UK ISP Origin Broadband Trials Taking on New Customers Again
Internet provider Origin Broadband, which is a trading name for Origin Communications and OB Telecom (TalkTalk), appears to have re-opened their order system to new broadband customers after closing it some months ago. The ISP is currently only available to those covered by Openreach’s national network.
An Origin spokesperson told ISPreview: “Origin offers a broad range of connectivity solutions that can support the digital needs of any home. As part of that, we are carrying out a small-scale sales trial focused on the value-end of the broadband market.”
The trial currently appears to be harnessing Openreach’s network via PlatformX Communications (PXC), which was previously known as the wholesale division of TalkTalk. In terms of pricing, Origin’s “trial” FTTP packages seem to start at £26 per month on an 18-month term (reduced from £40) for 100Mbps+ (20Mbps upload) and that rises to £45 (reduced from £60) for their top 950Mbps (110Mbps upload) tier.
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Both FTTC and ADSL2+ packages are also available in certain non-FTTP locations.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Never ever will I forgive Origin as Feb 2024 refusing to port my landline number of 44 years to another ISP, lame excuse after excuse. OFCOM did nothing. Origin and their parent TalkTalk I will never trust again.
It’s only a number not the family jewels
@Declan McGuinness some numbers have quite a significant value to them, more so mobile. Not that I think its worth it, but I’ve twice been offered over £1000 for my number since O2 gave it me for free on a PAYG sim way back in 2006. Its too much of a hassle to change it else I may have been tempted.
Rated 2.4 stars on ISPr… I see why they don’t say that it’s an 18 month minimum commitment until you get to the end of the order process! (at least on mobile)
I mean they were an awful place to work and offshored everyone then sacked all the offshore too. God knows who’s doing the customer service now. I know all their systems were incomplete and were billing randomly though as they gave up on their systems.
Is this a late 2024 April Fool’s Day joke or an early 2025 April Fool’s Day joke?
Worth mentioning (guess they didn’t mention it in the press release, Mark?): I tried a handful of homes I know on different exchanges, and it could be that Origin’s new trial is ruling out any ADSL lines, even those on exchanges with TT LLU present. So “broad range of connectivity for digital needs of any home” might be a bit of a stretch.
My time as an Origin customer didn’t leave a bad taste in the mouth. It left a mental scar.
1: I Ignored the obvious warning signs, I admit.
2: I asked for my PPPoA password and I eventually discovered that the tech support engineer didn’t understand that “upper case” meant using the big letters on the clickybuttonboard ting and lower case wasn’t a box under the bed.
Fool me twice, shame on… well you won’t fool me again. (GWB)
I spent teeth-grindingly huge amounts of time correcting the effluent from their weird billing system which couldn’t cope with the discount they had offered — month after month after month.
3: Then they offered me a bargain to stay another 12months, and like a fool who hadn’t yet learnt the first two lessons, I accepted.
So, from someone with no right to be offering any advice _at_all_, this is my warning.
They have done this to try and offset the impact of ex shell customers leaving because the deal done on financing was based on a very low level of churn on that base. The reality is that ex shell customers have left in large numbers so the origin brand was brought back to try and plug the hole.