Phone and internet package could deliver savings of 60 per cent
Carphone Warehouse has launched a telephone and internet package it claims will cut the average home telephone and broadband bill by 60 per cent.

Under the mobile phone retailer's£20.99-a-month TalkTalk plan, customers will receive unlimited local and national landline calls, free broadband internet and unlimited international landline calls to 28 countries.

The offer will cover nearly 70 per cent of the country. Customers are able to subscribe from today and will go live from July. The cost of the project is estimated at£110 million.

In the announcement published today, Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said: 'The residential telecoms market in the UK will never be the same again.'

A trading update released today said the group's anticipated figures for the fourth quarter and full-year were likely to be in line with market expectations.

Dunstone said: 'We have continued to perform strongly and are confident of delivering full year results in line with market expectations, despite incurring some£12 million of start-up losses on our MVNO [Mobile Virtual Network Operation] and broadband activities.'

Numis analyst Steve Davies said: 'Carphone Warehouse has delivered another quarter of excellent growth. We are looking for profit before tax of£135.3 million.'

Over the next financial year, the group plans to open 250 more stores and deliver a 15 per cent growth in connections.

Last week, the group announced it had signed a joint venture with Virgin to set up an MVNO in France. Operating under the Virgin Mobile France brand, the venture will use the Orange network and will include Carphone Warehouse's existing MVNO operations in France

Preliminary results will be announced on June 6.