Full Fibre Confusion Continues for TalkTalk Users in Rural Cheshire

A few months ago we reported (here) on how residents in two Cheshire villages had been mistakenly been told by UK ISP TalkTalk that their full fibre (FTTP) broadband service – under the old UltraFibreOptic (UFO) platform – was about to be disconnected. But unfortunately, the provider seems not to have learnt its lesson.

Just to recap. The service in the villages of Hollins Green and Rixton (Warrington) was first announced in September 2020 by CityFibre’s FibreNation division (here), which only a few months earlier had been acquired from TalkTalk for £200m (here). Despite this, TalkTalk continued to act as the retail ISP for customers on the UFO and FibreNation parts of their network.

However, everything took an awkward turn this year, which occurred after the ISP gave customers in the village an unwelcome surprise – when they logged into the provider’s website, they found a warning about the impending loss of their broadband and phone service. Customers were instead directed to call a specific phone number to “avoid losing” their service, except TalkTalk’s support agents had no knowledge of the change.

On top of that, locals who tried putting their address though TalkTalk and CityFibre’s availability checkers (i.e. to see if they could choose an alternative package or ISP) found that neither system reported them as having any access to full fibre. And despite CityFibre unveiling the original project, the operator’s support staff later confusingly told local users that they didn’t take on that part of the network when they gobbled FibreNation (CityFibre later informed us that they did in fact own and operate the network).

At this point ISPreview intervened in order to seek some clarity. A spokesperson for TalkTalk then acknowledged that the “banner was displayed by mistake and has now been removed – we apologise for any inconvenience. Customers in this exchange will continue to receive their usual service until further notice.” Despite this, the situation in York meant that it would probably only be a matter of time until the product was retired.

The latest development

Residents in the village have now received a new End of Contract Notification (EOCN) letter from TalkTalk, which, much like the original website notice, informed them that their UFO service was ending and to call the ISP. “When we called, we were told there is no FTTP service in our area! I checked on the TalkTalk website, and we are still shown as no service. Seems like no one wants the FibreNation / CityFibre infrastructure in the village,” said an angry local.

TalkTalk chose not to provide us with a comment when we chased them this time, but they did confirm that the EOCN had mistakenly recommended their Full Fibre 900 package as an alternative, which they added is not currently available to customers in Hollins Green and Rixton. Once again, the ISP apologised and said that in-contract customers would continue to receive their usual service until further notice.

In the previous report we noted that Freedom Fibre, which is a TalkTalk backed alternative network, was allegedly engaged in talks about a possible acquisition of the local network. But so far nothing appears to have come of that and, meanwhile, TalkTalk continue to make the same mistakes. However, the ISP has promised to contact impacted customers to discuss their options, although hopefully next time it’ll be with correct information.

The good news for locals is that Openreach has since expanded their own FTTP lines across the community and many have already decided to switch, rather than remain stuck in TalkTalk’s uncertainty field. As one customer said, “The amount of time I’ve spent on the phone with [TalkTalk] getting to this point is ridiculous. I’m booked in with BT this week for a new connection and would rather just move on.”