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18 May 2009
After TalkTalk’s buyout of rival Tiscali created the UK’s biggest residential ISP, channel players have asserted the business broadband market is also set for major changes.
Tiscali sold off its UK operations earlier this month to Carphone Warehouse-owned TalkTalk for £236m. The deal will create an ISP with more than 4.25 million residential customers more than a quarter of the market.
The two companies have also spoken in the past of a desire to make a splash in the business to business (B2B) market. A little over a year ago Tiscali claimed it was second to BT in the business broadband arena and wanted to double its nine per cent market share by the end of this year.
Further reading
Earlier this year, TalkTalk’s B2B arm Opal also detailed ambitions to snare a fifth of the UK business market. Opal’s business development director Geoff Wilson claimed the Tiscali buyout could give his company a shot in the arm.
“A lot of the focus has been on the residential side but this offers us a huge opportunity in the business arena as well,” he said. “It not only gives us more customers, it has deepened and widened our product set. We are able to offer both sets of partners a much deeper set of services.”
Wilson claimed some benefits would be immediately tangible, but that “back-end technical” integration would take up to 18 months.
“Tiscali has been a fairly basic broadband offering; we can offer those customers a lot more,” he said.
John Carter, managing director of broadband and voice distributor DMSL, predicted BT’s dominant position could come under increasing pressure and Opal would emerge as its biggest challenger.
“BT is responding to the competition. The market is very competitive,” he said. “It would take a brave person to come into this market.”
Richard Bligh, group marketing director for Gamma Telecom, claimed smaller B2B specialists could still thrive.
“I think for the smaller business ISPs, it will be business as usual,” he said. “Although the headline numbers are very big and this will give TalkTalk more scale and size.”
Martino Corbelli, marketing director of business ISP Star, said: “For most major ISPs, the consumer space is paramount.
“We do not only think of market share, price and undercutting our competitors,” he said. “Typically when you see cheap services, quality has been compromised. Service levels have to be absolutely key.”
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