Broadband ISP TalkTalk Launch “Better Way to Wi-Fi” via New U Product UPDATE

Internet provider TalkTalk has today unveiled the “next step in our Wi-Fi transformation” with the launch of “U“, which as well as being a letter in the alphabet also seems to be both a new class of UK broadband product and order process that aims to deliver a “tailored setup for each customer’s home, with speed that flexes as they need it, all for one price“.

The official announcement is heavy on the promotional language and light on detail, which makes it a bit tricky to reflect what TalkTalk U actually offers. The provider says it’s designed to give consumers a “custom set-up” that removes the need for them to worry about “annoying blindspots in the house” (poor WiFi) or what broadband speed they need, instead “seamlessly flexing to ensure they are always on the right speed for them“, all for one price.

Customers’ TalkTalk U journey will apparently begin by simply providing their home address, the provider then does the work, using property data to ensure that whatever the size and whatever construction type, customers are receiving the right amount of equipment (WiFi boosters etc.) in the right places tailored to their home.

The service will also choose the right speed broadband package for them and, once connected, will use its “smart algorithm to monitor and seamlessly flex their speed behind the scenes as their demands change“, without the need to change package or contract. We quite like the idea of a flexible package like this, and it should be noted that the speed changes don’t impact the price you pay.

In addition, TalkTalk U customers will also be amongst the first to benefit from TalkTalk’s new customer management system, enabled by Kraken Technologies, which is said to be “improving customer services by giving customer service agents all the tools they need to help customers end-to-end“.

Susie Buckridge, TalkTalk CEO, said:

“We’re shaking up our outdated industry by starting to change the way we talk about our products with customers – TalkTalk U is all about need not speed.

The industry has converged around ever-increasing speed packages, implying that these alone are the answer, but the fact is that the majority of homes don’t need more than about 80 or 100mps to cover the average nine connected devices.

Customers tell us what really matters to them is how their Wi-Fi works around the home: they want to be able to stream TV episodes and films seamlessly, have video calls that don’t drop out, and scroll TikTok without endless buffering.

It has been years since we saw any change in the way Wi-Fi is sold, but TalkTalk U allows customers to never have to think about Wi-Fi. It just works, all around their home, automatically flexing with changing needs, no matter what is demanded of it.”

The new type of product is certainly a bit of an innovation in the consumer space (although flexible speeds already exist on Ethernet / leased line services), not least because wholesale providers usually sell Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based products to ISPs by splitting different speeds between tiers and pricing each tier differently from the last one. But this approach tends to work against flexible products like U.

The above might help to explain why, at launch, the “beta version” of their U product is currently only available in CityFibre areas (c.4.5 million UK premises). But TalkTalk said they plan to expand it out to “other networks by the end of the year“, which seems like it will require some networks to offer a different class of product to ISPs at wholesale. At present we’re not sure if this would work on some networks, like Openreach’s, where this sort of speed flexibility doesn’t yet seem to exist.

However, we’re still missing a lot of details, such as how fast ‘U’ will actually allow lines to go (maximum and minimum), what the base package includes and how the wholesale side will be balancing the costing for such a changeable product. But TalkTalk does state that U “starts from” £28 per month and will launch “this month“. If Wi-Fi Extenders are required, depending on home size, an additional charge is also payable.

UPDATE 12:05pm

TalkTalk has confirmed that the price customers pay won’t change when the speeds flex up or down. The maximum speed flex is also stated to be 1Gbps.