Carphone announces death of Tiscali UK
The ISP Tiscali UK is no more, after all its customers were officially moved across to Carphone Warehouse's ISP, TalkTalk.
On Thursday, Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone — whose company announced its intention to buy Tiscali's UK operations in May 2009 — posted a blog in which he announced the death of the Tiscali UK brand.
"Today we welcome all Tiscali customers to TalkTalk and open the doors to a new portal," Dunstone wrote. "We are in the privileged position of being the gateway to the internet for millions of people, and we now have the tools — the best network and best value products — to do this exceptionally well."
Carphone Warehouse paid £236m for Tiscali UK, in the process making TalkTalk the largest ISP in the country, with 4.25 million residential customers. Tiscali UK's business customers are now subscribers to Opal, Carphone Warehouse's business ISP.
According to Dunstone's post, many of the former Tiscali UK customers will see "a reduction in their monthly bills", while others will see no change or "a small increase" in their monthly bills.
TalkTalk is due to be demerged in the coming months, in order to create a clear separation between the ISP and Carphone Warehouse's handset business, which will be known as Best Buy Europe.
Italy-based Tiscali had been a major player in UK internet provision since 2001, when it bought the ISP LineOne for €100m (£62.5m at the time). The fate of the firm's UK operations had been the subject of widespread speculation for around a year before its purchase by Carphone Warehouse was announced.