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Articles for Category Tag - TalkTalk

ISP TalkTalk Warn of Uncertain Future as UK Broadband Users Fall UPDATE

11th December, 2023 (46 Comments)

UK ISP TalkTalk has published their annual accounts to 28th Feb 2023 and revealed that their broadband base fell to 3.94 million (down from 3.98m in 2022), while the provider’s bosses also reportedly warned that there is “material uncertainty” ahead of an expect debt refinancing that “may cast significant doubt” over its future.

Opensignal Rate UK Broadband ISPs by Quality and Speed

7th December, 2023 (6 Comments)

Benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published a supposedly “definitive” study of fixed broadband speeds across the United Kingdom, which reveals which ISPs are delivering both the best service quality and speeds to consumers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the table ends up being topped by CommunityFibre, Virgin Media and Hyperoptic etc.

Questions for Broadband as Octopus Finish Shell Energy UK Purchase

5th December, 2023 (18 Comments)

Broadband ISP and energy provider Shell Energy has confirmed that the Octopus Energy Group have now completed their acquisition of the UK retail provider from the Shell Group, which follows the signing of a related deal in September 2023 (here). But uncertainty remains over the future of their internet and phone customers.

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ISP TalkTalk Business Appoints Ruth Kennedy as New UK CEO

28th November, 2023 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Business (TTB) has this morning announced that the UK company’s existing Managing Director, Ruth Kennedy, has been officially promoted to the top job of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The move comes as the wider TalkTalk group is going through a lot of changes, while trying to tackle its debt pile.

Customers of UK ISP Origin Broadband Suffer Support Problems

29th October, 2023 (15 Comments)

Some of Origin Broadband’s customers have, over the past couple of weeks, reported a number of problems with ineffective support and being unable to access their accounts via the provider’s website. The issues are said to be related to an upgrade of their systems as part of efforts to merge Ovo’s customers into Origin.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Shut UK Digital TV Store – Customers Lose Purchases

20th October, 2023 (26 Comments)

One of the problems with modern online UK content distribution platforms is that – unlike physical media (DVD, Blu-rays etc.), when they close, customers risk losing all of the content they purchased over them. Sadly, this appears to be what is about to happen to customers of TalkTalk’s TV Store, which is due to close on 31st October 2023.

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Ofcom Shames Vodafone in Q2 2023 Broadband Complaints Table

19th October, 2023 (11 Comments)

Ofcom has published their latest quarterly (Q2 2023) study of UK consumer complaints, which shames Vodafone as attracting the most gripes about broadband ISPs, while TalkTalk, Shell Energy and Virgin Media tied the lowest ranking for landline phone, BT did the same for Mobile services, and Virgin Media and BT came bottom for TV.

ISP TalkTalk Sells UK Business Division to its Own Shareholders UPDATE

3rd October, 2023 (14 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk has revealed that, following its recent demerger news (here), the group has finally sold their business division (TT Business Direct) to its own shareholders for £95 million – after seemingly being unable to turn earlier interest from Sky and Daisy Group into a tangible deal.

Job Losses as UK ISP TalkTalk to Demerge into Three Businesses UPDATE

22nd September, 2023 (36 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk has this week informed staff of their plan to formally demerge the group into three separate businesses for consumers, businesses and wholesale. Under the plan, the full legal demerger aims to be completed by 1st March 2024, but some redundancies are expected.

Ofcom 2023 Study Finds Average UK Broadband ISP Speeds Hit 69.4Mbps

14th September, 2023 (9 Comments)

Ofcom’s 2023 report into UK fixed line home broadband ISP performance – the last one it plans to publish – has today revealed that the average (median) download speed has risen from 59.4Mbps last year to 69.4Mbps now (uploads went from 10.7Mbps to 18.4Mbps). But the gap between rural and urban areas remains.

Investment Firm KKR Gives Broadband ISP TalkTalk a £75m Boost

11th September, 2023 (3 Comments)

Budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which is currently already in the process of trying to deal with pressure from its existing debts by selling off parts of their business (here and here), managed to secure some vital support at the end of last week after global investment firm KKR agreed to provide them with a £75m non-recourse financing facility.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Start FREE Automatic UK FTTP Upgrades

9th September, 2023 (90 Comments)

Back in 2022 we reported that budget UK broadband ISP TalkTalk was running a new trial (here), which gave “some” existing customers a free automatic upgrade to full fibre (FTTP) broadband – provided they were covered by the network and didn’t already have such a package. But fast-forward 13 months and this is no longer just a trial.

Telecom Acquisitions ISPs Gain Access to MS3’s UK Fibre Network

6th September, 2023 (1 Comment)

Network operator MS3, which is deploying a 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 535,000 premises across the North of England by the end of 2025 (here), has today announced that several ISPs managed under the central Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group have gained access to their network.

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Freedom Fibre CEO Talks Future UK FTTP Rollout Challenges

26th August, 2023 (9 Comments)

The CEO of alternative broadband network builder Freedom Fibre, Neil McArthur, has today – as part of an exclusive interview with ISPreview – spoken about some of the challenges the operator has faced in building a new full fibre (FTTP) network and called on the government to be more overtly supportive of such efforts.

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What is “Fibre” Broadband? UK ISPs Respond to Ofcom’s Call for Clarity

22nd August, 2023 (56 Comments)

A few months ago Ofcom launched a new consultation that proposed to only allow broadband ISPs to use the terms “fibre” and “full-fibre” on their sites and in contracts “if their network uses fibre-optic cables all the way from the exchange to the home” (FTTP). But feedback suggests that the biggest providers are not supportive.

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).

Complaints Prompt UK ISP TalkTalk to Suspend Doorstep Sellers in Newcastle

17th August, 2023 (4 Comments)

Budget focused broadband ISP TalkTalk has “suspended all door-to-door sales activity” in the Newcastle area after residents complained about cold calling occurring in parts of the city designated as a No Cold Calling Zone (NCCZ), which should be fairly self-explanatory to everybody, if not so much the sellers themselves, apparently.

UK ISP Sky Business Sniff Possible Acquisition of TalkTalk B2B Division

14th August, 2023 (8 Comments)

A new report claims that Sky Broadband’s business division, Sky Business (formerly Sky Connect), has joined Daisy Group and a couple of other interested parties in potentially gobbling up TalkTalk’s business-to-business arm (TT Business Direct Limited) within the next month or two, which is predicted to attract a value of around £150m.