Get free broadband for a year!

by Jane Baker on 07 June 2010  |  4 comments
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TalkTalk are offering free broadband for a year, but get your skates on because this deal ends at midnight tonight!

Last week TalkTalk launched a fantastic new deal offering free broadband and evening and weekend calls for a whole year. But the bad news is this special offer lasts for one week only, and disappears forvever at midnight tonight.

So my avice is simple: If you like what you hear, you better act fast.

What will you get from the deal?

Here’s what you get from the TalkTalk essentials package:

• You’ll enjoy a fast download speed up to 24Mb. Of course, the actual speed you’ll get could be lower than this depending on your line and location, but this is a potential drawback for all broadband services.
• You’ll also get a 40GB monthly download allowance. This is great if you download a lot of music, films or watchinternet TV regularly. TalkTalk reckons this limit is high enough to download around 55 movies or 900 musicalbums a month.
• On top of a great broadband deal, free and unlimited evening and weekend calls to all UK landlines (including 0870 and 0845 numbers) are also on offer. Free calls are available between 7pm and 7am, and each call must last no longer than 60 minutes - so simply hang up and call back to avoid the standard charge. Peak calls are charged at 5.8p per minute. You can also take advantage of unlimited calls to other TalkTalk customers. The maximum call time is 3 hours (but that’s a lot of talking!)
• Finally, the package comes with a free wireless router. (This is available to new broadband connections only).

How much does the deal cost?

And here’s what all that costs under TalkTalk's soon-to-expire offer:

• The TalkTalk  Essentials broadband + phone package is completely free for the first year, but thensteps upto £6.99 a month thereafter.
• As part of the deal you must pay for TalkTalk line rental. This will set you back £11.49 a month.
• You’ll also have to stump up for a one-off connection fee of £29.99.

The total cost is £167.87 in the first year including the connection fee.

What’s the downside?

It looks pretty good so far, doesn’t it, but is there a downside? Well, you’ll be tied into an 18-month contract, so once the free broadband and calls have gone, you won’t be able to switch to the new market-leading package for another six months.

Having said that, the normal cost of the Essentials package is pretty competitive at just £6.99 a month. But it’s likely it won’t continue to be the cheapest broadband + phone deal in a year’s time.

Finally, TalkTalk is available to 80% of UK households, so there’s a one in five chance this package won’t be available in your area. Hopefully, you won’t be one of the unlucky ones.

How does it compare?

These days, there’s plenty of choice when it comes to low-cost broadband + phone deals. But this special offer has propelled TalkTalk right to the top of the best-buy tables. In fact, broadband comparison website, BroadbandChoices has found you could save over £143 in the first 12 months when this special offer is compared with the BT Talk and Surf package.

That said, a number of other providers do offer free connection and free calls at all times. But few can provide download speeds which match, let alone beat, what TalkTalk has to offer.

I think all this adds up to a really attractive broadband deal. But just to remind you, if you want to sign up before it's too late the deadline is at midnight tonight!