The European Union's (EU) antitrust authorities have today given final approval for TalkTalk ( The Carphone Warehouse , AOL UK , Opal etc. ) to complete its £236 million acquisition of rival broadband ISP Tiscali UK.

The outcome will come as no great surprise to either party since Tiscali UK had previously been teetering on the brink of Administration, thanks to a colossal pile of debt that exceeded its own worth. The EU concluded that the UK's broadband ISP market is unlikely to be negatively affected by the move.

The acquisition will turn TalkTalk into the biggest residential broadband ISP in the country, with a high-speed subscriber base of around 4.3m. However TalkTalk will need to put a lot effort into improving Tiscali's support and broadband performance, which is part of the reason why they’ve been losing so many customers.