TalkTalk review: Cheap in every sense of the word

Oh, TalkTalk. Time was when you could possibly forgive many of its shortcomings because it was that much cheaper than the rest. Now, even that questionable advantage has been largely eroded.

TalkTalk is certainly still at the budget end of the broadband market: its 500Mbits/sec lines are £7 cheaper per month than the Highly Commended Zen Internet and its 150Mbits/sec Full Fibre lines are a couple of quid cheaper than BT’s 100Mbits/sec lines. But it’s not much cheaper than the pack, and more expensive than our overall winner Vodafone. TalkTalk wants £45/mth for its 900Mbits/sec lines, for example, while Vodafone will charge you only £36.

However, if you’re lucky enough to be in an area covered by CityFibre – one of TalkTalk’s partner networks – then you can benefit from some very cheap prices indeed. At the time of writing, they were offering a 900Mbits/sec line for only £30/mth, which is the cheapest price for that speed offered by any of the providers here.

TalkTalk’s recurring nightmare is customer service. Only 32% of the TalkTalk customers we surveyed were happy with the service, less than one in three. In an industry that doesn’t have a great reputation for service – the best of the best only scored 62% – TalkTalk still manages to stink the place out.

It’s at the bottom of our survey for speed too. That might, in part, be because TalkTalk has traditionally attracted bargain-hunting customers who are more likely to opt for the slower tariffs, but it’s not an encouraging sign.

Still, three quarters of customers are satisfied with the value for money they’re getting, despite the drawbacks, so let’s explore what TalkTalk brings to the table.

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TalkTalk broadband review: Fibre 35 and Fibre 65

Note: Prices were correct at the time of writing but are liable to change.

If you’re not yet in a full-fibre area, these are the two tariffs on offer. They’re identically priced, meaning the only reason to opt for the slower tariff is because your line can’t support the faster speeds.

The supplied Wi-Fi Hub won’t set any pulses racing, with its now ageing Wi-Fi 5 technology. At the line speeds on offer here, however, the router’s probably not going to be a major bottleneck.

TalkTalk broadband review: Full Fibre 65, 150, 500 and 900

TalkTalk has four full-fibre tariffs, but why anyone would opt for the cheapest Full Fibre 65 is a mystery. It’s identically priced to Full Fibre 150, which is more than twice the speed.

Not only does 150 offer a faster connection, it comes with better router equipment too. One of TalkTalk’s key attractions is that it supplies the well-regarded Amazon eero 6 or eero 6 Pro routers to customers on Full Fibre 150 or greater. That’s a Wi-Fi 6 model and it’s a mesh system, so if you find you’ve got dead spots in the home, you can buy another of the dinky little units relatively cheaply (£79 at the time of writing) to extend your network.

The Full Fibre tariffs are comparatively reasonably priced, but award-winning Vodafone is much cheaper on a like-for-like basis. That is, unless you’re fortunate enough to be in a CityFibre area, where prices are significantly cheaper. The £30 for 900Mbits/sec line deal is an absolute steal – oddly it’s less expensive than 500Mbits/sec connections.

TalkTalk broadband review: Coverage

TalkTalk is one of the increasing number of providers who have deals with multiple fibre networks, not only Openreach. More than half of the UK’s homes can now get full fibre with Openreach, but if you’re not in that catchment area, then TalkTalk also has deals with CityFibre and other regional networks, so it’s worth popping your postcode into the coverage checker on the TalkTalk website to see what speeds you might get, even if other providers only offer fibre-to-the-cabinet speeds.

TalkTalk broadband review: Performance and customer satisfaction

TalkTalk has the worst speed satisfaction of any of the eight providers in our survey. Only 68% of its customers were satisfied with the performance of their connection, compared to 95% for category winner Zen Internet.

Reliability is relatively better. A score of 61% leaves TalkTalk in mid-table, although that’s a fair chunk of customers who are not exactly impressed.

If your TalkTalk line goes down, it doesn’t seem like many customers enjoy chatting with the support team. Only 32% of TalkTalk customers are satisfied with the customer service, by far the lowest score of any provider, and the lowest score in any category of this year’s awards.

The relatively cheap tariffs on offer from TalkTalk offset some of that pain. Three quarter of customers are satisfied with the value for money they’re getting. Indeed, price is clearly the chief attraction for most TalkTalk customers – 63% of them said that is the reason why they choose the provider.

Tellingly, only 17% chose TalkTalk for its customer service reputation, the lowest score of any provider. It’s very much a case of “you pays your money, you takes your choice”.

TalkTalk broadband review: Verdict

Aside from the odd bargain in certain areas, TalkTalk isn’t as price competitive as it once was. Without the temptation of rock-bottom prices, there’s very little else to tempt switchers towards TalkTalk, although the Amazon eero routers are a nice touch.

Methodology

Unless otherwise stated, all figures are drawn from a comprehensive survey conducted by Expert Reviews in December 2024, targeting a representative sample of 2,162 UK residents aged 18 and over. This sample size allows for statistically significant analysis across eight internet service providers, ensuring confidence in the results.

The figures are derived from responses to six survey questions targeting value for money, speed, customer service and reliability. We then take an average of these scores to produce an overall satisfaction metric, which we use to name our winner and runner-up.