Quad-Play And SMBs Boost TalkTalk As FTTP Rollout Begins

TalkTalk says strong demand for its business communication services and consumer quad-play packages contributed to a 4.2 percent year-on-year increase in revenue during the third quarter of 2014, which was the “best ever” in terms of the take-up of its mobile, television and fibre products.

The company generated £449 million during the period thanks to 50,000 new mobile customers, 115,000 new television users and 15,000 new broadband customers. TalkTalk now has 88,000 subscribers on its fibre network, bringing the total user base to 400,000.

TalkTalk launched its first ‘quad-play’ package in November and has move to strengthen its services as the UK communications market becomes increasingly converged.

Quad-Play push

In the last few months it reached a new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement with Telefonica to use the O2 network and purchased Tesco’s broadband and voice customer base as well as Blinkbox video.

“Today’s results demonstrate the strong and growing demand for our value-for-money products, as we saw our strongest ever quarter of TV, mobile and fibre adds with our lowest ever reported churn,” said TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding (left). “We are excited about the future of quad-play. TalkTalk is ideally positioned to push home its strategic advantage in an industry undergoing major changes.

“We are excited about the future of quad-play. TalkTalk is ideally positioned to push home its strategic advantage in an industry undergoing major changes. Our customers recognise the significant savings they can make on all four products from TalkTalk. We have the largest unbundled network in the UK, a new long-term mobile access agreement, and one of the broadest ranges of film and TV content, all of which is underpinned by a pro-competition regulatory environment.”

Business growth

TalkTalk Business revenues increased by 34 percent thanks to better marketing and 2,000 new Ethernet and Ethernet First Mile connections and the company hopes to continue its share of the SMB market in 2015.

The firm rebranded its enterprise broadband offerings last year, claiming that BT was using its dominant position in the market to overcharge businesses who could save hundreds of pounds a year by switching to TalkTalk.

TalkTalk has welcomed Ofcom’s proposals to ensure BT maintains a minimum margin in the pricing of its superfast broadband services and says plans to build a Fibre to the Premise (FFTP) network in York are progressing.

FTTP update

“We welcome Ofcom’s confirmation of a margin squeeze test that will monitor BT’s fibre profitability to ensure a more competitive market that better serves consumers and small businesses,” it said. “We expect that in time, this will lead to lower wholesale fibre costs, which in turn will enable us to drive uptake further.”

“Our Fibre-To-The-Premise trial in York has continued to make progress during the quarter with the commencement of civil engineering work including the laying of our first microtrenched fibre runs. We remain on track to connect the first customers onto the network later this year, and are excited about the longer term roll-out prospects.”

TalkTalk has announced its intention to connect up to 60 percent of the UK to its FTTP network, offering speeds of 1Gbps, if the initial joint-venture with Sky and CityFibre in York is successful. Last month, TalkTalk Business managing director Charles Blight revealed to TechWeekEurope that the company plans to offer mobile services to enterprises using a combination of its MVNO and femtocell technology.

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