I was very interested to read yesterday that Carphone Warehouse might offer free broadband. From Silicon.com today, it appears that Sky and Virgin might also start trying to lure entrenched dial-up users (35 per cent of the UK internet population) to switch to broadband by offering free service bundles (according to JupiterResearch, 33 per cent of dial-up users will not switch to broadband if it means paying greater subscription costs).
I should declare an interest. I recently switched our household telephone service from BT to Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk landline service. TalkTalk made a compelling case for switching telephone service and the changeover went without a hitch and with no discernible impact on quality of service. If they can do the same with respect to my broadband connection as well and offer it ‘free’ (the BBC reports here that the service costs £20.99/month, plus one-off connection fee of £29.99 – BT has condemned it as a "clever marketing ploy from a clever marketing team", says The Register), then it will be goodbye BT Broadband from me.
