
Internet service provider TalkTalk has sold a further 13,500 of their broadband customers to Fleur Telecom, which is one of the UK ISPs controlled by the Horsham-based Telecom Acquisitions Group (TAL) – the holding company for a number of familiar retail broadband brands (Home Telecom, Eclipse Broadband etc.).
The move marks the latest piecemeal disposal of TalkTalk’s residential broadband base, which only last week unexpectedly sold a further 120,000 of their customers to the relatively new ISP Rise Fibre (here). Prior to that they also sold customers to UW (here) and previously conducted several smaller sales to TAL (here) – mostly reflecting the remaining base of TalkTalk’s defunct Origin Broadband provider.
All 13,500 customers will “keep their existing pricing, terms, and conditions” from 1st September 2026, and have been notified directly by TalkTalk. Following the transfer, their service will be supported by TAL’s UK-based service centre, with 24-hour support available. The same team supports TAL’s Home Telecom brand. Each new customer will gain access to a mobile app to help manage and enhance their experience.
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TAL describes itself as being “well placed across the market, offering services from all of the traditional network suppliers alongside layer 2 and layer 3 connections with the majority of UK altnets“. As a group, TAL says they’ve grown to over 80,000 customers, with a projected 2027 turnover of circa £33m. The company said they plan to continue this trajectory through “organic growth and further acquisitions” as opportunities arise.
Nigel Barnett, CEO of Telecom Acquisitions Limited, said:
“This is another exciting opportunity to put our copper switch-off expertise to work. To date we have moved more than 8,000 customers off WLR and ADSL services onto the latest products. We are delighted to welcome these new customers, many of whom have been on the TalkTalk network for more than 20 years. That loyalty deserves to be respected, and we will make sure the transfer is seamless. The group continues to grow year on year, and over the last eighteen months much of our focus has been on the copper switch-off and on introducing AI into our internal systems. Both put us in a strong position to deliver this transfer smoothly between now and the end of the year.”
The deal comes at an unusual time for TalkTalk’s debt-strained Consumer business, which is currently said to be fielding interest from several prospective buyers including Vodafone (here) and Opus Broadband (here). But every piecemeal agreement made to dispose of their base tends to raise more question marks over the overall value of TalkTalk’s remaining customers (roughly 1.5m at this point).
At present it’s unclear whether a prospective buyer for the provider’s consumer business would take on the whole company (brand, customers, support teams etc.) or just its remaining customer base. In recent months TalkTalk has also paused the sale of some broadband and digital phone products to new customers (here and here), while also unexpectedly shutting down their customer discussion forum without a clear explanation or timescale for its return (here).
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TalkTalk reminds me of that Robbie Williams music video where he is literally ripping bits of flesh off himself until only his skeleton remains.
Doesnt TalkTalk own a large share of Telecom Acquisitions? Sounds like theyre selling customers to other businesses they own? What am I missing?
Yes you’re correct. Forgot about that in the first draft, added now.
As a current TalkTalk employee, it’s like “end of days”, especially with the news that Susie Buckridge has now taken a step back as CEO.
The pattern of sales suggests a breakup is in hand. The customer base appears to have been parcelled up to make the various portfolios attractive to the targeted buyers who would not necessarily want the full spectrum connection/service type of the combined customer base.