Talk Talk Launch Openreach FTTP 500Mbps Broadband Service UPDATE

Budget conscious UK ISP TalkTalk has finally soft launched their first “Future Fibre” broadband packages based off Openreach’s (BT) ever expanding Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which at the time of writing appears to offer ultrafast speeds from 150Mbps to 500Mbps. No 1Gbps, yet.

The new FTTP service has been in trial since the end of last year (here) and its launch is intended to complement their existing ultrafast packages, which are based off both Openreach’s hybrid-fibre G.fast product (covers 2.8 million UK premises) and Cityfibre’s (FibreNation) rival FTTP platform (around York, Dewsbury etc.). In the future the ISP will also gain access to the rest of Cityfibre’s full fibre network but they aren’t there yet.

In March 2020 Openreach finally added two new consumer tiers in the shape of a 550Mbps and 1Gbps service, which was soon followed by similar retail products from BT and a handful of smaller ISPs (here). Unfortunately, TalkTalk’s new data-only (no voice) full fibre plans have yet to adopt all of these and at launch their top package speed will be 500Mbps (75Mbps upload).

At present the related “Future Fibre” page on their website doesn’t provide a lot of information and you have to phone them in order to get the details, although they appear to be charging £34.95 per month for their 150Mbps package and £39.95 for the 500Mbps service on a 24 month minimum contract term. You’ll also receive their existing Wi-Fi Hub router and all the usual extras.

One slight problem for TalkTalk in this is that they now have a bewildering array of “fibre” packages on different platforms and technologies. We have the regular FTTC (VDSL2) based “Faster Fibre” and “Superfast Fibre“, the G.fast based “Faster 150 Fibre“, the Cityfibre / FibreNation (FTTP) based “UltraFibreOptic” and now the Openreach FTTP based “Future Fibre.” Fun times in the land of conflicting terminology.

As expected, TT’s Business Division is also soft launching Openreach based FTTP packages, but the associated page on their website doesn’t yet include any pricing information (expect it to be more expensive though, naturally). Nevertheless, it’s TalkTalk’s residential packages and their low pricing that will surely draw all the attention.

UPDATE 31st July 2020

We had to nudge TalkTalk a couple of times, but they have now officially confirmed the above details and that it’s initially only a phased launch that will be available to “some” customers. The provider is still in the process of testing and learning, so apparently that 6 month trial they had wasn’t enough.

By the sounds of it an online ordering facility will follow in the coming months and TalkTalk seem keen to implement a way of informing existing customers when FTTP goes live in their area, which could be a very effectively way of boosting take-up.