UPDATE2 TalkTalk Make Fibre Broadband Available to New Line Customers

Budget UK internet and phone provider TalkTalk has said that its “Superpowered Fibre Broadband” (FTTC) service, which offers speeds of up to 76Mbps, can now also be taken alongside a new phone line or migration via one engineer installation and one go live date.

Unfortunately to get TalkTalk’s superfast fibre service you still have to first add it as an option to your order of their existing Essentials or Plus TV packages. Hopefully one day TalkTalk will see the merit in also offering it as a clear standalone package, which is a lot less confusing for new customers.

Otherwise their FTTC upgrades come in two flavours, Fibre Medium and Fibre Large. The Medium option offers internet download speeds of up to 38Mbps for an extra +£10 per month on top of your current package, while Large delivers speeds of up to 76Mbps for an extra £15+.

The cheapest way to get this service is to combine it with the ISPs Unlimited Broadband Essentials package, which normally costs £6.50 a month (currently free for the first 6 months of service). Line Rental from an additional £9.50 a month must also be taken (rises to £14.95 if you choose not to pay 12 months in advance).

Essentials Package + Fibre Broadband
* Unlimited usage allowance (FUP)
* Unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK landlines and 0845/0870 numbers
* Unlimited calls to other TalkTalk-members
* 10% off the 16 phone numbers you call most
* 3 Months Free Anytime UK Calls Boost
* Free £25 Love2shop voucher (migrations only)
* £50 welcome credit for all new line customers
* FREE Wireless Router
* FREE HomeSafe online security
* FREE Engineer Install
* Included VDSL Modem
* 18 month contract

PRICE – Fibre Medium: £6.50 + £10 = £16.50 Per Month
PRICE – Fibre Large: £6.50 + £15 = £21.50 Per Month

Take note that the £6.50 cost is currently removed (free) from the above prices for the first six months of service, thus in those months you’d just be paying for the Fibre and line rental service. Alternatively customers can take the more expensive Plus TV package alongside Fibre, which costs £15.50 a month instead of £6.50 (this is for those who want the TV service).

The ISP has advised that its Fibre Broadband product now “reaches 46% of the UK population“, which broadly mirrors the national deployment of BT’s related FTTC technology. However there may be some small differences between BT’s FTTC cover and TalkTalk’s unbundled LLU network (LLU mostly benefits ADSL but it can still deliver some capacity cost savings for FTTC).

UPDATE 3:29pm

TalkTalk has now told us that the above change isn’t quite live yet, which suggests that the information may have been sent out early by accident (the update said it was supposed to be effective from 1st July 2013). We’re awaiting further clarification.

UPDATE 5th July 2013

The ISP has now advised that this change is currently under trial and not yet generally available. No further information has been provided.