TalkTalk To Launch Mobile Contract Service

UK Internet Service Provider (ISP) TalkTalk has announced it is going to offer mobile contracts and handsets to its customers.

TalkTalk already offers SIM-only deals to its subscribers, but told TechWeekEurope that the expansion of its mobile offering could happen before the end of the year. The move will take it into closer competition with Virgin Media, which is making a big push in the mobile sector.

Going mobile

“Our mobile base continues to grow with over 70,000 customers now taking mobile in addition to their phone and broadband service,” said TalkTalk. “We have built an impressive 7.5 percent share of the UK SIM-only market since launch and as expected, have seen significantly lower churn on this customer base. We plan to launch a handset proposition later this year in addition to our existing SIM-Mobile only and data products.”

There is no specific launch date for the service, but the company said sales would be made online and that it was targeting its existing customer base. TalkTalk denied rumours it was to open its own stores or launch its own-branded smartphone, telling TechWeekEurope they simply were not true.

The ISP also released its quarterly financial results, which revealed it had minimised net customer losses to just 13,000, partially attributing the figure to its improved customer service. It claimed that calls to its customer service centre had fallen by 22 percent from a year ago and that 76 percent of problems were resolved with just one call. TalkTalk lost 50,000 customers in the previous quarter.

“Our focus on improving customer service has driven a real improvement in customer numbers and we are on track to deliver total customer growth in the current quarter,” said Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk. “We will achieve our growth and margin targets through continued expansion of our network, further operating efficiencies, adding more services to become a genuine quad play, growing scale in our business to business operations and increasing our sales of superfast broadband.”

TalkTalk has long had a reputation for poor customer service and was named the UK’s worst broadband provider in March. Last year, it was fined £3 million for incorrectly billing thousands of customers for services they had not received and only this week, it was ordered by the Advertising Standards Agency to revise its broadband speed checker following complaints it was misleading customers by overestimating download speeds.

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