Tiscali To Debut Mobile Phone Net In Quad-Play Drive
By Dianne See Morrison - Fri 04 Jan 2008 03:56 AM PST
Italian broadband provider Tiscali is planning to roll out a UK mobile phone service in the last three months of 2008, according to Telegraph.co.uk. It’s currently in discussions with the UK’s four largest mobile networks, seeking network carriage for the service which would be a SIM-only one - customers would provide their own handsets. Adding a mobile offering will allow Tiscali to provide customers like Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) and, soon, Orange with a “quad-play” bundled package that also includes telephone, broadband and TV.
The service is being created from Tiscali’s acquisition of the two-year old ToucanMobile, which came with its purchase of internet provider Pipex last year. ToucanMobile, which currently piggybacks on T-Mobile’s network and has 7,000 customers will be rebranded under the Tiscali name.
Virgin Media, meanwhile, hasn’t had the easiest time winning over customers. Though the ethos behind the ntl/Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) merger was quad-play, Telegraph.co.uk estimates that, of its 4.4 million mobile phone customers, a little fewer than 150,000 have bought its combined mobile, landline, TV and broadband offering. Tiscali UK CEO Mary Turner, however, said Sky’s “See, Speak, Surf” campaign has created interest in bundled products, and that consumers were ready for them. Indeed, Ofcom has found a growing preference among UK consumers to buy bundled communications packages, especially as providers offer discounts to customers who take more than one of its products at a time. Tiscali is currently the UK’s fourth largest broadband provider.
