TalkTalk has completed its takeover of Tiscali, retiring the brand name in the process. “From today, the Tiscali brand is no more and we’re committed to giving all of our customers absolute clarity about who we are, the services we provide and the prices we charge,” said Charles Dunstone, TalkTalk’s CEO.
TalkTalk tariffs are now standardised meaning that the majority of customers should see a reduction in their bills, although in some cases prices could rise.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on January 7th 2010 in TalkTalk, Tiscali
A lot has happened in the UK broadband market in 2009. Here’s a quick round up of the some of the big changes in broadband that have taken place over the last 12 months.
Tiscali gets bought by TalkTalk
Poor old Tiscali spent 2008 looking for a buyer without success and its woes continued into 2009. Despite many ISPs sniffing around hoping to steal a quick march on BT, nobody was willing to dig deep in their wallets. With deals collapsing at the last minute and its parent company losing millions of Euros on the continent times looked bleak for Tiscali’s UK arm. Then TalkTalk came to the rescue at the eleventh hour and swept Tiscali of it’s feet.
Speeding Up
2009 has seen a lot of speeding. BT, Orange and PlusNet all revved up their top download speeds to 20Mbps and 24Mbps in the case of Eclipse Internet. BT also released the Broadband Accelerator speed booster pack allowing customers to benefit from a more reliable broadband experience.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on December 21st 2009 in BT Broadband, Be Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Digital Britain, Eclipse Internet, Mobile Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, O2 Broadband, PlusNet, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Be Broadband is giving away £25 Amazon Gift Certificates to those who sign up for either of the 9 month Be Unlimited and Be Pro packages.
The offer is open to everyone who orders before the 18th of October and is perfect for returning students who are moving into shared accommodation about to start their second or third years.
The 9 month contract means you won’t be paying for 3 months of you not being there if you move out of your house in the summer, and the unlimited usage and fast speeds should cater for everyone’s broadband needs. The Be Box wireless router is also included with both packages, allowing you to easily set up a home network.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on September 24th 2009 in Be Broadband, Broadband, Tiscali
An Ofcom report published yesterday suggests that the average download speed received by UK broadband customers is only just over half the speed of the average advertised rate. Data from the report shows that while the average broadband package is sold as “up to” 7.1Mbps, the actual average speed delivered is thought to be 4.1Mbps, little more than half the average theoretical maximum.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on July 29th 2009 in AOL, BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, O2 Broadband, Orange Broadband, PlusNet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Virgin Media may have reopened old wounds with a recent letter campaign. Despite the cable carrier and Sky kissing and making up last November it seems like the gloves are off again.
In a bid to add more customers, Virgin Media recently sent letters to the homes of broadband customers in cabled streets, highlighting ten reasons why going cable is better than signing up with Sky.
The letter, signed off by Mark Davidson Executive Director of Customer Care for Virgin Media, underlines the benefits of cable over both copper phone lines and satellite, both of which are used to deliver Sky Broadband and TV respectively:
“You don’t need a dish or an aerial because Virgin TV comes down a fibre optic cable (bad weather can seriously effect your viewing with a dish.) … The same fibre optic cable brings you fast, future proof Virgin Broadband at up to 50Mb the UK’s fastest.”
The letter then goes on to mention some of the various bundle deals on offer: Virgin Media L Broadband (up to 10Mbps, unlimited downloads) comes bundled with unlimited UK weekend calls (01, 02 and 03 numbers) and the M+ Digital TV offering (60 channels, free Catch Up TV) for just £19.50 a month, with no additional free for installation or connection. The offer of free connection ends on the 31st of July.
2 Comments »Posted by Tom on July 7th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband Bundles, Carphone Warehouse, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Tiscali has now officially become part of the TalkTalk family, which means that Tiscali subscribers can finally breathe a sigh of relief. A new page entitled ‘My Tiscali’ has appeared on the Tiscali website, and it states that:
“We would like to re-assure you that all your services and products will continue as normal and without interruption and, importantly, your existing email addresses will remain the same.
Once the sale is complete, TalkTalk very much look forward to welcoming Tiscali customers, and assure Tiscali customers that your service will continue as it is today.”
4 Comments »Posted by Tom on June 3rd 2009 in TalkTalk, Tiscali
Orange have pulled out of plans to buy up the catch-up TV service that went by the working titled of Project Kangaroo. France Telecom, Orange’s parent company had this to say in the following statement:
“We can confirm that we are not pursuing our interest in the catch-up TV service Kangaroo. After in-depth due diligence, we concluded that it was unlikely that an outcome which benefited France Telecom’s Orange operations would be met.”
The ill-fated Project Kangaroo is a collaboration between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and was conceived as a kind of merger of the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4oD video on demand platforms. First of all it was blocked from going ahead by the Competition Commission, which ruled that it would be too much of a threat to competition in the IPTV market, currently only occupied by BT Vision and Tiscali TV.
1 Comment »Posted by Tom on May 21st 2009 in BT Broadband, IPTV, Orange Broadband, Tiscali
As well as offering Tiscali customers thinking of switching to Sky a free Sky+ box and £50 Credit, Sky are now giving everyone else the opportunity to qualify for free Sky+ with a Sky TV package if they switch from their current broadband provider, and take up the full line up of Sky’s services.
Normally costing you £49 when you sign up for Sky TV, the Sky+ box allows you to pause, record and rewind live TV. With Sky Active, you can also set your Sky+ box to record from your desktop at work or anywhere in the home thanks to the Remote Record service.
If you’re already with Sky and have the standard Sky Broadband Base package, then you can also benefit from upgrading to the Sky Broadband Mid and Max packages.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on May 19th 2009 in Sky Broadband, Tiscali
TalkTalk/Carphone Warehouse has released a list of FAQ’s (complete with answers) that they’ve been receiving from Tiscali customers since news of the buyout was announced a couple of weeks back. The blog post is keen to stress that, although Tiscali has accepted TalkTalk’s offer, they “don’t own Tiscali yet. We’ve had our offer accepted and, subject to EU approval, it will be signed off at the end of June.”
It turns out that the Tiscali TV service will continue to run as normal, so those of you who were worried about this service suddenly disappearing can rest easy. It also looks as though contracts signed with Tiscali before the acquisition will remain binding for their duration. Billing arrangements are also to remain the same for the time being.
TalkTalk, who are understood to have been in talks with the increasingly unpopular Phorm have also said that there are no plans to introduce Phorm’s tracking software to any of their customers, including Tiscali.
Click on the link below for the full list of questions and answers, which was first published over on the TalkTalk blog.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on May 18th 2009 in Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali
Despite broadband news this week being largely dominated by the Carphone Warehouse takeover of Tiscali, BT Broadband has just announced figures that reveal that it is still top dog in the UK broadband stakes.
The broadband provider BT claims that its customer base has increased to 4.8 million, keeping it head and shoulders above the competition. The Tiscali buyout saw Carphone Warehouse leapfrog Virgin Media into second place, with its customer base swelling to 4.25 million - impressive, but still not enough to pip the British Broadband crown from BT.
Today also saw the publication of Tiscali’s results for the last quarter, which saw the troubled company steadily losing subscribers right up until the deal with Carphone was done.
The figures released show that BT Vision now has 423,000 customers, up from 398,000 on the last quarter. Use of BT’s Openzone Wi-Fi minutes, amounts of which are bundled free with BT Broadband packages, has also increased by 80 per cent over the last 12 months.
No Comments »Posted by Tom on May 15th 2009 in BT Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Subscribe to our feed to keep up to date with all the latest Broadband Blog posts »
