Talktalk gone mute?

[DoctoredWho]

I've had no internet access at all for the last few hours. In an attempt to get online I've resorted to using my phone's 3G connection as a wi-fi hotspot and found none of Talktalk's sites work, including www.f2s.com. Checking Twitter I find it's not just my connection, all their customers seem to be affected.

The real kicker in all of this? This afternoon, whilst Talktalk was working, I did a speedtest - it was around 1.4mb (which is pitiful). The connection via my phone's 3G is only slightly slower but I'm finding the internet is responding far quicker. This makes me wonder what exactly I'm paying Talktalk for, it's obviously not for a reliable, fast connection!

Why can Talktalk not host a service status page somewhere else, so when their evidently unreliable equipment decides to go on the wonk they can at least keep us, their beleaguered paying prey, informed. Perhaps they could organise this instead of phoning me up, pestering me to become a Business customer when I already am one, they made sure of that when they bought F2S!

[deeebee]

Also no bb here. Red light on the router log says some kind of chap authentication error.