Broadband provider TalkTalk ( AOL UK, Opal ) UK looks set to go head to head with Virgin Media later this year when it launches a mobile phone service to complement existing broadband and phone bundles. The ISP has also made no secret of the fact that it plans to launch a broadband TV ( IPTV ) service, based off the forthcoming Project Canvas, which would turn it into a quad-play provider.

The Mobile Today report hints that plans for the future are most likely to surface after TalkTalk has completed the demerger from its parent The Carphone Warehouse on 29th March 2010. TalkTalk certainly has a strong enough customer to entice, at last count it was home to an impressive 4,155,000 broadband subscribers.

It's far too early to speculate on what kind of mobile products might be offered, although we do know a little more about their TV ambitions. Project Canvas, which hopes to create a standards based open environment for broadband connected digital television (DTV) receivers, will be the basis for their TV offering.

Project Canvas will make for a good standards based platform and allow IPTV services, such as the BBC's iPlayer, to be viewed via TV sets. However to compete with Virgin Media or Sky Broadband it will need a set of commercial channels too, which could be difficult when their major competitors already have the lion’s share of content agreements.