TalkTalk Broadband Review - Very Fair Prices, What Do You Get Though?
TalkTalk is one of the most well-known low cost providers on the UK market for broadband services. What do you get for those cheap prices though? In this TalkTalk broadband review, we are telling you exactly how the provider's services break down so that you will know what you are getting for your monthly fee.
TalkTalk Broadband Review- What the Provider Offers You
We will start off this TalkTalk broadband review by talking a little bit about what services TalkTalk has to offer and why you might be thinking about choosing them as your provider.
The main thing which attracts many customers to TalkTalk is their low advertised prices. Indeed, the company does have some very attractively priced packages. TalkTalk is a bundling provider, meaning that you are not going to have the option of getting only broadband services, however.
At minimum you are going to have to include a home phone line in your package, and you can also choose to include a TV package. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since you will certainly save money by combining services in this way, but this is something to be aware of since you might not be in a position to get a new phone provider as well as a new broadband provider. Now, let us look at TalkTalk's services.
What Broadband Options Do You Have?
One of the nice things about TalkTalk as a broadband provider is that you are going to have plenty of options, since the company offers both ADSL and fibre optic connections. Prices vary on these, of course, but you will be able to choose the kind of connection you want.
An ADSL connection is going to be your absolute cheapest option as this will just use your copper phone lines to give you data on your broadband connection. Installation is easy, plans are cheap and ADSL is a reliable connection. Speeds are not fantastic though; TalkTalk only advertises speeds of up to 16mbps on ADSL connections.
If you are a hard core gamer or like streaming media then you will be more interested in a fibre optic connection, even though you will need to pay a little more. There are two speed options; medium fibre with offers advertised speeds of up to 38mbps and fast fibre offering speeds of up to 76mbps.
You will want to check coverage before getting a fibre optic plan though, because not everyone will live close enough to a fibre optic network to be able to connect. You can do this either directly on the TalkTalk website, or check out the OFCOM site for more information about networks and coverage by following this link.
Every TalkTalk plan is going to give you unlimited data, so there will be no monthly data cap to worry about. You will also get a free wireless router with your plan too, so you will not need to buy this hardware yourself.
What Phone Options Do You Have?
As we said before you must include a phone line in your package. You do not need to pay for a calling package, however. You can get a phone line and then simply pay for the minutes which you actually use, which is probably a good idea if you do not often use your land line phone.
If you do want a calling plan you can add either unlimited free weekend and evening calling to your broadband plan, or for a little more money unlimited any time calling to UK land lines and mobile numbers.
What TV Options Do You Have?
All packages which give you television services are going to give you ninety four channels, including the normal channels such as BBC or ITV. You will get catch up TV as well with all plans, and this will let you watch any scheduled programming from the last week. Plus, you will get a free set top box thrown into your deal.
There is also going to be the option of adding extra channel packages, though this will cost another fee on top of your monthly bill. A film package as well as sports packages and children's packages are available. Conveniently, these are monthly add-ons, which will mean that you can add or cancel these options at the beginning of your monthly billing period rather than having to decide for your entire contract length.
What Pricing Options Do You Have?
We are all concerned with how much we are going to pay for a package, but prices with TalkTalk are pretty low, though there is a catch which we will get to later. There are three bands of plans with TalkTalk.
Band one gives you basic unlimited ADSL broadband. The broadband plus phone line will cost you £2.50 per month, the broadband plus television and unlimited weekend and evening calling will cost you £7.50 per month, and the broadband plus television and unlimited any time calling is going to be £15.50 per month.
Band two gives you fibre optic broadband with speeds of up to 38mbps. The unlimited Internet plus phone line plan costs £12.50 per month, broadband plus television and unlimited weekend and evening calling costs £17.50 per month, and finally the broadband plus television plus unlimited any time calling is £25.50 per month.
Band three gives you fibre optic Internet with speeds of up to 76mbps, and the majority of these plans are business only plans. You can, however, get the unlimited broadband with speeds of up to 76mbps and a phone line where you only pay for calls made for £17.50 per month.
The Pricing Catch
The catch with TalkTalk's pricing is that it does not include the phone line rental fee, which all ADSL and fibre optic providers require you to pay. This means that as well as your monthly package fee, you will need to pay a line rental fee of £15.40 per month. You can, however, pay this as a lump sum at the beginning of your contract and thereby get the payment lowered to just £10.50 per month.
