Launch Of Free Broadband, Forever--sorry ..uk

[Rinrada]

Bit of a cheekie chappie ...old Charlie Dunstone but he is now taking on the big boys and today announced.....

Launch of Free Broadband, Forever, from TalkTalk

11/04/2006

Carphone Warehouse today announces its pricing strategy for broadband and residential telephony in the first 1,000 exchanges it has committed to unbundle, and the financial impact of this strategy.

Customer offer

For a monthly fee of £9.99, TalkTalk customers will receive:

Unlimited local and national landline calls, 24 hours a day

Unlimited international landline calls to 28 countries, 24 hours a day

Up to 8 Mbps broadband access

This offer is available from today to all customers in all 1,000 exchange areas, covering nearly 70% of the UK population. If the local exchange has not yet been unbundled, the customer will initially be connected via BT’s wholesale IP Stream service, and then migrated at a later date at no extra cost to them.

The first customers will go live from the beginning of July 2006.

In addition to the monthly fee, all customers will pay the standard monthly line rental charge of £11.00.

To support this strategy and to generate a more rapid payback on our investment, we intend to deploy our exchange infrastructure as quickly as possible. Based on current forecasts, we expect to reach our initial target of 1,000 exchanges by May 2007. In addition, we will invest substantially in marketing and customer acquisition.

Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Our approach to business has always been about how little we can afford to charge our customers, rather than how much we can get away with.

So today we are cutting more than 60% off the cost of the average UK residential telephony and broadband bill, and additionally providing unlimited calls to 28 international destinations.

The residential telecoms market in the UK will never be the same again.

From today, broadband is a right, not a privilege.”

[johng]

I think they will go bust ,in a very short time. (if this offer is real )

[briley]

Why should they go bust? TalkTalk aim to lose a little (£40million - wish I had that ) in first year and profit in the second year.

And they lock you in for 18 months - so they must expect better offers to come along soon.

The financial logistics of telecommunications are such that the days of pay per call / pay per minute /pay by distance are going and we are getting into the flat rate for a connection. What is of interest is what the flat rate will be.

By about 2008 BT plan to have broadband into every house with the entire UK system running on VoIP, and they are considering a flat cost from that time - probably with free broadband - so talktalk are just jumping the gun a bit.

Interesting times are comming!

[ianc66]

This is brilliant-- obviously nice for anybody but the thing is with fuel prices rising this must be a great incentive for telecommuting.

[game4shame]

For a monthly fee of £9.99, TalkTalk customers will receive:

Unlimited local and national landline calls, 24 hours a day

Unlimited international landline calls to 28 countries, 24 hours a day

Up to 8 Mbps broadband access

In addition to the monthly fee, all customers will pay the standard monthly line rental charge of £11.00.

so, we're looking at the guts of £21 a month for broadband and anytime landline calls nationally and internationally to 28 countries.

sounds good so far but what about landline to mobile call charges nationally and internationally? and, is Thailand one of the 28 countries covered?

[briley]

Calls to mobiles are a bit more than BT but you can get a discount on mobile calls for an extra payment

No, Thailand is not on the list of free countries, EU, Australia, RSA, USA and the like.

[markuk]

Bit of a cheekie chappie ...old Charlie Dunstone but he is now taking on the big boys and today announced.....

Launch of Free Broadband, Forever, from TalkTalk

11/04/2006

Carphone Warehouse today announces its pricing strategy for broadband and residential telephony in the first 1,000 exchanges it has committed to unbundle, and the financial impact of this strategy.

Customer offer

For a monthly fee of £9.99, TalkTalk customers will receive:

Unlimited local and national landline calls, 24 hours a day

Unlimited international landline calls to 28 countries, 24 hours a day

Up to 8 Mbps broadband access

This offer is available from today to all customers in all 1,000 exchange areas, covering nearly 70% of the UK population. If the local exchange has not yet been unbundled, the customer will initially be connected via BT’s wholesale IP Stream service, and then migrated at a later date at no extra cost to them.

The first customers will go live from the beginning of July 2006.

In addition to the monthly fee, all customers will pay the standard monthly line rental charge of £11.00.

To support this strategy and to generate a more rapid payback on our investment, we intend to deploy our exchange infrastructure as quickly as possible. Based on current forecasts, we expect to reach our initial target of 1,000 exchanges by May 2007. In addition, we will invest substantially in marketing and customer acquisition.

Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Our approach to business has always been about how little we can afford to charge our customers, rather than how much we can get away with.

So today we are cutting more than 60% off the cost of the average UK residential telephony and broadband bill, and additionally providing unlimited calls to 28 international destinations.

The residential telecoms market in the UK will never be the same again.

From today, broadband is a right, not a privilege.”

Excellent news i suggest everyone tell all their freinds and get signed up - of course me being a shareholder in Carphone Warehouse i have nothing to gain!!

[game4shame]

after major option consideration I took the plunge today and signed up at the carphone warehouse for this offer.

the catches from what I can see are:

18 month contract

£30 initial fee

but the £20.99pm is still way cheaper than BT or BT phone and separate ISP.

so I get home and google some review pages and to say talk talk reviews aren't complimentary would be a serious understatement. although, i'd imagine reviews are only posted when there's a whinge (is the UK after all ).

can anyone elaborate on this offer? any first-hand talk talk experience?

the sales guy said this offer is part of a major reform in services, connections etc but I'm wary this was just sales bulls*it talk.

I've got a 14 day cancellation period and having second thoughts.

Edited May 19, 2006 by game4shame

[Guest endure]

It's an excellent bargaining point if you have NTL. One phone call got a quadrupling of BB speed and £12 per month off the bill

[game4shame]

It's an excellent bargaining point if you have NTL. One phone call got a quadrupling of BB speed and £12 per month off the bill

there's no NTL coverage on my line. thought that was a bit strange tbh but, oh well.

[phuketsiam]

NTl are a cable company, you need to have cable to use their services, but then you can get broadband, tv package and phone all for 30 quid month

[game4shame]

NTl are a cable company, you need to have cable to use their services, but then you can get broadband, tv package and phone all for 30 quid month

yeah, I phoned NTL to ask about that package too - gave them my phone number and postcode - but they said they cant provide to my address.