VodafoneThree Allegedly Places Bid for UK Consumer Broadband ISP TalkTalk
A new report claims that broadband and mobile giant Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has made an offer to acquire the consumer internet and phone business of debt-strained rival TalkTalk (home to 1.75 million customers as of May 2026), which could turn them into a much bigger fixed line ISP (Vodafone has 1.83m fixed broadband customers).
Regular readers will already be aware that the TalkTalk Group has reportedly been engaging in talks with several prospective bidders for their various divisions since around the start of this year (here). At the same time the consumer side of their business has been through a major brand refresh and advertising push in an attempt to try and entice customers back to their refreshed products (here), while continuing to cut costs as part of efforts to tackle the group’s underlying debt problems.
According to a new report in the FT (paywall), VodafoneThree has now tabled a bid for TalkTalk’s consumer broadband and phone business, which could in theory create a single provider with around 3.6 million broadband customers.
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A spokesperson for VodafoneThree, however, said they are currently “very happy with our organic strategy” for growing fixed broadband (they’re one of the fastest growing retail ISPs), but would “always keep a close eye on movements in the market and the sector“. TalkTalk itself declined to comment.
The potential for a deal between VodafoneThree and TalkTalk would appear to make sense, as they both harness several alternative broadband networks and tend to target more cost-conscious consumers with cheaper bundles. At the same time the TalkTalk Group are still seeking a buyer for their PXC wholesale division, although we’ve yet to see any solid developments on that for the past few months.
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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Good. TalkTalks reputation is in the gutter and the only way they can be of any use to anyone is being bought and used for their infrastructure.
Doesn’t sound like the consumer side has any infrastructure so this would just be a grab for a large number of customers.
Sounds like it makes sense as voda3 already offer full fibre over OR and City fibre so will just move them to their platform. Also the mvno already on the voda network so this will lock those customers in which might be lost if sold to another buyer.
Defo a customer grab and quite logical.
It sure is. Kinda sad in a way for me as I started my career with them in customer service back in 2009 but having seen the repeated cyber attacks, the way they handled repeated redundancies, and the aggressive sales tactics employed by their (subcontracted) sales agents over the years, I’m not surprised.
It looks like the gloves are off in the telecoms sector with Telefonica/O2 possibly about to swallow Virgin Media and rebrand the whole outfit as O2, if VodaThree buy TalkTalk it will mean all the existing mobile providers will have fixed line broadband networks. I guess this was always the long term goal.
All of the mobile operators own, or are owned by major fixed line ISPs. Three was the exception but that is obviously not the case anymore.
Vodafone doesn’t own or isn’t owned by a “Major Fixed Line ISP”. It has a broadband division with under 2M customers that is effectively a piggyback to Openreach. The only two mobile companies in the UK that are owned or directly joined to fixed line ISP’s are EE and O2.
This is Vodafone we’re talking about. They’ll probably make a deal with VMO2 to “reduce costs” and split the country in half like they did with the mobile side… chapter than competing.
True, but only BT/EE and Virgin/O2 will actually own a network, the rest (including VodaThree/TalkTalk) will be merely tenants of someone else.
TalkTalk don’t have a broadband network. Neither do Vodafone.
Gareth – if that was your intended argument then you should make it clearer. Vodafone owns a “broadband network”, as in, they own a nationwide network of routers and a nationwide fibre network to connect them together. They do not own an “access network”.
The difference hardly matters anyway. They already offer faster speeds than either EE or Virgin currently can (though the design of their *broadband* network can mean it’s not so good in practice). What would be the benefit to them or their customers?
Spot on Gareth.
I understood what you mean.
Ee/bt has openreach and exclusively uses it
Vmo2 has nexfibre(by extension netomnia) and exclusively uses it
Vodafone has no one. They sit on top of openreach and cityfibre.
Coming back to myself on this – Gareth’s original point doesn’t even make sense even with the moving of goalposts. Vodafone buying TalkTalk does not net them an access network. Both firms rely on Openreach and CityFibre.
It bears repeating that EE does not “have” Openreach. It is a separate subsidiary of the BT Group and EE does not get special treatment from it.
FT has form for releasing stories around takeover rumours of TalkTalk. Anyone remember when Virgin Media was going to take over TalkTalk, or when Vodafone was previously in the Frame? Even BT was touted to takeover the TalkTalk when a story was released about a rescue bid for the ailing company. Is this another fishing exercise to see if a potential suitor will nibble at the bait? Time will tell.
TT is a brand that has had its day, and will surely not be missed.
Like going from the pan into the fire, They are both as bad as each other
, I would not touch either with a barge pole.
This is exciting
If Vodafone gobble TalkTalk. Surely they will migrate them onto their own cabelinks etc. Then what becomes of PxC given that TalkTalk consumer are their biggest ‘customer’?
Well they better hurry up while TalkTalk still has some customers left. It doesn’t seem that long ago that TalkTalk had about 3.5 million customers (certainly within the last 2 years). If I’m right that’s a horrendous loss.
If talktalk ever gets sold it might be a sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
The report about Virgin buying it never made any sense to me, Virgin don’t want their ISPs running on any network they don’t have an ownership stake in.
BT wanting to buy it sort of made sense but there’s no way the CMA would have allowed the UK’s largest ISP to do it.
The 5th largest ISP buying the 4th largest ISP however? Makes all the sense in the world.
What is the bond market reaction to this?
First lien around 30% second around 400%?
Gold Finger is disappointed.
The stars have aligned for Vodafone who have only just got full control of Three’s network to become the UK’s biggest MNO. With that major hurdle overcome Vodafone can now significantly boost its fixed line broadband business by taking control of TalkTalk cheaply – and this business has been cleaned up technically in the past few years. There is no other realistic buyer as BT, Virgin Media and Sky, for differing reasons, have no interest in buying a retail ISP.