Talktalk bombarded me with pleas to upgrade broadband

I agree with Frank Nesbitt’s Star Letter (Issue 643) that Talktalk’s proposal for the Government to promote full-fibre broadband is just the company looking out for itself, not for its customers. It’s bad enough when the Government is asked to sink millions of pounds into doomed private companies, but expecting it to fund the marketing budget for a going concern out of taxpayers’ money – with no other aim but to boost that company’s profits – is ludicrous!

It’s also absurd that property listings should be required to disclose whether it can get full-fibre broadband. I’d put a broadband upgrade in the same category as kitchen or bathroom renovations – in other words, leave it to the buyer to decide whether they want it.

Talktalk has bombarded me with calls, emails and texts urging me to upgrade to full-fibre, which I neither need nor can afford. It all came to a head with an (unsolicited) text from Openreach, not Talktalk, to say they were coming on a certain date to install full fibre. You could only click to confirm or change the appointment, not decline it. I finally got the visit cancelled but was pointedly told (like a naughty boy) that it would have to be done eventually, because copper cables are being replaced. Ian Nicholson

There’s been a fibre-optic broadband cable in our street for well over two years, but Talktalk had repeatedly denied its existence. It has now offered Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to a handful of properties, but only by old-fashioned overhead cables and telegraph poles. What Talktalk is really looking for is a government subsidy to help cover installation costs and so make FTTP more profitable for them.

Dr Egils Praulitis