Broadband News

2.6m customers for Carphone Warehouse

(18-01-08) - The Carphone Warehouse, owner of major ISPs AOL and TalkTalk has announced a total of 2.6 million broadband connections over the two providers.

Its fourth quarter results, released today, show that 61 per cent of its customers - on both AOL (www.AOL.co.uk) and TalkTalk (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) are now connected by an unbundled line (LLU), equating to 1.6 million customers.

TalkTalk now has 1,533 exchanges unbundled and AOL has 924, as the company works hard get more customers connected to LLU, to increase profits and offer TalkTalk’s free broadband further a field.

Of the exchanges unbundled, those connected to the TalkTalk brand have been fully unbundled in order to provide broadband, home phone and line rental, while the AOL exchanges have only been partially unbundled, for broadband only.

Charles Dunstone, Chief executive officer, said: “In our broadband business, our value proposition and the success of unbundling significantly enhance the visibility of future earnings.”

The first of TalkTalk’s free broadband customers came to the end of their 18-month contracts in October last year. However, the company said: “Despite significant numbers of TalkTalk customers coming out of their initial 18 month contract period, we saw no increase in churn levels.”

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk, product director, said: “It is somewhat surprising that TalkTalk did not experience very high levels of churn, despite the many problems it faced after launching its market changing free broadband.

“However, this clearly demonstrates the efforts that it has gone to to remedy the problems, and the £15 million it poured into improving customer service also seems to have done the trick. In addition to all of this, there is no denying that the free broadband package remains one of the most competitive on the market - and customers will always be attracted by the money that they can save.

“AOL’s free laptop and free SonyPlaystation 3 offers will also have contributed to the Carphone Warehouse’s increased connections, though with its 24-month contract, customers need to think carefully before signing up,” he advised.

Related article - First customers free of TalkTalk contracts.

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