TalkTalk

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For other uses of this phrase, see Talk Talk (disambiguation).
TalkTalk Telecom Limited
Image:Talktalk.gif
Type Limited
Founded 2003
Headquarters Acton, London, UK
Key people David Thatcher, MD
Charles Dunstone, CEO
Industry Telecommunications
Products Home and Mobile telephone
equipment and services
Parent Carphone Warehouse
Website www.talktalk.co.uk

TalkTalk is the consumer telephone business of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc. Launched in 2003, TalkTalk has more than 2 million customers in the UK. It is one of BT's largest telecommunications rivals, holding more than a 10% share in the UK telecommunications market, having acquired both Tele2's fixed-line customers (£11.5m) and One.Tel (£169.6m) in December 2005 (see Timeline below).

The CEO of Carphone Warehouse is Charles Dunstone.

Originally solely a fixed landline provider, TalkTalk now operates several MVNOs such as TalkTalk Mobile, which led to the company allowing all calls between any TalkTalk landline and any TalkTalk mobile, or vice versa, free to consumers. It also offers Fresh Mobile and Mobile World. TalkTalk also offer a high-speed broadband internet service to their home phone subscribers.

Carphone Warehouse also own Opal Telecom, a business to business telecoms provider with a very largely used switch - which is incidentally used by some of the "competitors" of TalkTalk such as Toucan (part of IDT Direct Limited).

Contents

[edit] Timeline

Year Month Event
2003 TalkTalk brand launched
2004 January Acquisition of E2Save for £4.7m[1]
March Acquisition of Xtra in Spain for £11.6m[1]
November TalkTalk Broadband launched[2]
2005 March Acquisition of One Stop Phone Shop for £15m[3]
December Acquisition of Tele2 for £11.5m[3]
December Acquisition of One.Tel for £169.6m[3]
2006 April "Free" TalkTalk broadband offer launched[4]
October Acquisition of AOL UK for £370m[5]

[edit] Free broadband

TalkTalk broadband promotion
TalkTalk broadband promotion
April 2006

On 11 April 2006, TalkTalk started offering a free broadband service (up to 8 Mbit/s with a 40 GB monthly download limit) for life to all subscribers to their Talk 3 international telephone tariff at £20.99/month. Conditions included signing up to a minimum 18 month contract and a £29.99 connection fee.[4]

July 2006

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) challenged TalkTalk on their free broadband offer.[6] Soon after this challenge, TalkTalk began to offer free broadband on their cheaper Talk3 tarif (which is more an academic offer, because in reality they fail to connect customers). This allowed people to have unlimited telephone calls, broadband and line rental for £19.99 a month. Available to new and existing customers, though broadband is only included for customers connected to a Local loop unbundling (LLU) exchange. As of July 2006, TalkTalk claimed that free broadband was available to 70% of the UK population. This figure is expected to increase as BT allow the unbundling of the rest of their exchanges. For customers not on one of these unbundled exchanges, up to 8 Mbit/s broadband is charged at an extra £10/month. Many users of TalkTalk Broadband do not experience the full 8 Mbit/s speed, as this depends on the extent to which the user's local exchange has been unbundled, and (as with all ADSL services) the distance from the exchange.

Some experts predicted this may provoke a UK broadband price war[7], and possibly as a result of TalkTalk's free broadband offer, Orange began to offer free broadband to users of their monthly mobile phone contracts (18m contracts for £35+ per month), and Sky have been offering a variety of free or cheap broadband packages to subscribers to their service.

Due to the unexpectedly high number of customers who flocked to sign up to the free broadband, the launch has suffered complaints with regards to a long waiting list to join the broadband programme and many difficulties in contacting TalkTalk customer services. In a Sunday Times interview, Charles Dunstone admitted that Carphone’s Talk Talk business was "struggling to cope" with the more than 400,000 customers who have signed up for high-speed internet access since the service launched in April. He also compared TalkTalk Broadband to "a little baby who’s waking up every two hours and is disturbing the family and making our lives a nightmare."[8]

September 2006

TalkTalk now allow customers to escape the binding 18-month contract for broadband "if it had failed to keep its service commitments in their case".[9]

October 2006

On the BBC programme Watchdog (3 October 2006), Charles Dunstone stated "I got it wrong. I didn't realise that free broadband was going to have the effect on people it has."[10]

November 2006

To the Mail on Sunday Charles Dunstone stated "In about 20% of customers there is some kind of problem with the phone exchange, the line, or something else. There is no point trying to pretend everything is all right. Our business exploded and we compressed the problems everyone in the industry has had into a few months. It has given customers nightmares and I just can't ignore complaints."[11][12]

A customer satisfaction poll by uSwitch places TalkTalk and Orange joint bottom for customer satisfaction.[13] TalkTalk's website quotes the previous uSwitch poll on 15 May 2006 to claim "TalkTalk still number one when it comes to overall customer satisfaction." [14]

January 2007

The published figures show that by the third quarter of 2006, 540,000 users had been subscribed to TalkTalk broadband of which 132,000 were (TalkTalk) LLU lines.[15] In the third quarter trading update, the published figure was 413,000 customers unbundled, including 281,000 AOL Broadband customers.[16]

Roger Taylor (CFO) reported that the number of TalkTalk Broadband customers was lower than expected, but was forecasting 700,000 customers on unbundled lines (LLU) by March 2007.[15]

In response to the sign up rate halving, The Carphone Warehouse has introduced a free 30 day trial for broadband customers. Charles Dunstone told staff this week that the free trial was "an attempt to give people the confidence to try it, despite what they might of heard". Customers will be able to cancel the contract within 30 days without incurring a penalty.[17]

April 2007

Lots of TalkTalk customers reamin very dissatisfied with the offered service!

[edit] The small print

The full terms and conditions of TalkTalk services (line rental, call service, mobile and broadband) are covered by a 24 page contractual document called "The Small Print".[18]

[edit] Issues with protection of customer records

The TalkTalk contract automatically allows them to pass on customer records to any company unless you write to them to opt out (section 11.11).[18]

  • Section 11.5 states "We may also pass your information for any specific purpose to certain third parties (some of which may be based outside of the European Union)..." Unfortunately "any specific purpose" is not specified and "certain third parties" are not listed. The legal implications of passing customer records on to third parties outside of the EU are unclear as from that point on the customer would have no legal control of the use of their data.
  • Section 11.13 states "Subject to your rights of objection set out in this clause, and your right of objection in the registration process, you agree that you consent to us, CPW Group or third parties contacting you for any of the above purposes whether by telephone, email, MMS, SMS or in writing and you confirm that you do not consider any of the above as being a breach of any of your rights under The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003."
  • The term "information" is explained in section 11.1 as including "your name, address, date of birth, gender, telephone numbers, email address, bank and Credit or Debit Card information, occupation and employment data, lifestyle information and details of how you use the Services, which may include for example and without limitation, traffic data related to your use of the Mobile Service or the Call Services including, without limitation, the numbers you call, the type, date, time, location, duration, and cost of calls, messages or other communications, the addresses you send messages to, or your use of the Broadband Service, such as how long you are on-line, your browsing activities and other general information about the way you pay and manage your account." "your browsing activities" appears over-zealous as they would have to break UK laws on privacy to use such information.

[edit] Data protection

Refer to Carphone Warehouse for more information with regard to possible breaches of the Data Protection Act and the actions of the Information Commissioner's Office.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b The Carphone Warehouse (2004). Annual Report 2004. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.
    • "On 1 January 2004, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital of E2save.com Limited, a company registered in England, for an initial gross consideration of £1.4m, with a further contingent deferred consideration of up to £3.3m payable over two years."
    • "On 8 March 2004, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Xtra Telecom SA, a fixed line service provider registered in Spain, for an initial gross consideration of £7.5m, with a further contingent deferred consideration expected to be up to £4.1m payable over two years."
  2. ^ The Carphone Warehouse (2004-11-01). The Carphone Warehouse launches TalkTalk Broadband. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-08.
  3. ^ a b c The Carphone Warehouse (2005). Annual Report 2005. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.
    • "On 1 March 2005, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital of One Stop Phone Shop Limited, a company registered in England and Wales that specialises in the mobile ‘off-the-page’ market, for an initial gross cash consideration of £8.3m, with a further contingent deferred consideration of up to £6.7m payable over two years."
    • "On 16 December 2005, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Tele2 UK Communications Limited (Tele2 UK), a company registered in Englandand Wales, for a gross cash consideration of £11.5m. Tele2 UK is involved in the provision of telecommunications services to residential customers."
    • "On 19 December 2005, the Group acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Centrica Telecommunications Limited, Onetel Limited, Telco Holdings Limited, Awardmodel Limited and their subsidiaries (Onetel), all of which are registered in England and Wales, for a gross cash consideration of £169.6m. Onetel is involved in the provision of telecommunications services to both residential and business customers."
  4. ^ a b The Carphone Warehouse (2006-04-11). Free broadband forever. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-08.
  5. ^ "Carphone Warehouse to acquire Time Warner's AOL Internet access business in the UK for £370 million", Carphone Warehouse Press Release, 2006-10-11. Retrieved on October 27, 2006.
  6. ^ ASA Upholds 3 TalkTalk Complaints. ISPReview (19 July 2006). Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  7. ^ Phone firm launches net price war. BBC (11 April 2006). Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  8. ^ "Broadband 'nightmare' for Talk Talk", The Sunday Times, 23 July 2006. Retrieved on November 11, 2006.
  9. ^ "TalkTalk customers break contract shackles", The Register, 29 September 2006. Retrieved on November 6, 2006.
  10. ^ Watchdog viewers have been complaining all summer about Talk Talk. It seems the company's broadband revolution stalls on customer service.. Talk Talk broadband. BBC (3 October 2006). Retrieved on November 1, 2006.
  11. ^ "The Sunday interview: Charles Dunstone (the TalkTalk man)", Mail on Sunday, 5 November 2006. Retrieved on November 6, 2006.
  12. ^ "TalkTalk Free Broadband "a disturbing nightmare" says CEO", CNET, 8 November 2006. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  13. ^ "Punters suffer in broadband price war", The Register, 14 November 2006. Retrieved on November 14, 2006.
  14. ^ TalkTalk still number one. TalkTalk (15 May 2006). Retrieved on November 24, 2006.
  15. ^ a b Carphone gets mixed reception as broadband stalls. Reuters (12 January 2007). Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
  16. ^ Carphone Warehouse Trading Update, Released: 12/01/2007. CPW (12 January 2007). Retrieved on January 12, 2007.
  17. ^ Carphone plugs TalkTalk. Noble House Media Ltd, Mobile Today (16 January 2007). Retrieved on January 17, 2007.
  18. ^ a b The Small Print. TalkTalk (01 November 2006). Retrieved on November 13, 2006.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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UK mobile phone companies
T-Mobile UK | Vodafone UK | O2 | Orange UK | 3
Mobile virtual network operators
BT Mobile | Dot Mobile | Fresh Mobile | TalkTalk | Tesco Mobile | Virgin Mobile
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