What do you get?
*FREE 8Mb broadband
*Inclusive UK landline calls - any time of the day
*Inclusive calls to 28 international destinations including many European countries

The positives
This is the first time any UK company has offered free broadband as part of a package. Excluding line rental, the package costs just £9.99 per month. That is a good deal for all inclusive phone calls including 28 international destinations even if you exclude broadband. Free broadband makes is a fantastic deal. Even if you do not make any phone calls, £9.99 matches the best deal out there at the moment (UK Online).

The negatives
You will be asked to sign an 18 month contract. This is the first time a major company is asking customers to sign 18 month contracts for a broadband package. Most are 12 months. This essentially means you are locked in to TalkTalk for your phone calls, line rental and broadband for 18 months. 18 months is a long time in this market with prices constantly falling.

To enjoy the inclusive international calls you must dial a prefix code. If you forget, you will pay. This seems to be a simple ploy to make extra revenue from customers, as TalkTalk does have the facility to allow customers to dial internationally through TalkTalk by dialing the access code. All other calls are routed automatically through TalkTalk, why should these calls be any different?

It is only available to 70% of the population. Those that are lucky enough to live in an area where TalkTalk has invested in its own equipment will get this offer. The 30% of us that do not will have to pay an extra £10 per month.

Not everyone will get 8mb broadband. In fact, most of us will not. It all depends on how far away we live from the nearest BT exchange, the quality of the line and how congested the line is. However this is the same for any 8Mb service, and most people are more than happy with 2Mb.

The verdict
Despite the downfalls of the 18 month contract and prefix for inclusive international calls, this is one very very good offer. It is almost impossible to beat no matter how you look at it. Well done Carphone Warehouse for turning the market on its head. We wait eagerly to see how the competition will respond. All and all, this is excellent news for UK consumers.

For more information, see TalkTalk’s website:
www.talktalk.co.uk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.