'Improved' Carphone Warehouse to resume TalkTalk push

Carphone Warehouse was today poised to push for more broadband business after claiming a “significant” improvement in the way it deals with customers.

The group has been the subject of many complaints after “unprecedented” levels of demand for its TalkTalk broadband offer, which provided free high-speed internet to those customers paying £20 (€29) a month for a landline phone.

In a trading update, Carphone said its rate of growth in broadband had slowed as it focused on customer service processes and as a result of normal seasonal pressures. It said the TalkTalk broadband customer base rose to 632,000 in the period, including 540,000 who were live on the new offer.

Carphone said: “We have now significantly improved our provisioning and customer service processes, and are ready to increase the rate of recruitment once more.”

Last month, chief executive Charles Dunstone told customers that Carphone had made “significant strides” but that it had some way to go until it became “best in class”.

He added: “Most notably, we now have no queues for connection and easy access to our call centres with little waiting to be answered.”

Carphone is now the UK’s third largest broadband provider after its £370m (€550m) acquisition of AOL UK gave it a total base of 2.2 million residential broadband customers.

In its retail business, Carphone said sales in the 13 weeks to December 30 grew 19.7% with the figure up by 7.3% on a like-for-like basis.