TalkTalk 
Yep, you read that headline right. In one of the most audacious moves in the UK broadband sector yet, TalkTalk has just announced via the Carphone Warehouse website that it will be offering its Essentials broadband service for 24 month contracts, 12 months of which will be absolutely free.
TalkTalk Essentials provides top speeds of 8Mbps comes with a 40GB download cap and normally costs £6.99 a month plus £11.49 for line rental when taken as a 12 month contract. If you sign up for 24 months you’re essentially getting two for the price of one saving you over £200 (£6.99 = £11.49 x 12 months = £221.76). The only thing you’ll have to pay for for the first year of the contract is the £29.99 connection fee.
Currently it doesn’t look like there are plans to roll out 24 month contracts for TalkTalk’s premium TalkTalk Pro which provides unlimited downloads and top speeds of 24Mbps for £14.99 a month plus £11.49 a month for line rental.
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Posted by Tom on January 11th 2010 in Free Broadband, TalkTalk
TalkTalk has completed its takeover of Tiscali, retiring the brand name in the process. “From today, the Tiscali brand is no more and we’re committed to giving all of our customers absolute clarity about who we are, the services we provide and the prices we charge,” said Charles Dunstone, TalkTalk’s CEO.
TalkTalk tariffs are now standardised meaning that the majority of customers should see a reduction in their bills, although in some cases prices could rise.
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Posted by Tom on January 7th 2010 in TalkTalk, Tiscali
The great file sharing debate just went Bono shaped. The U2 singer has waded into the Digital Economy Bill debate with his usual diplomatic panache, pointing the finger of blame at the doors of the ISPs.
In a piece for last Sunday’s New York Times, Bono wrote “We’re the post office, [the ISPs] tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content.”
His comments have been branded as ‘outrageous’ by TalkTalk who of all the UK ISPs has been the most vocal in its opposition of the Digital Economy Bill.
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Posted by Tom on January 5th 2010 in Be Broadband, Digital Britain, TalkTalk
A lot has happened in the UK broadband market in 2009. Here’s a quick round up of the some of the big changes in broadband that have taken place over the last 12 months.
Tiscali gets bought by TalkTalk
Poor old Tiscali spent 2008 looking for a buyer without success and its woes continued into 2009. Despite many ISPs sniffing around hoping to steal a quick march on BT, nobody was willing to dig deep in their wallets. With deals collapsing at the last minute and its parent company losing millions of Euros on the continent times looked bleak for Tiscali’s UK arm. Then TalkTalk came to the rescue at the eleventh hour and swept Tiscali of it’s feet.
Speeding Up
2009 has seen a lot of speeding. BT, Orange and PlusNet all revved up their top download speeds to 20Mbps and 24Mbps in the case of Eclipse Internet. BT also released the Broadband Accelerator speed booster pack allowing customers to benefit from a more reliable broadband experience.
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Posted by Tom on December 21st 2009 in BT Broadband, Be Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Digital Britain, Eclipse Internet, Mobile Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, O2 Broadband, PlusNet, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
When TalkTalk replaced its offer of M&S vouchers with free connection to its broadband services (normally charged at £29.99) it was understood that the offer would expire on the 15th of December.
We’ve just heard from TalkTalk that the offer is to be extended for an indefinite period – no date has been given but we’re told that this is a “limited time offer” so if you want to cash in, we’d suggest you get your skates on.
Free connection is currently available to customers ordering the Essentials or Pro packages. TalkTalk Essentials provides download speeds of up to 8Mbps a 40GB monthly download limit and evening and weekend calls for £6.99 a month.
TalkTalk Pro comes with top speeds of 24Mbps, unlimited downloads and anytime calls for £14.99 a month. Line rental is charged at £11.49 per month and is payable to TalkTalk instead of BT.
Posted by Tom on December 16th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband, TalkTalk
Finally, some positive UK Government/broadband news. Sort of. Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed that a ‘Landline Duty’ would be set up next year which would work out at 50p per month, or £6 a year on all phone lines. This would raise an estimated £175 million in funding which would be invested in bird houses and moats a nationwide next-gen broadband infrastructure.
The funding will be used to “encourage private sector investment in digital infrastructure.” This could mean that ISPs such as BT and Virgin Media, who have already heavily invested in improving the availability and performance of their respective networks, could benefit from an injection of public coin.
However this will only come to pass if Labour remain in government after the next election. Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have said that they would scrap the proposals if either party came to power.
Last month, TalkTalk chief executive Charles Dunstone said in the Guardian that the tax would be counter productive, as “over 100,000 mostly low income homes will be forced to give up their broadband lines.”
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Posted by Tom on December 10th 2009 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, TalkTalk, Virgin Media
We’ve just heard that TalkTalk is to replace its offer of free M&S vouchers with an offer of free connection. The £30 M&S voucher deal was originally thought to run up until this Thursday the 3rd of December, in order for the vouchers to be able to arrive in time for Christmas.
TalkTalk connection usually costs £29.99 and so customers hoping on signing up for the vouchers can at least save an equivalent amount by avoiding paying for connection. It is not yet known if the offer of free connection will last until the 3rd of December, or the rest of the year or will continue indefinitely. We’ve contacted TalkTalk for more info but have not yet heard back. We’ll update this post as and when we hear things.
Update: We’ve just seen over on the TalkTalk site that the offer of free connection on the TalkTalk Essentials and Pro packages is runs until the 15th of Decemeber, exactly two weeks time.
Posted by Tom on November 30th 2009 in TalkTalk
Be Broadband is the latest ISP to publicly distance itself from the Digital Economy Bill and the anti-piracy measures suggested within. Be Broadband is concerned that the proposals are “open to errors,” and that there is a “risk that innocent customers could be penalised.”
Be Broadband lists a number of potential scenarios which highlight the problems posed by the bill.
Internet cafes, pubs and coffee shops which offer Wi-Fi (such as Starbucks) “would find the time or cost burden unworkable.” An entire household of people living in shared accommodation – students for example – could see themselves disconnected over the actions of just one housemate.
A wireless connection could be hijacked if the router was hacked into or left unsecured, allowing a third party to illegally download thousands of files for which the owner would take the rap.
Like many critics of the bill, Be Broadband is worried about the apparent “lack of technical understanding” and points to a more creative approach to combat illegal downloading.
Earlier this year it was suggested that the rise in popularity of sites and applications such as Spotify, YouTube and Last.fm had helped cut illegal downloading over the last two years.
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Posted by Tom on November 24th 2009 in Be Broadband, Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Starbucks, TalkTalk
The gloves are now off. Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk has posted a petition at petitions.number10.gov.uk, calling for an urgent reconsideration of the so-called ‘Pirate Finder General’ legislation proposed by current Secretary of State Peter Mandelson. The petition reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abolish the
proposed law that will see alleged illegal filesharers
disconnected from their broadband connections, without a fair
trial.
The proposed laws see the Government attempting to clamp down on illegal filesharing. Under the proposals announced in the Digital Economy Bill, ISPs such as TalkTalk would have to forward warning letters from copyright holders to subscribers suspected of illegal filesharing and that a list of warnings received by each subscriber be maintained.
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Posted by Tom on November 23rd 2009 in Digital Britain, TalkTalk
Allergy Warning: This article may contain traces of pun.
Over the next two weeks, Eclipse Internet is giving away up to £100 worth of high street gift vouchers as part of a cracking Christmas deal. New customers who place an order from today Monday the 23rd of November to the 14th of December will be able to qualify for free vouchers.
The vouchers are from giftvouchershop.co.uk can be redeemed in over 60 high street retailers including Argos, Burtons, Currys, Toys R Us and WH Smith.
Customers who sign up for Eclipse Home Select (£17.95 p/m, up to 24Mbps, 10GB download limit) will earn £30 worth of vouchers whilst those who take out Eclipse Home Pro (£29.95 p/m, up to 24Mbps, 50GB download limit) will get £50.
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Posted by Tom on November 23rd 2009 in BT Broadband, Eclipse Internet, PlusNet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Virgin Media
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