TalkTalk.co.uk

After being with a rather slow (512K) and relatively expensive (£15.99) but very reliable broadband provider I decided that I would finally get round to changing to a better deal. I spent some weeks making the final decision as there are so many offers going round and quite frankly I am a busy person. I soon realised that the only really good deal that gives you long-term value was TalkTalk. They also require you to switch to them as your telecoms provider at a slightly lower cost than BT's equivalent product, but with free international calls to a good range of countries also very kindly included, should you wish to phone anyone abroad.

I think free of charge counts as extreme value for money, but only as long as the service is reliable, as you are better off paying for something decent than getting rubbish free of charge. The trouble is, there seemed to be a plethora of very negative reviews about TalkTalk, but a lot of them seemed to involve minor technical problems that might not really be their fault.

With a certain amount of trepidation I signed up for their free broadband and hoped for the best. For the basic set-up fee of about £30 (which I went for) you get a wired modem, but for a bit more you can have a wireless system instead.

The activation did not require a MAC code (perhaps because they use unbundled lines, effectively freeing them from BT altogether) and I received a personalised letter and information pack with details of the activation date which was about 2 weeks later. The connection pack then arrived several days before activation with the modem already preset with the correct username and password.

Initially we had the service up and running without any trouble, but soon found problems with the connection being slow and dropping out all the time, and then we found the telephone was not taking incoming calls. However, the technical support line is completely free and we soon got through to a competent person in a UK call centre, who tested the line, made various suggestions and altered the settings on our profile. After several calls, all af which were dealt with very courteously and professionally, all was sorted out and our internet has settled down over the course of a few weeks and is working fine, giving between 3 and 4 Mpbs download most of the time. And apparently the telephone issue was a problem caused by BT, so they say.

The supplied wired modem only has one LAN and one USB connection, so as I am running more than one computer off the connection, and also a networked printer, I ditched their modem and used my "old" 4-port modem/router. This might be a consideration for anyone choosing between the wireless or wired options, especially as it is best to use a network card (usually up to 100Mbps) rather than the USB (up to 10Mbps) when transferring data between computers.

Overall, I am so far very pleased to have made the switch, but do be aware that it might require a bit of patience and a technical call or two initially.