Talk Talk slows down

CARPHONE Warehouse might have changed the face of broadband forever when it launched its Talk Talk service last year but the chutzpah of the plan continues to be challenged by a slower rollout than the company, and more importantly its customers, would like.

Carphone has 632,000 Talk Talk customers but only 540,000 of these are currently connected and over Christmas the numbers of customers getting hooked up fell to about 12,000 a week, according to analysts. The slowdown in connection rates was to do with the Christmas retail rush, Carphone said, adding that it expects to ramp up unbundling in the coming weeks. The company needs to get users on to unbundled lines rather than wholesale links to fulfil its plans for profitability of the service.

It's still very hard to say whether the broadband scheme is master stroke or fiasco but I'm leaning towards the former. Without doubt, Carphone has upset a lot of customers by keeping them waiting but it has also rocketed itself to the status of broadband superpower. A lot will depend on whether its customer service is deemed half-decent and the company can retain trusted-brand status to minimise the eventual churn. After all, the bar in broadband customer service is not generally thought to be set too high.

The good news for Carphone is that its underlying phone retailing business is still strong despite Vodafone's sudden decision to walk away last year, so it can underwrite the broadband business.

The wheel's still in spin for Talk Talk but in the meantime, we welcome your horror stories and happy stories alike for Talk Talk and other new-wave broadband services. µ