Carphone Warehouse takes wraps off 'free' broadband

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Carphone Warehouse has put an end to speculation on its free broadband product by revealing what it calls "free broadband forever".

For £9.99 a month and an additional £11 line rental, Carphone customers will get free local and national calls within the UK; free landline calls to 28 foreign countries including Australia and the US; as well as up to 8Mbps broadband.

Those signing up to the package will also need to pay a one-off connection charge of £29.99.

Rumours about the promised 'free' service had raised expectations that it would be priced at £4.99 a month initially, rising to £14.99 a month after three months.

The new Carphone offering comes in at roughly the same price as other dual-play services, such as Bulldog's which offers 8Mbps broadband and landline for £20.25, although calls are not free.

According to Ian Fogg, analyst at JupiterResearch, 'free' broadband as part of service bundles could mark the start of a change in the UK broadband market.

"Once one ISP starts to lower prices, it puts tremendous pressure on the others," Fogg said. "For ISPs that just offer broadband, it will become harder to compete with those that can do cross-subsidies."

Talkback

This may be good for straightforward consumer stuff. I would have reservations and concerns over the level of service and any SLA's that they would be providing.

There is no mention of any download limitations or any mention that you may not be able to get the 8Mbps service at all!

I am reserving judgement on this. I am also sceptical that they can offer, or even compete with Business Broadband services.

How good is their technical support going to be? Are they simply reselling BT's wholesale services? What if you need multiple static IP address etc? Will they be committed to offering PROPER ISP services like DNS Management etc? Are they going to offer this, and will they chrage extra for it? Oh course they would if they do, cause it a revenue stream.

My advice if you want a SOHO or SME Service - stick with the major players like Demon Internet - they've been providing proper commercial Internet Access Services for years, and have lots of experience at it. OK, they will not be as cheap, but think about it...The basic SOHO/SME package gives you a single static IP, DNS management (including domain name registration etc) and they will deliver your email for your domain via SMTP, to your SBS server for example. And it's all included in the monthly subscription charge, there are no hidden costs.

Think about it. Good for you joe public at home, but I doubt it will provide any benefits to SME/SOHO entities.

via Facebook 13 April, 2006 18:25
Reply

This is a company to avoid if you want your personal details to be used for their intended purpose.
They frequently abuse the UK's data protection act and use personal details for spamming, almost to the point of harrassment.

They are an unethical company to avoid.

via Facebook 31 May, 2006 22:30
Reply

Free broadband??????????????
Great I think. I put in my phone number. Sorry you cannot get free broad band.
But suprise suprise I can get paid broadband from talk talk with talk 3 all together £30.99. Plus, 18 months minimum contract, plus Pay for connection ect.
I would have felt less cheated if the site had explained how it was impossible to get free BB but possible to get paid BB, I am sure there must be a reason?.
Sorry carphone I can do better. But then I dont suppose you care.

via Facebook 13 June, 2006 02:59
Reply

Anonymous,

I signed up with talk talk international about 7 weeks ago, gave my details and was told that I could receive broadband. All this for £20.99 a month + 29.99 one-off payment when connected + free modem and 2 filters. They told me that I would receive a welcome pack within 10 days or so. To date I have received no welcome pack and have had no contact or correspondence with anyone at Talk Talk.

JUST HONOUR WHAT YOU ADVERTISE!!!!!

via Facebook 18 July, 2006 11:32
Reply

The service is cheap and its cheap for a reason. Unable to connect to the network for more than 10 minutes during the entire 3 week period during which we had their very tacky modem installed.

Customer service is non existant and relies on call centres in India. Hours spent sat waiting for them to answer and the suggestions made failed to sort out the problem To get technical help you dial a different number which charges 10p a minute so you are paying them a small fortune for them to explain to you why their service is so useless-if you can actually get a reply, which I couldn't.

Do not consider using Talk Talk under any circumstances-if you are with them already cancel your direct debit-they cannot sue everyone.

Charles Dunstone of carphone warehouse has an e-mail address which is 'cdunstone@cpw.co.uk'

Why not contact him to tell him what you think of this mess or better still send him all your junk e-mail.

via Facebook 25 July, 2006 08:59
Reply

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