Low cost UK internet provider TalkTalk has today officially launched their new range of unlimited G.fast based ultrafast home broadband packages, which offer download speeds of ‘up to’ 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) and 300Mbps (50Mbps upload) from just £40 per month (including line rental).
At present the new hybrid fibre G.fast technology is still technically in the pilot phase and as such its coverage remains limited. Despite this Openreach are ramping up their deployment quite quickly and as a result the new service should reach about 10 million UK premises by the end of 2020.
As usual all of their packages include phone line rental, unlimited usage, a wireless router (we are trying to find out what it ships with right now), no setup fee (engineer install) and various other features (e.g. network-level Parental Controls, nuisance call blocking and Internet Security). Currently the packages can be taken with either an 18 or 24 month contract option.
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Faster 150 Fibre (150Mbps Down / 30Mbps Up)
PRICE: £40 per monthFaster 300 Fibre (300Mbps Down / 50Mbps Up)
PRICE: £50 per month
There is also an additional £12.50 charge for customers requiring a new copper line. We assume that customers can also add one of TalkTalk‘s TV boxes to the same packages for the same £25 one-off charge as usuall (or £50 for the TV Plus box with video recording) and for an extra +£7 per month on top you can usually take their TV Plus subscription that adds 30 premium entertainment channels.
Unfortunately at the time of writing the provider’s availability checker doesn’t appear to support online ordering, which means you’ll have to call an 0800 number if it’s found to be available and you want to order it. The ISP also states that their G.fast service can currently only be ordered in the following 11 locations, although we know that Openreach’s pilot is being expanded well beyond these (here).
G.fast Availability Areas
Bath
Cheltenham
Cambridge
Derby
Edinburgh
Gillingham
High Wycombe
Brighton & Hove
Luton
St. Austell
Swansea
UPDATE 1:09pm
We’ve had a response on our router question. Like other ISPs (except BT), TalkTalk will make use of Openreach’s own modem to handle the G.fast side (currently a Huawei MT992) and at the same time they’ll continue to ship their existing Huawei HG633 “Super Router” to deal with everything else (WiFi etc.).
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One or two very obvious problems here is that the wired LAN ports on the HG633 are stuck on the old 100Mbps standard, which means that those of you who prefer to get the best performance by using an Ethernet cable to your computer will not be able to get the best broadband speeds. The advertising watchdog might have a few things to say about that.
Meanwhile the 802.11ac WiFi performance of the HG633 is reasonable but it doesn’t have the same reach or performance as others, which makes it better for last generation FTTC (VDSL2) than G.fast. You really do need a better piece of kit to make the most out of these ultrafast broadband connections.
We know that TalkTalk does appear to have a more advanced router from Sagemcom under closed beta trial but so far the details have remained elusive.
UPDATE 1:58pm
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The PR team at TalkTalk says they’ve made a small typo and that actually the ISP will be shipping the HG635 router. I’ve responded and asked for them to check the quoted specs for that because we recall the HG635 having Gigabit LAN ports on the back, rather than 100Mbps.
UPDATE 3:30pm
TalkTalk has apologised for the earlier error and kindly confirmed that the HG635 does indeed have 4 x Gigabit Ethernet ports and one WAN port, which is much as we reported all the way back in 2014. Sadly it’s fairly old kit by modern standards (here) and hopefully they’ll release something more up-to-date in the near future.
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