The Carphone Warehouse and broadband ISP TalkTalk UK have cleared the last hurdle in their long demerger process after the High Court of Justice in England and Wales gave formal legal approval for the split earlier this week.

TalkTalk will be given a new trading title of the TalkTalk Telecom Group, though this will not become effective until Monday morning when the stock market re-opens. However the demerger itself will technically become effective from 4.30pm this Friday.

The TalkTalk Telecom Group (TTG) will have sole responsibility for all of the related ISP and telecoms businesses under its banner (e.g. Opal , Nildram , Pipex , Freedom2Surf , ex-Tiscali customers etc.). TTG is likely to keep some relations with The Carphone Warehouse , allowing it to launch a mobile phone product and offer new triple-play bundles (mobile, home phone and broadband).

The ISP has also made no secret of the fact that it plans to launch a broadband TV ( IPTV ) service too (quad-play), which will be based off the forthcoming Project Canvas. This is the system that hopes to create a standards based open environment for broadband connected digital television (DTV) receivers.

Those moves would place TalkTalk head-to-head with the likes of established players, such as Virgin Media and Sky Broadband (BSkyB). However it will need a strong TV offering, more than Canvas alone can provide, to truly take on such established competition. By contrast adding a mobile service should be easy.

UPDATE 29th March 2010

Just to make it completely official, here is today's statement from CPW.