Carphone Warehouse set to provide free broadband

Carphone Warehouse is expected to announce free broadband for some of its fixed-line customers this week.

The mobile phone retailer, which has a growing number of telecoms services, said last November it intended to target the broadband market.

Analysts said it could announce details of its broadband strategy tomorrow, offering free broadband to its fixed-line Talk Talk customers.

"We think free broadband is on the way, pioneered by Carphone," Merrill Lynch analysts said in a research note. Carphone Warehouse representatives refused to comment.

The company has already said it will invest in local loop unbundling. This is where Internet Service Providers install their own equipment into a local exchange, rather than rely on BT's network. 

Carphone Warehouse will invest around £60m to put this equipment in up to 1,000 BT exchanges, allowing it to reach 70 per cent of the population.