UK ISP TalkTalk Business Formally Complete Separation from TalkTalk Group
Business broadband and Ethernet provider TalkTalk Business (TTB), which was demerged from the wider TalkTalk Group and sold to the group’s own shareholders for £95m in Oct 2023 (here), has today announced that they’ve just formally completed their separation from the Group and are “now operating as a fully independent organisation“.
Following the sale of TalkTalk Business Direct in 2023, TalkTalk Business maintained access to certain core TalkTalk Group systems while developing its own independent operating environment. That phased transition is now complete, with an “established operational infrastructure, modernised system stack and comprehensive service delivery capabilities, cementing its position as a standalone business“, said the announcement.
The separation is said to provide the provider with “full autonomy over strategy, investment and systems“, which they hope will form a part in accelerating their growth and enabling them to “respond more quickly to market demand, expand its product portfolio and to continue its investment in customer service“. The provider has already evolved beyond connectivity and into managed services.
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Ruth Kennedy, CEO of TalkTalk Business, said:
“This marks the beginning of the exciting next phase for TalkTalk Business. We are now operating as a fully independent organisation with the agility and focus needed to deliver our strategy at pace.
Our evolution into a managed network service provider is central to our growth ambitions. By combining our connectivity heritage with broader technology expertise and strong strategic partnerships, we are building a business designed specifically to support customers with secure, end-to-end solutions. This separation gives us the clarity and momentum to drive that forward.”
For customers, the change is said to deliver “clearer accountability, streamlined processes and access to an evolving suite of technology solutions“. New operational frameworks and product developments are also already in place to aid service delivery and support their long-term digital transformation ambitions. The provider added that they were continuing to work with strategic technology partners including Cisco, Zoom and Mitel.
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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A company in 2026 trying to sell commodity stuff like business broadband without an online ordering process and insisting on a sales engagement is quite a bold strategy.
Exciting
They used to have a good website and when I was with them they were decent on connectivity. They were once the gold standard according to the likes of AAISP and others. How do we order now?
Carrier pigeon?
I would assume A&A aren’t dealing with this new company. Their relationship would have moved to PXC, which is still owned by the TalkTalk Group (for now)
Cautiously, this looks like a win for TTB. By fully separating today, they’ve shed the debt and operational “noise” of managing a legacy consumer network. Expect them to lean hard into their Salford/Manchester identity, using the “smaller, agile team” narrative to attract mid-market and public sector clients tired of being ignored by the BT and VMO2 giants.
For those asking what Ruth Kennedy means by a Managed Network Service Provider (MNSP): it’s the shift from a “pipes only” strategy to a one-stop shop. Instead of selling just a raw fibre line, TTB now delivers the entire service wrap—the network, Cisco Meraki firewalls, SD-WAN, and Zoom-integrated voice.
Here’s the clever bit: TTB doesn’t actually own the network. When the TalkTalk Group demerged, they created PXC (PlatformX Communications), which owns the 3,000+ unbundled exchanges, the national fibre spine, and the handovers to AltNets like CityFibre and Trooli. TTB is now a premium tenant, buying wholesale capacity from PXC at a fixed rate. As of this month, TTB is likely PXC’s second-biggest customer, sitting just behind Utility Warehouse, which has grown to over 560,000 customers on the platform.
The elephant in the room is that PXC is up for sale, with VMO2 and Vodafone reportedly bidding this week. But far from being a risk, a sale could actually empower TTB. They’ve gone from being a “captive” internal department to an independent MNSP. They have long-term legal access to the PXC network, but they also have the strategic freedom to switch providers or renegotiate if a new owner tries to squeeze them. It’s a classic move: turn your biggest risk into your greatest strategic advantage.
If PXC now own TT bundled exchanges, doesn’t that mean TalkTalk Residential (consumer) are the largest customers of PCX rather than UW?
@Ken: The answer is yes because I missed the agreement whereby TalkTalk Consumer is exclusively sourcing from PXC. So, PXC’s biggest customers are TalkTalk Consumer, Utility Warehouse and TTB (in that order). A buyer of PXC would be acquiring a business with locked-in consumer demand from TalkTalk Consumer under a long-term exclusive wholesale deal, a major independent customer in Utility Warehouse, and a large base of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-market customers from TTB. That gives PXC a much more diversified and predictable revenue mix than a simple access wholesaler.
Did you generate this comment with a chatbot then immediately get called out for the blatant false information it spewed out?
I wonder what TTB will do when their wholesaler PXC ultimately goes belly up
PXC itself is operationally healthy and not a money-loser like TalkTalk consumer, but is being sold to satisfy TalkTalk’s creditors. There is little danger of PXC going under and as TTB has now been spun off, it’s free to do deals with any other operators including nexfibre (which has recently bought Netomnia).