Phone and broadband supplier TalkTalk lost more than 13k customers during the first quarter of 2012.

The latest financial report showed TalkTalk’s total broadband & phone customers have declined to 4,066,000 by the end of March 2012.

By contrast, the ISP saw more than 43k susbcribers leaving its service during fourth quarter of 2011.

However, the demand for fibre optic broadband helped the internet provider to make more than 4,000 net addtions to its 40Mbps/80Mbps service in the latest quarter means over 9,000 customers now use its superfast fibre optic broadband.

TalkTalk has also increased the number of its fully unbundled exchanges to 2,500, adding more than 170 exchanges in the recent 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, the CEO of TalkTalk.

TalkTalk said its added value products such as Plus and HomeSafe gained popularity with more customers in Q1 2012, comparing the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, Everything Everywhere which owns ISP Orange has reported home broadband customer base of 713,000 at the end of Q1 2012.

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Internet provider BT is set to rollout fibre broadband in Rutland under Digital Rutland programme.

The project will enable 97% of homes and businesses across the county to get access to BT Infinity broadband of up to 80Mbps speed by 2013.

The project is funded by Broadband Delivery UK (£710,000), BT (£800,000) and Rutland County Council (£2.2 million).

BT said it would ensure its superfast broadband network will be open to all ISPs on an equal wholesale basis to enhance competition and consumer choices in the area.

It will aim to provide highly competitive market so that people of Rutland are not stuck with one broadband provider and can choose the package of their choice, BT said.

According to Terry King, the deputy leader for Rutland County Council, the availability of faster, affordable fibre broadband to 97% of the homes will bring long-term benefits to the region and improve quality of life for all residents.

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The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has told TalkTalk not to offer its current speed checker tool because it showed speed estimates which are much higher than actual speeds.

The ban came to effect after the regulator has reviewed a complaint raised by a TalkTalk customer last December.

The customer who was earlier promised a maximum speed of 2.1Mbps found the speed checker claiming he can get average, estimated speed of 3.8Mbps and speeds ranging between 2.1Mbps and 5.3Mbps.`

According to the ASA, these results do not accurately reflect the actual throughput speeds received by the consumers to help them make comparison between services.

The watchdog also said the ad breached the code because TalktTalk speed claims are not substantiated with evidence to show that majority of its customers receive these speeds.

“We told TalkTalk to ensure their speed checker results were more clearly qualified in future. We also told them to ensure they were in a position to provide evidence to substantiate the impression that was likely to be taken from their future advertising claims,” the regulator added.

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TalkTalk Essentials broadband and phone package which is now available on 12 month half price offer also includes £25 Tesco Gift Card voucher until 24th May 2012.

Essentials which costs £3.25 per month (half price for 12 months) on a 12 month contract, comes with ‘up to’ 13Mbps download speed, 40GB usage limit, free connection, free wireless router and evening & weekend calls to UK landlines.

Since it’s a broadband and phone bundle, line rental is payable in addition to broadband usage cost. TalkTalk line rental will cost £9.50 per month, when you use line saver option (i.e., you pay 12 months in advance).

TalkTalk also offers unlimited Plus plan which includes same features except that you get unlimited monthly download allowance and free anytime UK calls for a monthly price of £7.25 per month (for 6 months). Line rental and 12 month contract also apply.

Customers can claim Tesco voucher only when they subscribe to Essentials or Plus deal online.

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Telecom network provider, BT Openreach is set to launch ultra-fast 330Mbps broadband using its fibre to the premises (FTTP) infrastructre on 11 June 2012.

The wholesale product will allow the ISPs to offer two different upload speed (20Mbps and 30Mbps) with 330Mb service. A standard package with 80Mbps download speed & 20Mbps upload will also be available.

As for the cost, 330Mb download/30Mb upload plan will cost £60 per month (excluding VAT). The users will also need to pay an one-off £80 connection fee.

However, the wholesale pricing of 330Mb download/20Mb package is being slashed to more than a third until January 31st 2013 as a special offer, BT said. However, one-off £80 connection fee is still payable.

BT is also planning to launch 220Mb service via FTTP connection, by 2013.

The latest quarterly results from BT has reported that its 40Mbps Infinity broadband rollout has completed the target of reaching 10 million homes, months ahead of schedule.

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Mobile contracts and smartphone sales continue to help O2 to boost its revenues.

Total O2 customer base increased by 1% to reach 23.3 million at the end of March 2012, according to the latest quarterly results.

Retail Broadband net additions decline by more than 2k in the first quarter of 2012. Total broadband customers now stand at 617,800. It should be noted that O2 saw a decline of 5k net additions in fourth quarter of 2011 and 27k in Q3 2011.

However, half of mobile customers have subscribed to pay monthly contracts, O2 said. Smartphone sales also saw a strong growth in the latest quarter. Number of home phone customers also jumped from 216,100 in Q4 2011 to 315,800 in the first quarter of 2012.

“The mobile contract base rose steadily, increasing 5% year-on-year to account for 50% of the total mobile customer base, which reached 22.3 million at the end of March 2012. Smartphone penetration increased to 41% in the first quarter.” O2 said.

Revenues decreased by 6% year on year to reach 1,719 million euros due to mobile termination rate cuts and other factors such as difficult trading environment and regulation, the provider said.

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BT Broadband net additions fell sharply in the latest quarter that ended on 31st March 2012.

The provider which added more than 146k new customers in the last quarter of 2011, has just managed to get 136k new broadband subscribers in Q1 2012.

However, BT still remains the UK’s largest internet provider with a total customer base of 6.28 million. Its fibre (FTTC) based superfast broadband, BT Infinity can now reach 10 million homes.

“We have now passed 10m homes and businesses with our fibre roll-out. This is many months ahead of schedule and brings the benefits of super-fast broadband to families and businesses in cities, towns and rural areas across the UK.” said Ian Livingston, CEO of BT.

Significant rise in fibre broadband take up during the recent quarter (131k net additions) helped superfast broadband subscriptions to reach half a million customers, BT said.

“We remain the leading provider of broadband in the UK and over half a million customers are already taking our fibre-based BTInfinity product.” Livingston added.

The £2.4bn fibre investments will enable the ISP’s faster broadband service to reach more than two thirds of UK homes within two years.

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Twenty-seven cities have qualified for bidding a share of £50 million ultra-fast broadband fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.

They are:
Aberdeen, Brighton & Hove, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Exeter, Gloucester, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Londonderry/Derry, Newport, Norwich, Oxford, Perth, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Salford, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Swansea, Wolverhampton and York.

These smaller urban places which are left behind by internet broadband providers like Virgin Media and BT, will be asked to submit the investment plans based on which the final 10 winners will be chosen, the government said.

The fund will help the cities to rollout fibre-optic broadband of speeds (80-100Mbps) and connect the important locations with high speed wifi network.

“These ultra-fast speeds will allow more cities in the UK to compete with the fastest in the world, bringing new opportunities for growth, the development of high-tech industries and the transformation of public services,” said Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary.

The government has already announced separate £100 funding to bring similar, faster broadband to bigger cities such as Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle.

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Costa, the UK’s largest coffee house company is set to provide free WiFi internet across its coffee houses.

Under the contract it signed with the firm, mobile operator O2 will enable over 1,300 Costa coffee shops with wi-fi access by this summer.

More than 13m monthly visitors will benefit from the service which will be free for 30 minutes, the company said.

However, “our Coffee Club members will be rewarded with unlimited access to further enhance their coffee shop experience.” said Kevin Hydes, the marketing director for UK division of Costa .

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Virgin Media has nearly doubled the number of new subscribers in the first quarter of 2012, comparing to Q4 2011.

According to the latest quarterly results, the cable operator’s total base has added more than 30K broadband customers during the 3 months that ended 31st March 2012 to reach 4.382 million.

The company’s CEO Neil Berkett said that superfast broadband packages and connected TV service TiVo continue to attract new customers.

Virgin Media’s fibre optic networks offer download speeds ranging between 30Mbps – 100Mbps speeds while the existing speeds will be doubled with £100m investment plan, the ISP announced last month.

“We once again demonstrated the unique power of our network by starting to double the broadband speeds of over four million customers.” Berkett added.

More than 250k Virgin broadband customers now use premier, 50Mbps or 100Mbps service, the firm claims. Contract subscriptions in the latest quarter also witnessed better growth in mobile sector, Virgin said.

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