TalkTalk launches unlimited broadband for £2.50 a month

For only £30 a year plus line rental, Talk Talk's new budget SimplyBroadband tariff looks a steal. But is it really the best deal to go for?

TalkTalk is renowned for coming up with budget-friendly broadband deals. Its latest SimplyBroadband tariff promises users broadband for a mere £2.50 a month, but what are the catches and how does this compare with other leading deals?

Digging into SimplyBroadband

With TalkTalk's new SimplyBroadband tariff, you pay £2.50 a month for broadband, plus £15.50 for monthly line rental. This comes to £18 a month, or £216 a year.

However, pay your line rental a year in advance with TalkTalk's Value Line Rental and your yearly rent drops by £70.80 to just £114. Add on £30 for broadband and you've got landline plus broadband for 12 months for a mere £144. That's just £12 a month.

Here are the details of this dynamite deal:

• Totally unlimited 16MB broadband (with no download limits)
• Just £2.50 per month (plus £15.40 monthly line rental)
• Free router, free HomeSafe software and free connection
• No calls included; you pay extra for each call you make
• For an additional £5.50 a month, you can add Anytime calls
• 'Fibre boost' costs £12.50 a month to lift speeds to up to 38Mb
• Available to new TalkTalk customers applying online and signing a 12-month contract

As you can see, this deal pretty much does what it says on the tin: you get fast broadband for a year, plus a landline, for just £12 a month all-in. However, any landline calls you make will be charged at fairly steep connection and call rates, so stick to using your mobile for phone calls.

Britain's cheapest broadband

Crunching the numbers proves that switching to this low-cost broadband plus landline deal can produce tasty yearly savings.

To demonstrate these splendid savings over 12 months, the following table compares TalkTalk SimplyBroadband with six other broadband-only or broadband plus calls deals:

* Includes line rental paid upfront, 12 months in advance

** Only available to EE, Orange and T-Mobile customers

As you can see, TalkTalk SimplyBroadband is between £12 and £90 a year cheaper than these six other offers, making it Britain's cheapest broadband+landline package by some way.

However, thanks to an exclusive offer from broadbandchoices.co.uk, you get a £15 credit when signing up to Primus using the above link. This reduces the net cost of the Primus deal to just £141, making it £3 cheaper than TalkTalk's new deal in the first year. Then again, TalkTalk takes top honours from year two onwards, making it the best deal over more than a year.

What's more, for customers paying monthly line rental, the savings from switching will be even higher. TalkTalk reckons that a household switching from a standard BT package to its SimplyBroadband deal will save a tidy £225 over 18 months.

Existing TalkTalk customers on its low-cost Essentials package (£3.25 a month plus line rental) can transfer across mid-contract to SimplyBroadband without any exit penalties.

Why pay for calls you don't make?

If you have a mobile contract that has plenty of inclusive minutes and rarely use your home phone, then this deal is aimed squarely at you. After all, why pay for calls and a calling package for a landline you seldom - if ever - use?

TalkTalk's Tristia Harrison said, "Our customers told us they wanted a broadband-only option, so by stripping out the calling bundle, we are bringing the cost down further, allowing them to enjoy everything the internet has to offer at the lowest price around."

Compare broadband deals at broadbandchoices.co.uk.

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