For villages connected to the Woolley exchange (such as Spaldwick, Alconbury and Alconbury Weston), there are new choices of broadband service available. Now that local loop unbundling has arrived at the Woolley exchange, there is additional choice over and above BT services.
Local loop unbundling is the process of allowing other telecoms operators to use BT lines from the telephone exchange to customers’ premises. An LLU operator installs its own equipment in the BT exchange.
TalkTalk offers services at affordable prices
On the 19th December 2011, TalkTalk switched on LLU services at the Woolley exchange, providing customers with a range of new options. TalkTalk uses the more advanced ADSL2+ technology, which can provide significant benefits over the older ADSL technology, particularly in terms of improved speeds and reliability.
Compared with standard ADSL services, LLU services typically deliver much higher upload speeds (nearer 1 Mbps compared with 448 kbps for BT-based standard ADSL services) and better download speeds.
TalkTalk offers cheap broadband services directly to consumers. TalkTalk has received some criticism about its quality of customer care. However, TalkTalk’s network itself is very advanced and there are few documented issues about its service from a technical perspective.
Our experience of the TalkTalk service from Woolley is very positive, with excellent speeds at all times. TalkTalk now offers an online customer forum, where you can receive support without having to phone up, and we have found this very effective.
Several ISPs offer services using TalkTalk’s network
Less well known is the fact that TalkTalk also provides wholesale services (just as BT does) to a number of ISPs. These ISPs benefit from access to TalkTalk’s highly-advanced network and yet can provide superior customer care. While these services are not as cheap as TalkTalk’s direct services, they are still cheaper than BT services, and offer excellent customer support, broadband performance and data rates.
The following ISPs offer broadband and/or phone services using the TalkTalk network:
Some of these offer combined phone and broadband deals (which tend to offer greater savings compared with BT) and some offer broadband only services (where you keep your existing phone contract with BT). All of these ISPs have an excellent reputation (and are rated in consumer satisfaction surveys above BT).
If we were asked to pick one, we would currently opt for Xilo, as customer service is particularly outstanding, with a call centre based in the UK.