Carphone Warehouse is attempting to offset the effects of the ongoing economic downturn in the UK by offering free broadband and free line calls for new customers who register before 2 March 2009. The TalkTalk Essentials service will see all new customers tied into an 18 month contract with customers only paying £10.50 per month line rental, rising to £16.99 after the first year. The offer of free broadband is sure to catch the eye of many cost conscious UK surfers and further strengthen the Carphone Warehouse brand name in the UK.
The broadband service will offer speeds of up to 8Mbps with a 40GB broadband download allowance which should be more than enough for the vast majority of users. The service also comes with a free wireless route although there is a £29.99 charge to connect to the service.
However, before we all run out and sign up to the TalkTalk Essentials service it is worth remembering that up to 20% of the UK population will not have access to the service as yet because a number of telephone exchanges around the country have yet to be “unbundled”.
Carphone Warehouse currently has around 2.8 million broadband customers in the UK and while there has been intense speculation that the broadband business may well be up for sale it would appear to be business as usual.