You may remember our look into the world of virtual network operators, which can offer a great alternative to the main networks. MVNO’s, as they are known, use one of the original “big four” for connectivity but the pricing, plans, services and branding are all very different. Tesco Mobile, giffgaff, Virgin Mobile etc – they’re all MVNO’s and we also covered TalkTalk during our MVNO feature too.
Now TalkTalk have announced that they’re switching from Vodafone to O2, joining the likes of giffgaff, Lycamobile and Tesco Mobile who also use O2 as the parent host.
TalkTalk have some 350,000 customers and the switch will provide access to the O2 4G network. TalkTalk are looking to push the mobile proposition to their existing home and business broadband customers, alongside their other home phone and TV services.
New commercial relationship withTelefónica (UK)
17/11/2014
We are pleased to announce that we have entered into a new multi-year commercial MVNO agreement with Telefónica UK Limited (“Telefónica UK“) under which Telefónica UK will provide TalkTalk with access to its 2G, 3G and 4G services in the UK.
This is a significant commercial relationship for us as we build upon our success to date in mobile. Our mobile base has grown strongly in the last two years, with 350,000 customers or 9.5% of our total base, taking mobile from us as of 30th September. Recently we also launched the UK’s first truly integrated quad play proposition with a mobile SIM coming as standard with our Plus TV package for no additional cost.
The new MVNO agreement will enable us to offer our existing 4million consumer and business broadband customers a high quality mobile proposition, and materially advance our plans to build a scale and profitable quad-play business over the medium term. Scale quad-play is one of the key drivers of our medium term revenue growth and margin targets, and this agreement further reinforces our confidence in achieving those targets.
Access to the fast growing Telefónica UK 4G network is also a major step forward in our long term strategy to build a small cell and Fibre-To-The-Premise network. Coupled with our own in-home 4G spectrum and 4m points of presence this will create a powerful opportunity for us to offer seamless, low cost connectivity to our customers.
Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk commented:
“This is a significant development for TalkTalk, building on our success in mobile to date. We are ideally placed to benefit from the market shift to quad-play, with a sizeable and growing number of customers already choosing to take mobile from us. We see real opportunities in both the near term and further out, to work with Telefónica UK to further accelerate our quad-play growth.”
Ronan Dunne CEO for Telefónica UK said
“We are pleased to be able to announce our commercial MVNO agreement with TalkTalk, which builds on our heritage of being the trusted provider for many notable MVNO, public and private sector organisations in the UK. This recognition, as a leading source of essential connectivity, comes as a result of our continued and significant investment in our nationwide network. We welcome the start of what we hope will be a successful and prosperous relationship for both parties.”
