ISP Tiscali UK could finalise its sale to The Carphone Warehouse ( TalkTalk , AOL UK , Opal etc. ) by this weekend, reports The Times today. The move would turn Carphone into the country's second largest broadband operator with a total of nearly 4.6m high-speed subscribers, dethroning Virgin Media from the same position and placing the new group just behind BT.

The news follows confirmation last month that Carphone had indeed re-entered into talks with Tiscali after a potential deal with BSkyB fell through and was deemed "almost impossible" (original news). It's not known how much Carphone has offered, although something in the £250m range shouldn't be too far off the mark.

Some reports suggest that the new deal could even be signed as soon as tomorrow, although others anticipate that final negotiations might drag on for a few days longer. Either way Tiscali UK is largely out of options and will need to secure something within the next few weeks or risk serious financial problems, well.. we mean more serious than they are already.