TalkTalk has just unveiled their new ‘brighter’ look, as part of a new ad campaign due to start next week. The makeover coincides with the recent acquisition of Tiscali and the subsequent leap from third to second place in the UK Broadband League for Carphone Warehouse, behind market leaders BT Broadband and above quad-play providers Virgin Media.
According to Marketing Week, TalkTalk will be rebranded as Britain’s ‘brighter phone and broadband company’. This rebranding process will see the TalkTalk logo and website getting a redesign.
The image above shows the familiar TalkTalk logo rendered in Bonfire Night-esque ‘light graffiti’ and set against the nocturnal cityscapes of London’s Whitehall and Primrose Hill, Brighton beach and Manchester’s Canal Street.
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Posted by Tom on July 2nd 2009 in Broadband
Virgin Media has signed a record-breaking deal with the Universal Music Group which will see it become the first ISP in the UK — and the world — to offer free downloads of music that is readily available and unrestricted by any DRM software.
The service will be available to subscribe to alongside Virgin Media’s broadband packages. It is thought that there will be various packages available, such as a basic service which, according to a source quoted in The Register, allows for “a couple of albums per month,” to be downloaded, alongside an unlimited service, which would give you full access to the Universal catalogue.
Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett said, “In terms of both convenience and value, our new music service will be superior to anything that’s available online today and provides a fair deal for both consumers and artists. There is no better example of Virgin Media’s commitment to harnessing digital technology to give customers what they want, when they want and how they want.”
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Posted by Tom on June 15th 2009 in Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
It has been announced that Lord Carter is apparently due to quit his government position, less than a week before publication the Digital Britain report. The long-awaited report was seen by many as a roadmap for the future of broadband in the UK, which would see speeds of at least 2Mbps being made available to every household in the country.
A piece in today’s Times reveals that Carter was one of the many ministers who fell out with Damian McBride, the government advisor who was forced to quit over a plot to smear members of the opposition. He denied, however, that he would up sticks and leave prior to publication of the report, telling the paper that he was “beavering away feverishly on my report, that’s my only preoccupation.”. Continue Reading »
Posted by Tom on June 12th 2009 in Broadband
TalkTalk has extended its offer of a free connection to new customers who sign up online for another week. The connection fee for TalkTalk Essentials is usually charged at £29.99, and was waived throughout May - this offer of a free connection has now been extended to Sunday the 14th of June, and is only available to those who sign up for an 18 month contract.
Wendy Becker, managing director of TalkTalk, said: “Our offer is open to anyone who wants to join the UK’s number one residential broadband provider, regardless of their current broadband or phone provider, but we think the savings for current customers of BT are particularly significant. But with only a few days of this offer remaining, anyone wanting to benefit from it needs to be quick.”
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Posted by Tom on June 10th 2009 in Broadband
TalkTalk/Carphone Warehouse has released a list of FAQ’s (complete with answers) that they’ve been receiving from Tiscali customers since news of the buyout was announced a couple of weeks back. The blog post is keen to stress that, although Tiscali has accepted TalkTalk’s offer, they “don’t own Tiscali yet. We’ve had our offer accepted and, subject to EU approval, it will be signed off at the end of June.”
It turns out that the Tiscali TV service will continue to run as normal, so those of you who were worried about this service suddenly disappearing can rest easy. It also looks as though contracts signed with Tiscali before the acquisition will remain binding for their duration. Billing arrangements are also to remain the same for the time being.
TalkTalk, who are understood to have been in talks with the increasingly unpopular Phorm have also said that there are no plans to introduce Phorm’s tracking software to any of their customers, including Tiscali.
Click on the link below for the full list of questions and answers, which was first published over on the TalkTalk blog.
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Posted by Tom on May 18th 2009 in Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali
Virgin Media customers will be delighted to hear that the Broadband Congestion Charge on peak time surfing in the day has been reduced.
The Fibre Provider is now allowing surfers on its on its 10Mbps L package to download up to 3GB of data between 10am and 3pm, whilst its 20Mbps XL customers can make use of a maximum of 7GB during the same hours. Customers who were originally on the old M package who have been upgraded to a 10Mbps service have to contend with a 1.5GB cap.
Traffic management limits for use in the evenings (4pm to 9pm) are set at 1.5GB and 3.5GB for L and XL customers respectively.
These changes in data management have been made possible thanks to the deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 technology. The same technology allowed for the launch of Virgin Media’s 50Mbps XXL service, which is completely free of any traffic management.
Posted by Tom on May 14th 2009 in Broadband
TalkTalk have today launched a free broadband connection offer, which allows new and switching customers to save £29.99 if they sign up before the end of the month.
The TalkTalk Essentials package provides broadband speeds up to 8Mbps with a 40GB download limit, unlimited Evening & Weekend calls (01, 02 and 03 numbers) and a free wireless router, all for just £6.49 a month.
In addition to this you can customise your TalkTalk Essentials package with a number of Broadband Extras. So if you wanted to add anytime UK calls, or increase the download limit from 40GB to 80GB, you for an additional £4 a month per Broadband Extra.
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Posted by Tom on May 12th 2009 in Broadband
Virgin Media have publicly denied plans to open up it’s cable network to rival broadband providers. An article published in Monday’s Guardian claimed that the cable company planned to open up their network a la BT, and lease their high speed cable connections off to rivals. Today, Virgin Media issued the following statement:
“The report in this morning’s edition of the Guardian does not reflect Virgin Media’s position and we have no plans to develop a wholesale proposition.
“In the context of the government’s Digital Britain initiative and Ofcom’s recent review of next generation access, we have considered a range of strategic options but currently remain focused on delivering market leading retail services.”
In non-Newspeak, this pretty much means that Virgin Media have thought about going down the BT Openreach route, and whilst such an option is still tenuously on the cards, it’s not going to be happening anytime soon, if at all.
Posted by Tom on May 6th 2009 in Broadband, Virgin Media
According to some ’secret plans’ leaked in yesterday’s Guardian, quad play provider Virgin Media are apparently intent on opening up their fibre optic cable network to rival providers. The article details how the fibre provider has “plans to open up its cable network to rival telephone and broadband companies” in around 18 months’ time, loosely following BT’s Openreach template.
This move would see the likes of Sky, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse offer fast cable broadband services where available alongside their more traditional copperwire ADSL services.
BT is already busy setting up a fibre network of its own, which is not due to be complete until 2012. If Virgin Media were to open up their network before then, BT could in theory get its customers signed up to cable on the Virgin network, and then migrate them across to their own lines once the network is up and running.
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Posted by Tom on May 5th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Next Gen Broadband, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media
BT has launched what it claims is the cheapest home and mobile broadband package around, starting at just £15.95 a month. BT Total Broadband customers can now get up to 8Mbps wireless broadband at home as well as 1GB monthly mobile broadband for as little as £308.08 over 18 months.
Customers can enjoy speeds of up to 7.2Mbps on the go through the USB modem which works over the 3G network. Simply plug the USB modem into a laptop and be online in a matter of minutes.
The USB modem itself costs £9.99 for customers on BT’s Option 3 package, and £49.99 for customers who subscribe to Options 1 and 2. Customers receive the dongle itself, plus 1GB usage allowance a month when signing up to an 18 month contract. This offer is available in conjunction with the current 3 months free offer and is only available online.
Posted by Ellie on April 28th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband, Mobile Broadband
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