Sky Broadband UK Denies it Has Plans for a Mobile Phone Service

BSkyB (Sky Broadband) has today played down speculation that it could be about to enter the quad-play market (broadband, tv, phone and mobile) with a mobile phone service after several reports indicated that the group had held related talks with Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile).

The move would not be surprising as nearly all of Sky’s closest rivals, such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Orange UK, already have some form of mobile solution to support their existing bundle of products. It would therefore make perfect sense for Sky to enter that same market, especially given their strong growth. Mobile is the only element missing.

In theory Sky could achieve this by either building its own mobile network (very expensive and thus highly unlikely), acquiring one of the markets existing operators (possible but risky) or agreeing to launch a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO); possibly with Everything Everywhere’s help. The latter is most likely.

Sky Spokesperson said:

“As you might expect we regularly meet with a wide range of companies to explore and understand potential opportunities. While we continue to extend our leadership in mobile content, we currently have no plans to offer mobile access beyond our existing public WiFi network.”

Mind you, not so long ago Sky also told us that they had “no other plans” to offer an 80Mbps superfast broadband (FTTC) service before doing just that, albeit secretly, just a few weeks later (here). The reality is that Sky would perhaps be mad not to pursue a mobile product, so don’t bank on “no plans” being their last word.