TalkTalk Launches Full Fibre in Edinburgh

TalkTalk is taking its Future Fibre packages, with speeds of up to 500Mbps, to Edinburgh.

The budget ISP offers ultrafast broadband plans over both Openreach and CityFibre’s separate full-fibre networks. It most recently launched the tariffs in Cambridge, Leeds, Leicester and Stirling in June and has plans to extend them over the entirety of both networks.

CityFibre is in the early stages of a £4 billion build that will take its full fibre to 8 million premises by the end of 2025. Currently, it reaches 650,000 addresses.

Meanwhile, Openreach’s rival FTTP currently covers 5.2 million premises. The BT Group division is aiming for 25 million by the end of 2026.

Both networks are open to wholesale partners and TalkTalk is offering some of the cheapest plans on them. Its 150Mbps service costs £32 per month on a 24-month contract, while the 500Mbps service costs £40 per month on a similar contract.

If your home is connected by CityFibre, you’ll receive symmetrical upload and download speeds. However, packages on the most widespread Openreach come with slower upload speeds. TalkTalk will tell you which service you’ll receive before you sign up.

TalkTalk says it is meeting a need for faster, more reliable internet in Edinburgh and across the UK as a result of the adoption of home working during the coronavirus crisis. Internet usage increased by 37% in Edinburgh between January 2020 and June 2021, TalkTalk said.

Future Fibre is designed to accommodate video calling and streaming on multiple devices at once. TalkTalk says it’s up to 45 times faster and five times more reliable than standard broadband.

Jonathan Kini, the ISP’s managing director, said: “We believe fast, affordable full fibre broadband should be accessible to all. This has been brought into even sharper focus by the pandemic.”

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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