Virgin Media O2 UK Outsourcing 700 Roles to Tata CS and Tech Mahindra
Sources have informed ISPreview that broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media (O2) has today notified around 700 staff that their roles are to be transferred to the Indian owned Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra. The move is intended to “better deliver for our customers“, although this could still result in some redundancies.
Just to recap. Last month we covered reports that VMO2 were allegedly in the process of reaching a new agreement with TCS, which was speculated to be worth around £750m over 10-years (here). At the time, it was said that the deal could see the telecoms provider outsourcing some of their IT, such as in application management and infrastructure services, to the Indian company.
The network operator has long worked with TCS as part of an enterprise software integration contract, which was announced back in 2023. The UK is currently also said to be TCS’s second-largest market after the USA and they’re in the process of expanding their UK based workforce to create 5,000 new jobs, although the timeframe for this remains unclear, but it now looks set to be supported by today’s development.
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Earlier today sources began to inform ISPreview that hundreds of VMO2 staff had been notified that they were to be transferred under TUPE – Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – to Tech Mahindra and TCS. The same sources claimed that no offer of voluntary redundancy had been made for those who don’t want to TUPE. VMO2 has since confirmed the transfer and provided the following statement.
A VMO2 spokesperson told ISPreview:
“As part of our ongoing efforts to simplify how we operate, accelerate growth and better deliver for our customers, we are proposing to enhance our tech and service delivery by expanding our strategic partnerships with leading IT firms Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra, which will see some of our people move to those organisations in the UK.
Through these partnerships, covering areas like project delivery and platform management, we’ll be able to leverage our partners’ expertise and benefit from access to their global networks, innovative ecosystems and the latest digital technologies.
We are having open and honest conversations directly with our unions and employee representative groups on these plans and will continue to support any impacted individuals throughout this process.”
The development comes only a few short days after VMO2 notified around 300 staff in the Fixed Wholesale and Customer Delivery side of their business that they could be facing redundancy in the near future (here), although the operator is hoping to map many of those into other roles.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I would imagine the staff affected by this news won’t be jumping for joy at the prospect. The question is, will they still have employment two years down the line?
The terms of the agreement state that they will move to an offshore-onsite model so all us staff being Tupe’ed will be redundant in 15 months time unless we find new roles, its very specific in terms
TCS? Where do I remember that name from? Oh yes… https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2025/security/m-s-ends-contract-with-tcs
This is what came to my mind. TCS were involved with JLR when they got hacked as well.
I’d say this is a bold move from VMO2 (and one more reason for me to stay away from them).
M&S was compromised by criminals impersonating employees by gathering data from a very well known professional network site.
It was not compromised by Tata or its affiliates.
So VMO2 presumably don’t see these roles as business critical or core. That, or they’re willing to hand control of business-critical activities, away.
Interesting….
Its 790 staff to be specific. 700 to TCS and 90 to Tech Mahindra. So it will now be a 3rd party management of customer data and financial details as all those who manage this will be moving over.
The move is intended to “better deliver for our customers“
That is so funny, it has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with saving money, are the call centres going to be in India? I remember BT call centres being in India, hello my name is Sam, Yeah, sure it is.
Worse customer service I ever had from any company I dealt with and that includes Talk Talk
Just gives me another reason to stay clear of Virgin/o2
Makes perfect sense for the UK ISP with one of their worst reputations to chose to outsource their IT to a company with an equally poor reputation. They deserve each other.
Given my experience of their customer service, it can’t get any worse. They just don’t talk to each other internally, expecting the customer to go back and forth between departments to get things sorted out. No sense of ownership.
Why hand more roles to two MSPs who don’t currently deliver anything but a terrible experience to your users? Sure the CSAT scores should tell VMo2 they need to either bring everything back in house or at least look for a better performing MSP! I can see myself ever going back now. I’d rather forego symmetrical speeds and stay on an OpenReach line than have to deal with their terrible (understatement) customer support.
Been forced to work with these on and off for years. The only thing they care about is billable hours they do not care about customer service to the public or VM02.
They are happy to lie to your face. The staff will be a revolving lineup of forever changing names with no accountability to VM02.
Frankly the bean counters don’t care as long as they get that next promotion based on the ‘savings’ Within 2 years they will have 3 times the people charging more than you were paying onshore because VM02 will change the requirements so it’s all billable.
We don’t learn. We keep on doing it. Because all that matters is $
Better deliver to our customers roughly translated as if we outsource it then it will be cheaper and still crap but Lutz and all the other myriad of directors will still get a nice bonus.
Shocking announcement again
Going from bad to worse
Wow, which actual internal teams are moving to TCS/TM?
Its the backdoor IT staff, so those working on unix/cloud systems etc
Freeing up cash to buy other alt nets apparently they are coming in way too low on some of their offers right now
Yet another big firm outsourcing to a foreign entity who have clearly demonstrated an inability to follow correct protocols and deliver on their promises to their clients. This will clearly have a negative impact on VMo2 customers, such as myself, and on VMo2 staff who have been kept out of the loop by the sounds of it! Shame on you VMo2
So no conflict of interest for TCS and Tech Mahindra, who both provide many services to BT / Openreach and now VMO2? All in direct competition.
Wow!! They could not have made a worse decision. VM has an exceptionally poor reputation and scamming will get far worse.
Seen this play out elsewhere countless times….When deep knowledge of your IT systems is outsourced, your commercial leverage is materially weakened, leaving you structurally dependent on the external provider. Over time, this creates a one-sided relationship in which cost, pace, and strategic direction are effectively dictated to you rather than negotiated, regardless of internally you pretend you’re in control.
Partnering with experienced global technology providers should help Virgin Media O2 streamline processes, improve reliability, and ultimately deliver a better experience for customers. I’m optimistic that this move will lead to faster support, more robust systems, and a noticeable uplift in overall service performance.
From experience it won’t help
all that just to protect/extend the shareholders profits – whilst the all round quality experience for all things VM just further goes out the window.. fab.
It’s funny that Sky has ditched TCS and now sources contractors from Tata Elxsi and a few other Indian companies.
But resources I have experienced from both entities are just woefully inept
If they asked their actual customer id bet not a single one of them would say this is better for them.
Without fail Indian call centres are staffed by people who can barely speak English and can understand it even less.
I’m convinced they only need to answer the most mundane and basic of questions in English to get the job.
Secondly I’m not interested in private financial details or any details for that matter being perused at will by some centre in India.
I’m cancelling at end of february when contract ends 100% now.
I have worked in IT for over 30 years (mainly in vendorland) and seen numerous companies outsource to TCS and other Indian firms like HCL and WiPro – without fail, every single time, it results in a poorer experience for the customer and a degraded service internally. Two companies that immediately spring to mind are BA and JLR, but there are many others.
Today, vmo2 has announced laying off other employee and contractors working on Radio Access department
And Talk talk / PXC
A superb example of the UK/India trade deal working so well. An Indian company can bring some to the UK having employed them for 3 months and save 20% cost on a local through not having to pay NI or pension contributions. 20% tax advantage to import talent from Indian for 3 years – a massively long time. That is even if the person earns the same personally; purely a tax/competitive advantage.
We are obsessed with selling whiskey whilst undercutting our own grads.