Is TalkTalk Broadband Any Good?

By Helen Storey Staff Writer Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Is TalkTalk Any Good? TalkTalk Good Stuff Improved customer service Free calls to the helpline Free international calls Super low broadband prices Huge download limit TalkTalk Not-so-good Stuff £29.99 connection fee 18 month contract Debateable connection speed You need to change your landline too Reviews of TalkTalk TalkTalk Broadband (Talk2 International) Review TalkTalk Broadband (Talk2 International) Review Related Broadbands News See our other recent related news stories: TalkTalk Customer Service Improves Dramatically TalkTalk's once infamously poor customer service has seen a dramatic turnaround and is now rated one of the best! Alternatives to TalkTalk Broadband With most customers who first signed up to TalkTalk's 'free' broadband deal now coming out of their 18 month contract, Julia Kukiewicz examines some of the alternatives to TalkTalk broadband. When Cheap Broadband Attacks... Tempting as it may be, when it comes to broadband, you get what you pay for. Yet we're all still mesmerised by cheap broadband packages, so we've compiled a list of things to keep in mind when nothing but the cheapest broadband will do. Similar 'Any Good' Articles See our other investigations into whether a particular broadband provider is any good: Is Orange Broadband any good? FIRST it was Freeserve, the Wanadoo and finally Orange Broadband, but is Orange Broadband any good? We sent Neil Hawkins to remove his orange-tinted specs and find out. Is Post Office Broadband any good? THEY’VE always been good at selling stamps, but now with their two new broadband packages, we are wondering if Post Office Broadband is any good? Lorrie Kelly takes a closer look. Is Tiscali Broadband any good? THEIR adverts are plastered everywhere, and they've become the kings of low-cost broadband, but is Tiscali any good? Julia Kukiewicz unravels the Tiscali packages to find the answer. Is Sky Broadband any good? THEY may have introduced the phrase 'Sea, speak and surf' into the public lexicon, but is Sky Broadband any good? Julia Kukiewicz rustles through Rupert Murdoch's sock drawer (and his broadband packages) and uncovers some naked truths about Sky Broadband. Is O2 Broadband any good? IF you blinked late last year, you probably missed the launch of what is arguably the UK's best broadband package: O2 Broadband. Here, Neil Hawkins looks a little closer at the high speed wonder that is O2 Broadband and answers the question: Is O2 Broadband any good? Is BT Anywhere with BT ToGo any good? FINALLY, a provider has come up with a way to keep us connected whereever we are. But is the BT Broadband Anywhere with BT ToGo smartphone any good? Helen Storey takes her smartphone on the street to find out.

WHILE not exactly as ‘free’ as they had us all believing back in 2006, TalkTalk’s broadband prices are amongst the lowest on the broadband circuit, but is TalkTalk broadband any good?

With past horror stories of shoddy customer service, disrupted broadband connection, and unhappy customers, TalkTalk has had a pretty rough ride since their chaotic launch almost two years ago.

But recent favourable poll results suggest they’ve pulled up their broadband socks, and are back like a digital phoenix from the flames.

Are they really? Is TalkTalk any good?

“I heard their customer service is well dodgy”

Nobody can deny that TalkTalk was pretty bad with their customer service. It was, after all, crowed about in the press for months.

Too much demand for their ‘free’ service sent things at TalkTalk HQ into a veritable smorgasbord of chaos. Be assured, however, that this was limited to when they were in their salad days.

Since then, TalkTalk has pumped wads of cash into sorting it out, and we think they’ve done pretty well.

So well, in fact, that they bagged the top spot in USwitch.com’s recent Customer Satisfaction Survey, with 92% of customers saying they were happy with the service. That’s loads!

Even this week they’ve been revising and updating their networks to provide a faster, more efficient service.

What we love most about TalkTalk’s revamped customer service is their helpline is free from your TalkTalk landline, and you can’t get much better than that.

“They reckon it’s ‘free’, but it’s not”

You’re right there. TalkTalk broadband is not ‘free’ as such, but it is fabulous value.

Their ‘free’ label is used because you pay for the phone package, then they bundle the broadband on top of that. Crafty.

The cheapest TalkTalk broadband plan is their £5.89 Talk2 International deal. This includes a swift 8Mb broadband connection with a download-tastic 40GB usage allowance (this is the same as around 8000 songs).

On top of this, you get free (not ‘free’!) evening and weekend calls to UK landlines, free calls to other TalkTalk users, and astonishingly enough, free international calls to 36 destinations worldwide (which even includes US and Canadian mobiles).

For £9.99 a month, you can upgrade to the Talk3 International package, which offers everything the Talk2 International deal does, but with free calls to UK landlines at all times, so you don’t have to wait till 6pm to make that call.

TalkTalk also offer the Talk2 Total and the Talk3 Total packages which give you a certain amount of inclusive minutes to UK mobiles.

On top of this, you get a free router, with the opportunity to upgrade to a wireless one for just £30, which is one of the cheapest router upgrade prices we have seen for any broadband package. You won’t find prices like that in your local PC World.

“What’s the catch?”

There are a few extras you’ll have to pay, but in the spirit of up-front niceness, you won’t end up with any nasty surprises when your TalkTalk bill arrives in its colourful envelope.

At the moment, TalkTalk offer their broadband only in conjunction with their phone service, which means you’ll be paying line rental on top of your monthly bill. At the moment, line rental is £10.50 a month, which is the same as you’d be paying with BT anyway.

There’s also a one-off connection fee of £29.99, but you’ll find that with other popular broadband providers like Virgin Media or Tiscali, and you’ll find that you’ll be saving those all important pennies in the long-run.

One tiny bone we can pick with TalkTalk is that you’ll be signing up for an 18 month contract, which won’t appeal to some, but we love their 30-day no-quibble money back guarantee if you’re not happy.

“It’s so cheap, so it must be slow and unreliable”

TalkTalk is the first to admit that an 8Mb connection is reliant on how close you are to an exchange, so if you need something that fast, it’s probably best to go with another provider to prevent you from crying into your keyboard (if you’re that way inclined).

Of course, there are faster broadband providers around, but not everybody needs a super-duper-so-fast-the-page-loads-before-you-even-click-it connection.

Unless you’re a die-hard gamer, or serial downloader, 8Mb is actually pretty fast. You can check TalkTalk’s consumer reviews on speed and reliability in our handy little comparison of the TalkTalk broadband packages.

“I’m not convinced. Is TalkTalk for me?”

If you’re happy with a reasonably fast connection, aren’t downloading more stuff than your hard drive can manage, and you’re looking for a bargainacious broadband deal, then we think TalkTalk broadband will suit you just fine.

Our verdict? Most of their teething troubles have been smothered in Bonjela, and they’re chomping at the bit to provide a better service.

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