TalkTalk Broadband

TalkTalk’s website encourages customers to “switch now for a fairer price”.

While TalkTalk has long held a reputation for offering cheap broadband, and at times in the past offering good incentives such as free gifts to switch to them, it’s also got a reputation of lacking when it comes to customer service.

Do those traits speak true of what TalkTalk offers to consumers today? Let’s look at how TalkTalk’s broadband packages stack up against others.

Determining The Best ISPs In The UK

To be able to give the most accurate representation of the company as possible, it’s important to first highlight the aspects that we need to examine for better judgment.

1. The first consideration is the internet speeds offered. Not only is the internet our main source of communication nowadays, for most of us it is also the source of our income, our entertainment, and an important foundation for our interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it’s important to see if TalkTalk Broadband’s offers fit with our lifestyle needs. For simple online activities such as browsing, chatting and social media, a minimum of 1 Mbps will usually suffice. If you need the internet for frequent video conferencing, a requirement of 1-4 Mbps minimum has to be met. Keep in mind that this bandwidth demand scales up the longer and the more people there are in your calls, so it’s best to provide a large allowance for this specific need. For high-quality video streaming, a minimum of 5-8 Mbps is needed. For high-speed gaming, a 25 Mbps speed is ideal to avoid lags and connection issues. If you require frequent, large file downloads, it’s best to stick to 50 Mbps speeds and above.
2. Next, we’ll look at pricing positions. It’s important to identify if the prices offered to us by TalkTalk is competitive with the other companies – after all we’re paying for it with our hard-earned cash, and we need to squeeze as much value from it as we can.
3. Lastly, we’ll examine customer service. This aspect is important if you want to enjoy a hassle-free connection experience and to see what other people say about the company. This includes online ratings, online reviews, and contact information.

With that out of the way, let’s begin.

What Broadband Speeds Does TalkTalk Offer?

TalkTalk currently offers three broadband packages, from a basic 11MB package up to a 67MB package, with a 38MB service between them.

TalkTalk calls these packages “Fast Broadband”, “Faster Fibre”, and “Superfast Fibre”.

Like many broadband providers, TalkTalk has also diversified into TV, and offers bundles for those looking for more than broadband.

TalkTalk Broadband Download Speeds

Due to a ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority that came into effect in May 2018, internet service providers (ISP’s) in the United Kingdom are now required to advertise average speeds on the basis of what at least half of their customers can receive at peak times. Prior to this ruling, ISP’s could advertise higher headline speeds, so long as only 10% of customers were being provided with such a speed.

Although this ruling means the advertised speeds you see when looking for your ideal broadband package are more accurate, the speed you can receive, and use, depends on several variables. Use a broadband speed checker to get an even more accurate idea of the internet speeds you can expect to receive, from TalkTalk or any other provider.

The tables below highlight the most recent data based on Ofcom’s home broadband performance research, comparing TalkTalk to other popular providers against the advertised speeds they offer. This research took place in November 2018 and was published in May 2019.

How Do TalkTalk’s Broadband Speeds Compare to Others?

Let’s look at how each of TalkTalk’s packages performs against other ISP’s offering the same or similar average advertised speeds.

TalkTalk 11MB Fast Broadband Comparison

TalkTalk performs the worst of its competitors at the slower end of the market, barely with its advertised average speed actually representing the peak of its performance.

TalkTalk Faster Fibre 38MB Comparison

TalkTalk again fails to hit its advertised speeds at 38MB, but this is true for all the ISP’s offering services around this speed, and TalkTalk sits in the middle of the pack, comfortably outperforming BT. It is worth noting however that TalkTalk advertises a higher average speed than the others in this bracket.

TalkTalk Superfast Fibre 67MB Comparison

At the fastest speed it offers, TalkTalk again fails to meet its advertised average speed, but as with its 38MB package, it compares favourably against competitors, with only BT and EE consistently hitting higher speeds, and performing markedly better than Plusnet and Sky.

TalkTalk Download Speeds Summary

At the budget end of the market, TalkTalk performs poorly, struggling to consistently hit what is a very modest, in modern terms, speed of 11MB.

However, the picture changes somewhat as you look at the quicker broadband packages that TalkTalk offers. While TalkTalk doesn’t hit its advertised average speeds, it performs very well in comparison to others’ advertised speeds at 38MB and 67MB.

TalkTalk Upload Speeds

Not all consumers pay attention to upload speeds, nor do all ISP’s make any particular effort to highlight these in their marketing.

However, if you’re a regular uploader of photos, videos, or even everyday files to the cloud, then having a broadband package that offers quick and efficient uploads could save you a lot of time over the course of your service contract.

The tables below are from the same Ofcom research mentioned earlier, conducted in November 2018 and published in May 2019, and highlight how TalkTalk’s broadband packages compare to other ISP’s for upload performance.

In the same manner as with download performance, TalkTalk performs significantly worse than the other ISP’s for uploads with its budget 11MB package.

TalkTalk’s trend of performance improving as we move through the quicker packages is seen in uploads as it was with downloads. Although not the quickest, TalkTalk’s upload performance is comparable with others offering similar broadband speeds but is far better than Virgin Media provide with its 54MB broadband package.

For its fastest broadband package, TalkTalk is one of the best performers out of all ISP’s for uploads, performing better than all except BT.

TalkTalk Broadband Speeds Summary

While TalkTalk’s broadband appears to be poor at the budget level, it’s much improved when looking at the 38MB and 67MB packages it offers, easily on par with more illustrious brand names in both download and upload performance.

TalkTalk Broadband Offers and Deals

TalkTalk currently does not offer any incentives for signing up for their broadband services.

However, they do commit to locking in your price for the duration of your contract. TalkTalk have historically offered customers the flexibility of choosing from a 12, 18, or 24-month contract. They are currently pushing their 24-month broadband contract as the default option on their website, and it is unclear whether the other options exist.

TalkTalk’s current broadband packages are highlighted in the table below.

How Does TalkTalk Broadband’s Pricing Compare to Other ISP’s?

Now that we know how TalkTalk compares to other ISP’s in terms of the speeds it offers, let’s look at how the pricing for its packages compares. Remember that TalkTalk pride themselves on being one of the cheapest ISP’s in the UK!

TalkTalk 11MB Fast Broadband Price Comparison

Although TalkTalk does not offer the cheapest price on the market, with that honour going to Now Broadband, it’s worth remembering that the £19.95 price is locked in for 24 months, so if you’re looking for long-term value that is potentially a great deal. TalkTalk is cheaper than Plusnet, the other big budget broadband provider in the UK, once you’re out of contract, too.

TalkTalk 38MB Faster Fibre Broadband Price Comparison

At 38MB, TalkTalk is not only the cheapest ISP, but your price is guaranteed for longer, too, although there are cheaper ISP’s when you’re out of contract.

TalkTalk 67MB Superfast Fibre Broadband Price Comparison

As you can see, TalkTalk is again the clear cheapest option at 67MB, and a full £10 a month cheaper than BT who offer the same contract length and charge an upfront fee!

TalkTalk Broadband Pricing Summary

TalkTalk lives up to its reputation when it comes to pricing. Even where it is not the cheapest monthly option, TalkTalk broadband provides excellent value when you consider the 24-month contract and the fact your price is locked in for the duration.

Against other competitors at quicker speeds, TalkTalk is the clear winner if you’re making decisions based on price. If we use the speed and price comparison together, TalkTalk are charging £10 a month less than BT for internet that’s only negligibly slower, and certainly not so much slower that you’d be likely to notice!

TalkTalk Broadband Customer Service

While TalkTalk’s reputation for providing cheap broadband is good, it’s reputation for providing good customer service is quite the opposite.

TalkTalk has had a reputation as being poor at providing customer service for several years, the Ofcom’s research seems to back this up. As we can see from the table below, TalkTalk is the worst performer in the industry for overall satisfaction, satisfaction with complaints handling, and has the highest percentage of customers with a reason to complain.

If it wasn’t for Plusnet’s well documented issues with its new billing system throughout 2018, it’d probably be the clear “winner” for the most complaints to Ofcom, too!

It isn’t just Ofcom who identified issues with TalkTalk’s service. At time of writing, TalkTalk had an overall TrustPilot score of 2.9/5 from nearly 47,000 customer reviews. Read some of them for yourself here.

TalkTalk customers have several options for contacting customer service:

• @TalkTalk on Twitter, where interestingly in their bio they’re directing their customers to leave them a TrustPilot review. Perhaps not the best idea if people go to your Twitter page predominantly when they’ve got a problem!
• Via the Help & Support section of their website, from where users can get answers to queries from the TalkTalk community, speak to someone via Live Chat, or be directed through a range of questions designed to help you self-diagnose and fix your broadband problem. If you’re still stuck, then eventually you’ll find a direct phone number, although if you want to go straight to their switchboard and be directed to the correct department you can call TalkTalk on 0345 172 0088.

Important Tips Before Getting TalkTalk Broadband

There are a lot more aspects to consider about TalkTalk subscription – and we want you to be able to consider all of them so that you make the best choices possible. If you prefer, here are some additional tips on how to get more information.

• Ask around your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. People who are TalkTalk customers or have been one before are a great resource of first-hand information. Although not a requirement, it would be best to talk to people close to your own area, as you would be able to approximate how their services would work in your own area. Ask them specifically about customer service, whether they’ve had issues with unexpected bills, or if they’ve experienced connectivity issues.
• See if they have any issues. If they have, try to determine the cause of the issue and see what they’ve done about it. There can be a lot of factors that may result in poor internet connection, such as faulty router hardware, outdated device firmware, network security breaches that result in bandwidth leechers, and internet-sucking malware. Nevertheless, whether or not they’ve had good or bad experiences with TalkTalk, remember to take their words with a grain of salt. It’s best to ask multiple independent sources to get a better view of the issue.
• Try contacting customer service yourself. This would give you an approximate measure of how they treat their customers, such as their availability, response times, and the reliability of their displayed contact information. Other than that, you may have questions that you want to ask the company yourself, and this would be a great way to do it rather than marching to their service stores.

Summing Up TalkTalk Broadband

If you’re looking for a mid-range broadband package, then TalkTalk ticks most boxes. At 11MB, TalkTalk’s broadband just doesn’t seem reliable enough, and while it doesn’t hit the advertised average speeds at 38MB or 67MB, neither do any of the other ISP’s, while TalkTalk’s speeds compare favourably and TalkTalk is the cheapest option at these tiers, too.

It all comes down to how much you want to take your chances with customer service. TalkTalk’s customer service performance continues to leave much to be desired, but if you’re willing to deal with the odd hiccup in return for what is sometimes a significant financial saving, or you’re not too bothered what the service is like as long as you’re getting the cheapest possible deal, you can do worse than give TalkTalk a try.