TalkTalk bought Tiscali UK in a £236 million cash deal which has created Britain’s largest consumer broadband provider, with over 4.25 million customers, covering over 25% of all UK households.
The acquisition of Tiscali UK makes TalkTalk the biggest provider of broadband to Britain’s homes. It also presents an opportunity for customers of Tiscali enjoy the benefits of higher bandwidth, greater capacity and advanced services, making it easier and faster to use the internet and giving lower cost telephone calls.
TalkTalk will include Tiscali UK's customer numbers together with TalkTalk Group's customer numbers in the company's second quarter trading statement, due for release on 8 October 2009.
Explained TalkTalk managing director, Wendy Becker: “We understand that customers of Tiscali and its brands including Pipex, Nildram and Freedom2Surf are looking to us introduce new products and services and we’re looking to do that and there are already things in the pipeline. We’re looking at specific customers, understanding their needs and coming up with ways to enhance their experience.”
Improving customer service will also be a focus, she added: “We’ve invested heavily in customer service and we’ll be applying these learnings very quickly to ensure Tiscali customers begin to see improvements in the short term. TalkTalk was voted best value home phone company by uSwitch in April 2009 and also recognised for having the most improved customer service of any broadband provider in the survey.
“Our research shows that 90% of our customers think our network is as good or better than their previous network,” Becker said.
TalkTalk Group runs the UK’s most advanced next generation network, via Opal, and Tiscali customers will benefit from the reliability and stability of the network that covers 80% of the UK via 1,700 fully unbundled exchanges.