Vodafone has once again been linked with the current speculation over Tiscali's sale. Sources close to the operator have informed The Times that it may be contemplating bidding for either the group as a whole, or just its UK operations.

Naturally almost all of the UK's main operators and ISPs have been linked with speculation over Tiscali UK's current sale at some point, though until now only The Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk, AOL UK) had officially expressed any firm interest.

The deadline for any non-bid interest is expected to be in before 5th May 2008. Vodafone is now so far behind in the UK’s broadband market that a bid for Tiscali could be its last hope of ever breaking back in.