talktalk ISP

Good service so far. There is so much bad pub re talktalk that I nearly didnt get it. But it installed and works fine so far - including using talktalk software to configure a wireless modem that I am using instead of the talktalk modem.

The recent article on ADSL guide news about the number of LLU activations and ADSL services should show that its a great service. Surely that many customers cannot be wrong. Obviously when you have that many customers and LLU migrations then statistically things may go wrong now and then on a much larger scale than poxyisp ltd.

Don't forget that Openreach have published figures showing that a number off LLU services with issues is higher than they would have liked. This issue is accross the industry. However TalkTalk are at the forefront so get the brunt of any negative opinions.

But when you do get issues, contact with 1st line so-called support can lose all credibility with the service. It can't be too difficult to provide a support service that does not cut you off when they can't answer a question, or even knows what they are talking about? Reading from a script may work OK when selling mobile phones but with fault finding you need a modicum of intelligence that doesn't seem to be present in 1st line at the moment. IMHO you get better advice here than from TT 1st line support. That really isn't right.

For example, I would like interleaving turned off on my broadband connection. This is a service that BT makes available to both its retail and wholesale customers. I doubt if any TT 1st line support person would even know what I was talking about, let alone what to do about processing my request. And yes I have already asked.

Speed seems to be the number one complaint, and TT have done little to reduce expectations amongst the non-technical. Judging by the questions in this forum, TT provides little or no advice to customers as how to improve their broadband connection and speed. Not supporting any wireless routers that TT just happens to sell is ridiculous. The number 3 broadband supplier should be able to support ANY modem.

Incidentally the number of TT LLU activations is only running at about 10,000 per week, mainly due to Openreach limitations according to Mr Dunstone's conference call. At that rate by May 2007 there will only be another 130,000 extra LLU lines connected, leaving about 260,000 or 50% of the free broadband customers still to be connected to LLU. And if the rate does not improve it will take until next November to connect them all up and that is without a single AOL or OneTel broadband customer being transferred either.

Not working for TT I cant say in detail what their proceedures are for fault reporting processes, however before a fault can be reported for investigation by Engineers certain questions from an industry standard script must be answered by the customer, in fact this script is available from BT Wholesale and not only that but eco-repair explicitly asks that these questions have been asked.

Carphone's target is May i think for 1000+ exchanges being unbundled I beleive. This is a target they have stated in public and I'm sure will be met.

I can't comment on TT and your interleaving issue as I don't know the details...perhaps talktalkboy can? Though I will say that I used to work for a VERY WELL REGARDED ISP that charges the earth for connections and was informed that they had taken the decision to stop supporting third party equipment; they had done it on the grounds of the time it was taken for support to assist users. This was an ISP that regarded itself on Customer Services.

Interleaving cannotn be turned off yet, but i believe from people ive spoken to within opal that there is a few new profiles being worked on or a function for the support staff to turn the interleaving off.

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Not working for TT I cant say in detail what their proceedures are for fault reporting processes, however before a fault can be reported for investigation by Engineers certain questions from an industry standard script must be answered by the customer, in fact this script is available from BT Wholesale and not only that but eco-repair explicitly asks that these questions have been asked.

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That's fair enough when a fault exists, but what about ordinary customer service such as requesting interleaving being turned off? That is not a fault, it is an adjustment of a setting or tweak to optimise a connection. It still involves engineering settings but it is not necessary to tick a box saying that modem drivers have been reinstalled before being passed on to someone who can implement the adjustment.

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Carphone's target is May i think for 1000+ exchanges being unbundled I beleive. This is a target they have stated in public and I'm sure will be met.

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My point was that even if 1000 exchanges are unbundled by May 2007, Openreach processing limitations will prevent all "free" broadband customers being migrated to LLU by that time if the present weekly migration rate is not increased.

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Interleaving cannotn be turned off yet, but i believe from people ive spoken to within opal that there is a few new profiles being worked on or a function for the support staff to turn the interleaving off.

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I hope you will let us know when this happens

ill keep you updated

Numbers is only part of the story. In fact if you compare these figures with what was talked about earlier it shows a slow down, or a previous over stating of things

Andrew

Whats interleaving ??