Internet and phone provider TalkTalk ( AOL UK , Tiscali , Opal ) has quietly uploaded fresh information to its website that reveals a new add-on Boost for existing broadband customers. For a small increase in the monthly fee this will provide access to their new "Fibre Optic Broadband" service from January 2011.

The service itself will make use of BT's Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology, which can offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps. The ISP claims that its product will also "guarantee" a minimum download speed of "at least 15Meg" day or night.

Sadly further details were not available, such as price and upload speed (likely to be 2Mbps or possibly up to 10Mbps). Existing "Boosts" (e.g. the Mega Download Boost gives you an 80GB usage allowance instead of 40GB on the 'Essentials' package) tend to cost up to £4.49 per month extra, although we wouldn't be surprised to see their FTTC upgrade go higher.

We had expected TalkTalk to launch a separate package for their FTTC service, although the idea of offering it as a Boost (optional upgrade) is certainly interesting. However, much will depend on the price and how TalkTalk chooses to handle the normally hefty engineer installation/setup fee (£75 +vat).

TalkTalk confirmed in October 2010 that it had managed to reach an agreement with BT Wholesale and would proceed to launch its first "super-fast" product in 2011 (here). BT's FTTC service has been under trial at TalkTalk for almost a year.

We have requested further details from TalkTalk and are awaiting their reply.

UPDATE 1:48pm

TalkTalk has responded to say that they have no further information or comment to add beyond what has already been revealed above.