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Articles for Category Tag - TalkTalk

Ofcom Tells UK Phone Providers to Identify and Block Spoofed Calls

15th November, 2022 (13 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today introduced new rules that will require phone providers to crackdown on “fake phone numbers” by identifying and blocking “spoofed calls“, where feasible. The move aims to tackle a problem that, during the summer, resulted in 40.8 million people being targeted by suspicious calls and texts.

UK ISP TalkTalk Business Offer 3 Months Free Full Fibre Broadband

7th November, 2022 (2 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Business appears to have joined the Black Friday discounts by giving away the first three months of service for free to new customers across all of their various Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) packages, which offer download speeds of between 80Mbps and up to 900Mbps+.

Numis Report on Cityfibre Reveals New Details of UK FTTP Broadband Build

6th November, 2022 (29 Comments)

A new research report from investment bank Numis, which was pieced together by analyst John Karidis, has revealed some useful information about Cityfibre’s £5bn project to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the UK and their perspective on overbuild and prices vs Openreach (BT) etc.

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).

Virgin Media O2 UK Puts Possible £3bn TalkTalk Merger on Ice

31st October, 2022 (12 Comments)

A major newspaper has reported that Virgin Media (VMO2) has allegedly gone cold on the idea of reaching a £3bn merger deal with budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which would have added the provider’s broadband base of over 4.2 million to their own base of 5.6 million in order to more effectively compete with BT.

ISP TalkTalk UK Closes “Obsolete” UFO Full Fibre Product in York

31st October, 2022 (19 Comments)

Customers on TalkTalk’s 944Mbps Ultra Fibre Optic (UFO) broadband service in the City of York, which is a full fibre (FTTP) network that was originally launched in 2015 as part of a partnership with Sky Broadband and Cityfibre (here), have been informed that the “trial” service is now “coming to an end” because its “equipment is obsolete“.

Full Fibre Benefits as Utility Warehouse Extend Deal with UK ISP TalkTalk

27th October, 2022 (1 Comment)

Broadband, mobile and energy provider Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) has today announced that they’ve extended and expanded upon their existing UK wholesale supply agreement with ISP TalkTalk, which looks as if it will give UW access to the provider’s growing range of alternative full fibre (FTTP) networks.

Ofcom 2022 Study – Average UK Broadband ISP Speeds Hit 59.4Mbps

21st October, 2022 (13 Comments)

Ofcom’s 2022 study of fixed line home broadband ISP speeds has reported that the average (median) UK download rate has risen from 50.4Mbps last year to 59.4Mbps now (uploads went from 9.8Mbps to 10.7Mbps). But the performance gap between rural and urban areas has “widened” (unsurprising with so much urban FTTP build).

ISPs and London Internet Exchange See Record UK Data Traffic

20th October, 2022 (9 Comments)

Internet traffic across UK broadband ISPs surged last night on the back of several Premier League football matches streamed on Amazon, which resulted in data usage across the London Internet Exchange (LINX) reaching a new record peak of 7.179Tbps (Terabits per second) and TalkTalk hitting 9.105Tbps.

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Ofcom Name Shell Energy as UK ISP with Most Complaints in Q2 2022

18th October, 2022 (6 Comments)

Ofcom’s latest Q2 2022 survey of UK consumer complaints has named ISP Shell Energy as attracting the most moans for both fixed line broadband and landline phone services, while BT (BTMobile) did the same for Pay Monthly mobile services and Virgin Media (VMO2) were on the naughty step for Pay TV.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK Launch Android TV Powered Hub UPDATE

17th October, 2022 (20 Comments)

Budget broadband ISP TalkTalk has today launched a new Android TV powered ‘TV Hub‘ box for UK customers seeking to take a Pay TV product alongside their “Full Fibre” (FTTP) internet connectivity packages, which will cost from just £5 a month to add to your package (plus a £25 one-off fee).

ISP TalkTalk Finish Acquisition of 135,000 SSE Broadband Customers

14th October, 2022 (8 Comments)

Low cost ISP TalkTalk, which is home to around 4.2 million UK broadband customers, has today announced the completion of their deal with Ovo Energy to acquire the company’s 135,000 (approx.) SSE Phone & Broadband customers for an undisclosed sum. The move comes after last year’s rescue of Origin Broadband’s base (here).

Ookla Sees AltNets Creeping Up on Big UK Broadband ISPs

3rd October, 2022 (5 Comments)

The latest data from Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net website, is beginning to show the sort of impact that the new generation of alternative full fibre broadband networks (AltNets) are having across the UK. But for now, the seven largest ISPs still dominate the country’s fixed broadband market.

UK ISP TalkTalk Adds 90 Free HD Channels to Pay TV Service UPDATE

29th September, 2022 (25 Comments)

Budget broadband ISP TalkTalk has today announced that they’ve added over 90 “new” HD (High Definition) TV channels for “free” to their Netgem powered pay TV (IPTV) platform and its related “TV 4K Box” device, which means that customers should be able to access a total of up to 210 channels.

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Ofcom UK Confirm Small Bundles Tweak to Broadband Speed Code

21st September, 2022 (11 Comments)

Ofcom has confirmed that they will update their 2019 voluntary Code of Practice for Broadband ISP Speeds, which among other things will extend the current “Right to Exit” (i.e. when an ISP fails to correct a speed problem) so that it applies to more aspects of a service bundle. The changes will go live on 21st December 2022.

ISP TalkTalk Calls on UK Gov to Help Boost Full Fibre Take-up UPDATE

20th September, 2022 (35 Comments)

Low-cost broadband ISP TalkTalk has called on the government to be more proactive in encouraging the take-up of new full fibre and other gigabit speed capable networks. One of their proposals calls for a national information and awareness campaign to help highlight the benefits of such connections.

TalkTalk Create New Wholesale Divisions for Business and Consumer

12th September, 2022 (2 Comments)

The wholesale division of UK broadband ISP TalkTalk (TalkTalk Business) has today announced that it has created two new wholesale divisions to support both its business-to-business (‘Business Wholesale Services‘) and consumer wholesale (‘Consumer Wholesale Services‘) segments.

Auditor Warns UK ISP TalkTalk Over Unusual Accounting Practices

6th September, 2022 (9 Comments)

Deloitte has reportedly highlighted a series of “unusual accounting practices” (Telegraph journalist’s quote) in broadband ISP TalkTalk’s as yet unpublished annual report, which the auditors suggest could – in a reasonable worst case scenario – only enable them to meet the covenants on theirs debt by excluding more “exceptional items” from everyday costs.