Boost your essentials with TalkTalk
Thursday 13 November 2008 08:24:02 by Andrew Ferguson

TalkTalk is to try and build on the popularity of its Talk Global Evening & Weekend with Free broadband package by launching a new product that will be the same price but allow customers to buy extras as and when they want. Before people rush off to the TalkTalk website, it should be pointed out that the product will only be available to order from Tuesday 18th November 2008.

The new product will be termed myTalkTalk and is designed to let people add what they want to the package. The basic pricing is £10.50 for the line rental, and £6.49 for the Global Evening & Weekend with broadband package. A connection fee of £29.99 applies and it carries the usual 18 month contract. The 20% or so of households outside the TalkTalk LLU network can subscribe to the product but will be subject to an additional £15 per month fee.

"People’s communication needs are constantly changing and we need to provide a phone and broadband service that reflects this,...

Great value is still the number one priority – and myTalkTalk offers an identical service ‘pound-for-pound’ to our existing free broadband package – but choice and transparency are now high on the agenda."

Wendy Becker (Managing Director), TalkTalk Group

The essentials of the package are an up to 8Meg connection, with a 40GB usage allowance, a wireless router, and in addition to the unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK landlines you will get inclusive international landline calls to 36 countries (calls to mobile in Canada and USA are also included.

The top-ups, or boosts as TalkTalk refers to them will cost £4 each, which buys you that option for a month. The six boosts available at launch are:

1. Anytime Calls: Fairly obviously, this gives you unlimited inclusive landline calls both day and night.
2. Half Price Mobile Calls: A 50% discount on calls to mobiles.
3. Download Plus: Doubles the monthly usage allowance from 40GB to 80GB.
4. Speed Boost: Unleashes the full potential of ADSL2+ on your broadband connection, which means some people may connect at 24Mbps. Most will see a lesser speed and TalkTalk will advise on the estimated speed if you try to order the boost.
5. Security Boost: Access to the F-Secure security package with a licence for three computers.
6. Calling Features: Ability to personalise the telephone service with ringback, call divert and call waiting.

One interesting aspect of the Speed Boost is that if your line is shown to not benefit from the boost then you will be refunded your £4 for that month. As a way of letting people sample faster broadband speeds it is an interesting concept, and allows people to add extra speed for example during the Christmas break when everyone is at home at the same time. The Download Plus boost is a little odd as TalkTalk has in the past published figures showing its average usage was under 3GB a month, but are they launching this boost now as they are seeing some people using online video more and more, or simply enjoying the increasing number of game demos that are over 1GB in size.

Existing TalkTalk customers can switch to myTalkTalk with no connection fees, and no new contract is needed. For those wondering what their usage is like then tbbMeter provides a range of statistics and even a stopwatch so you can measure how much data a two hour stint browsing around YouTube consumes.

While the product is not earth shattering, and others have ADSL2+ products running at up to 24Mbps already, it should help TalkTalk to retain customers. Additionally at a time when many other providers are insisting on new lengthy contracts to upgrade to faster products, some may end up changing their view of TalkTalk. It seems unlikely that many will take all six boosts at once, and while the £8 a month for the two broadband boosts looks a lot, consider how many other providers offer an 80GB ADSL2+ product for £14.49 (line rental excluded).