
customers to the service, although broadband is
only included in the £19.99/month to customers
connected to a LLU (Local Loop Unbundled)
Exchange. Currently it is claimed that the free
broadband is available to 70% of the UK
population. However in reality it will only be
available when these exchanges have been released
for LLU and Carphone Warehouse have installed
their equipment in these exchanges. At the present
only a small number of these exchanges have their
equipment installed. The number is set to increase
as BT allow the unbundling of the rest of their
exchanges. If you are not on one of these
unbundled exchanges, 8 Mbit/s broadband is charged
at an extra £10/month (which is still notably
cheaper than BT's equivilant) or you will wait a
long time to get the broadband but still be
charged for the voice call part of the deal. There
is also a 30.00 sign up fee and a 70.00
cancellation fee if you feel the service is
unsatisfactory. There is also 16 pages of terms
and conditions small print. Some experts predict
this may provoke a UK broadband price war.
Possibly as a result of this free broadband offer,
Orange have been offering free broadband when you
use one of their monthly mobile phone contracts,
and Sky have been offering a variety of cheap
broadband packages to subscribers to their
service.
Due to the unexpectedly high number of customers
who flocked to sign up to the free broadband, the
launch was somewhat marred by complaints with
regards to a long waiting list to join the
broadband programme and many difficulties in
contacting TalkTalk's customer services. However,
waiting times for the broadband package have now
come down considerably, and a large recruitment
drive by the company has resulted in many more
members of staff being available to provide
customer services.
Many users of this new service are finding that it
is not all that it should be and the internet is
full of complaints on service.
Carphone Warehouse also own Opal Telecom, a
business to business telecoms provider with a very
largely used switch - which is incidentally used
by some of the "competitors" of TalkTalk such as
Toucan (part of IDT Direct Limited).
Talk Talk Talk3 International
A superb package offering extremely fast 8 MB
broadband for free when you sign up to Talk3
International calling plan. The real savings come
on your monthly phone bill and these are really
worth checking out on their site. No more BT line
rental! |
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