Talk talk supplies ADSL instead of FTTC

i have been to a friends place today to sort out a Android box she has been given here and noticed the internet speed was awful. Her son originally had Talk Talk and for some strange reason transferred it his new place, so my friend had to reorder.
i have been there a few weeks back and was surprised how slow the internet was, not having the time to look into it, speed was under 1Mb/s.

So today we had a bit of time, so IK went to set up the Android box and could not get it work properly, so I went into the control panel of the router and found out she was on ADSL. Talk gave her fast broadband, which I was shocked, because I thought TT would automatically give people fibre, after all it is only a couple of quid more per month.

I presume my friend clicked on fast broadband instead of fibre while ordering it, but I thought Talk Talk would have got in touch to see if that what she really wanted.

Anyway, I went to her account and updated it to faster broadband, just have to wait for the router and stuff now,
i am not blaming Talk Talk for this as such, but I thought they would have got in touch with my friend to make sure she knew what she was ordering, as very few people would order ADSL these days.

I know someone who did the same thing with Sky last year and got an email asking if they were sure that is what they wanted or something like that.


People do not always know what they are ordering, Anyway, sorted now hopefully, will go back to sort out the Android box once the faster broadband is up and running.

On the flip side of that not everyone wants to be upsold.

Should they call everyone who orders ADSL and try sell FTTC?
Should they call everyone who orders 40/10 and try sell 80/20?
Should they call everyone who orders 80/20 and try sell them 160/30?

Or should they just show customers estimates of what each product offers when they enter their address and let them device.

I think the latter.

If i to the "Check Broadband Availability" page on the Talktalk site it only gives me FTTC estimates. ADSL isn't even offered.

When i enter my address on the Talktalk ADSL section of their website (labelled "broadband" instead of "fibre broadband") they show FTTC estimates first and then ADSL estimates below.

Your friend has specifically picked ADSL over FTTC after being shown both estimates.
I don't think the ISP should be trying to upsell this.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sun 20-Sep-20 18:40:27)

It's possible FTTP was ordered but when the original FTTP was stopped someone on a waiting list got it.

I assume you mean FTTC?

If it was on a waiting list then there wouldn't be much point trying to upsell FTTC.

Here's what you could have had, but you can't have it

@OP: No, this isn't the case. Not all ISPs will inform the customer that a faster option is available. The checker may show the faster option, but if the customer chooses ADSL, the ISP isn't going to stop you from signing up to it, regardless of how poor the service speed is.

And it is not just with TalkTalk. If you check Sky this is what it shows for me.

Essential
£22
9.6 - 16Mb/s

Superfast
£25
68 - 74Mb/s

If I pick essential package and I am in the middle of the contract. Sky, TalkTalk, etc will not call me to offer me Superfast unless of-course my contract has expired. I am sure we have all received letters from ISPs offering us Superfast Fibre package at some point but they don't oblige you to make the switch.

There is an article from last year on ISPreview. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/08/the-to...

"20% said they don’t use the internet enough to warrant upgrading to fibre."

So despite FTTC availability there are still people that sign up to ADSL packages.

Only a few ISPs like BT, Vodafone, Aquiss, etc have retired ADSL services to premises that have FTTC available. Those postcodes will not let you sign up to ADSL. But most ISPs will still show ADSL as an option and if you sign up to it, they aren't going to switch you to FTTC by default unless you manually make the switch.

We all know Smoking and drinking Alcohol causes risk of cancer and heart attack. Junk food increases risk of obesity. No grocery store is going to tell you "hey buy a more paleolithic diet instead of those fries and burgers!" If people aren't making informed decisions, you can't stop them from making the wrong decisions.

TalkTalk have a checker which asks things such as "how many devices are connecting?" "are you streaming video, gaming etc etc" At the end it recommends a package.

If your ADSL2+ sync speed is high it will offer this up, if it's very slow it will recommend fibre packages. The challenge is this is a home move, they may have been able to get a fast speed at the old premises on ADSL2+ hence it recommended it as an option, the home move will generally just take the exact package you have already and move it. If you go from an ADSL2+ speed of say 15Mbps at the old premises and do a home move to a place where the sync would only be 2Mbps, the system won't automatically flag the slow speed as part of a home move. They will just migrate like for like. The customer will generally get an email of the revised slower speed.

It sounds like ADSL2+ is not fit for purpose at the new address, so time to discuss fibre options (if they can get it which most properties can).

It could also be they had fibre at the old address, but the new address either 1) could not get fibre e.g. they are really far from the cabinet or 2) the cabinet was full and hence talktalk could only provision ADSL2+ until a slot becomes available or openreach upgrade capacity.

I am unsure if you are saying they moved address, or the son just took the service as it was in his name, leaving her without and she took a new order. If the latter...

I think reading between the lines here she likely went through the talktalk process and selected 1 user or 2 users, and clicked on things such as "check email" not things such as HD video streaming, gaming, etc etc. This would then flag ADSL2+ as appropriate, vs choosing say 6 users, streaming, gaming etc which would flag a faster speed.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 21-Sep-20 12:03:11)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

On the flip side of that not everyone wants to be upsold.

Should they call everyone who orders ADSL and try sell FTTC?
Should they call everyone who orders 40/10 and try sell 80/20?
Should they call everyone who orders 80/20 and try sell them 160/30?

Or should they just show customers estimates of what each product offers when they enter their address and let them device.

I think the latter.

If i to the "Check Broadband Availability" page on the Talktalk site it only gives me FTTC estimates. ADSL isn't even offered.

When i enter my address on the Talktalk ADSL section of their website (labelled "broadband" instead of "fibre broadband") they show FTTC estimates first and then ADSL estimates below.

Your friend has specifically picked ADSL over FTTC after being shown both estimates.
I don't think the ISP should be trying to upsell this.

Maybe you are right, but I am just surprised they did not, after all I thought they would want a bit more money.


My friend did not have any idea what she was doing and just picked one that said fats broadband thinking that was fast broadband, Talk Talk certainly need to rename their services. Many people have no idea what ADSL is compared to FTTC or full fibre.

i think you got some things mixed up.

My friend son, moved out of my friends house, the phone and broadband was in his name and instead of transferring the connection to my friend and having a new connection as his new place, he done a house move. Which I advised against, but by the time I said that it was already going through. So my friend ended up with no broadband or phone at her house.
So my friend had to get broadband again for her house and because her son was with Talk Talk and they seemed ok, and cheap, she decided to go with them. I presume she looked on her mobile phone for the cheapest Talk Talk package and to be honest, trying to look through websites on a mobile phone is not great.

So yes it was her mistake, but mainly because she had no idea what she was getting. But I am surprised that Talk Talk did not say are you sure this is what you want? But they did not.

if I had more time the first time I went down there after she had it installed I would have noticed that she was on ADSL and it was not Talk Talk offering bad service. I know of so many people having awful service with Talk Talk over the years, that I just can't get it out of my head.
Anyway, the last time I went down I had more time to find out the problem and after looking at the setting of the router, confirmed my fear that she had chosen ADSL. She then got into her account and I saw that she had ordered faster broadband, which in my option would be FTTC, faster, broadband, equals faster broadband, so FTTC.

I thought I would have to call Talk Talk and was dreading it, anyway, thankfully, there is a way to update online and that is what I did, Now waiting for router and connection


My friend knows nothing about this stuff, which is why I said to ask me, but I presume she wanted to get it done quickly, and I was not available at the time

anyway, all sorted now, I hope.

Your average Joe Bloggs will buy broadband based on the speed & cost offered to them. Most couldn’t care less (and won’t have the foggiest) what technology the service is delivered over. Was your friend not provided with estimated line speeds by TT before clicking ‘order’?

TalkTalk list as this.
'Fast Broadband' ADSL.
'Faster Fibre' up to 38Mb FTTC.
'Superfast Fibre' up to 76Mb FTTC