TalkTalk Confirm Acquisition of Shell Energy’s UK Broadband Customers

Low-cost focused ISP TalkTalk has this week confirmed recent news reports by officially announcing that they’ve acquired Shell Energy’s UK broadband customer base from Octopus Energy, albeit for an as yet undisclosed sum. At the last count, Shell was believed to be hosting a total base of 480,000 internet and phone users.

In case anybody has forgotten, the Octopus Energy Group only recently completed the acquisition of UK retail provider Shell Energy from the Shell Group (here), although it was always well known that they were only really interested in the provider’s 1.3 million energy users. The expectation was thus that Octopus would divest their telecoms base to another ISP, much like what happened when Ovo Energy sold their SSE Broadband base to TalkTalk in 2022 (here).

Suffice to say that TalkTalk, despite its well-known debt challenges (they’ve got a £1bn+ pile of it to deal with), was also the front running candidate for Shell Energy’s base too – not least because most of their customers are on a managed wholesale solution run by the same provider (this makes for a relatively painless migration).

News reports then appeared to all but confirm the aforementioned development in mid-December 2023 (here), but today represents the first time that TalkTalk and Octopus have officially confirmed the deal.

TalkTalk’s Statement

Further to reports, TalkTalk confirms that a vehicle controlled by TalkTalk’s major shareholders has acquired Shell Energy’s UK broadband customer base from Octopus Energy.

Shell Energy Broadband has been a longstanding wholesale customer of TalkTalk, with services offered through the company’s unique national network platform, and that relationship will now continue.

Octopus Energy Statement

Octopus Energy has agreed to sell the broadband arm of Shell Energy Retail following the acquisition of the company in December 2023.

After careful consideration, the company has selected the shareholders of TalkTalk, an established retailer in the telecoms market, as the buyer of Shell Energy Broadband. TalkTalk already has vast experience in the market, has demonstrated great customer care and uses state-of-the-art proprietary technology to look after its customers.

Shell Energy is already supported by TalkTalk’s platform, so transferring to them ensures a smooth transition for all customers involved, which is the highest priority for both companies and the best outcome for customers.

The migration process will begin in the coming months. For now, customers should sit tight; they will be contacted once their account is ready to move over to TalkTalk’s systems.

Until migration, Shell Energy Broadband customers will be looked after by the same teams as before.

At present there are no further details available on TalkTalk’s plan for the customer integration and Shell Energy’s website has yet to make any reference to the agreement, but no doubt that will change within the next few days or weeks. Meanwhile, Shell Energy’s customers could be forgiven for feeling a little dizzy, after being passed between three different companies, and all in a fairly short space of time.