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Articles for Category Tag - TalkTalk

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Cost Cutting Sees UK ISP TalkTalk Scale Back Support for Internet Matters

13th January, 2025 (12 Comments)

Debt-troubled UK broadband provider TalkTalk has reportedly “pulled out” of industry-funded online child safety charity Internet Matters, which was established alongside BT, Virgin Media and Sky Broadband during 2014. The move is said to form part of the ISP’s efforts to cut £120m in costs and follows recent job cuts (here).

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK Starts Phasing Out NOW TV on Bills UPDATE

8th January, 2025 (2 Comments)

Customers of budget internet provider TalkTalk, specifically those who take their Pay TV service, have had it confirmed that the ISP will be phasing out their single billing integration of Sky’s NOW TV streaming service (i.e. customers will no longer be able to add NOW TV Plans to a single bill from the ISP). Netflix integration was also removed last month.

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2025 Broadband Price Hikes and the Impact of Ofcom’s New UK Policy

28th December, 2024 (45 Comments)

On 17th January 2025 Ofcom will begin enforcing a ban on mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes (here), but this doesn’t extend to many existing broadband contracts. Consumers on bigger ISPs may thus find themselves being divided between two different pricing policies, and one is going to hurt your wallet more than the other.

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Top Fastest UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs for H2 2024

27th December, 2024 (1 Comment)

Once again, as we reach the end of 2024, it’s time for ISPreview to take our usual biannual look back to see how the broadband download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available UK fixed line ISPs, mobile network operators and Starlink (satellite) services. But this time around we’ve made a few changes.

Big UK ISPs Ordered to Block More Pirated Book and Journal Websites

20th December, 2024 (18 Comments)

The Publishers Association (PA) has convinced the High Court to force most of the major broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) to extend and expand their existing block of websites, focusing on those that were found to facilitate internet copyright infringement (piracy) of books and journals.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK Suffers Router Disconnections Bug

19th December, 2024 (31 Comments)

Some of TalkTalk’s broadband customers have, over the past week or two, been experiencing an unusual router bug with the provider’s ‘Wi-Fi Hub’ device that has been causing them to be repeatedly disconnected from the internet. But the ISP is currently known to be “in the process of applying a solution to all impacted” routers.

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Ofcom Report 506,000 UK Homes Now Take Social Broadband Tariffs

12th December, 2024 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today published their annual 2024 Pricing Trends Report, which among other things confirms that the take-up of cheaper social broadband ISP and mobile tariffs for those on state benefits has jumped to 506,000 customers in June 2024 (up from 380,000 in Sept 2023). But that’s still just 9.6% of eligible households (e.g. those on Universal Credit).

Opensignal 2024 Study Ranks UK Broadband ISPs by Quality and Speed

5th December, 2024 (9 Comments)

Internet benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published their “definitive” 2024 Fixed Broadband Experience report, which gauges the performance of various internet service providers across the UK and then separately across 12 of its regions (inc. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Overall, Virgin Media came top in the national scores, but the regional results are different.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk to Slash More UK Jobs After Refinancing Deal

3rd December, 2024 (9 Comments)

Debt-troubled UK internet provider TalkTalk has confirmed that its staff were yesterday informed about another round of significant redundancies, which one report indicates could affect almost a quarter (c. 130) of their consumer division workforce across the country. But the specifics won’t be known until after Christmas.

Gov Reach New Deal with UK Phone Operators to Protect Vulnerable Users

19th November, 2024 (5 Comments)

The UK Government’s Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, has today announced that he’s agreed a new ‘Telecare National Action Plan‘ with major UK broadband and phone providers (e.g. BT, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Sky Broadband), which requires them to do more to protect vulnerable telecare users when upgrading phone lines to new digital (IP based) networks.

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Ofcom Put NOW, EE and O2 on Naughty Step for UK Telecoms Complaints – Q2 2024

14th November, 2024 (9 Comments)

Ofcom has published their latest Q2 2024 study of UK consumer complaints, which names and shames NOW Broadband (NOW TV) for being the worst provider by attracting the most complaints about broadband, while EE did the same for landline phone and O2 took most flak mobile. Finally, both EE and Virgin Media were jointly on the naughty step for Pay TV.

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Rural ISP Fusion Fibre Group Expands UK Broadband Cover via PXC

13th November, 2024 (0 Comments)

Rural network builder and ISP Fusion Fibre Group (formerly FACTCO), which has built a number of its own FTTP broadband networks for various communities, has today moved to expand their availability across the UK by signing a new wholesale agreement with PlatformX Communications. PXC was formerly known as TalkTalk Wholesale before the demerger (here).

ISP TalkTalk Loses Over 300,000 UK Broadband and Fibre Customers

13th November, 2024 (22 Comments)

Debt-troubled UK broadband ISP TalkTalk recently published their group accounts for the year to 29th February 2024, which reveals that their on-net customer base (fibre FTTP/C and broadband) fell again to 3.6 million (down from 3.94m in 2023). But their Ethernet (leased lines etc.) base grew to 75,000 (up from 69,400).

UK ISP Origin Broadband Trials Taking on New Customers Again

12th November, 2024 (9 Comments)

Internet provider Origin Broadband, which is a trading name for Origin Communications and OB Telecom (TalkTalk), appears to have re-opened their order system to new broadband customers after closing it some months ago. The ISP is currently only available to those covered by Openreach’s national network.

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Wholesale Provider PXC Partners with UK ISP Association

22nd October, 2024 (0 Comments)

Network provider PlatformX Communications (PXC), which was formerly known as Talk Talk Wholesale before the demerger (here), has joined the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA UK), a trade body for UK ISPs and associated organisations, as part of its Partnership Programme.

UK ISP TalkTalk’s Chances of a Takeover Reduce After Auditor Quits UPDATE

14th October, 2024 (2 Comments)

Debt-troubled broadband ISP TalkTalk, which was recently saved from the immediate risk of a default by a refinancing package worth roughly £400m (here and here), may now find it even harder to find a buyer after their auditor of 22 years – Deloitte – resigned and was replaced by RSM.

ASA Ban Ads for Major UK Telecoms Providers Over Misleading Price Hikes UPDATE

9th October, 2024 (9 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today banned a series of website-based adverts for major broadband ISPs and mobile network operators, including BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media, after the way they all presented their annual mid-contract price hikes was found to be “misleading“.