Salford-based TalkTalk Group (TTG) has announced it is creating two new wholesale divisions to support both its B2B and consumer wholesale segments.
The announcements reflect the growth in both areas, the integration of recently acquired Virtual 1, and the focus on accelerating take up in high bandwidth FTTP and Ethernet services across the group’s wholesale platform.
TTG has also said it intends to competitively tender its B2B Ethernet supply as the demand for higher bandwidth services is rising fast, with UK businesses of all sizes requiring more usage and ultra-high bandwidth connectivity. The tender also reflects the newly competitive environment in wholesale infrastructure supply.
The newly formed TalkTalk business wholesale services division will be led by Tom O’Hagan, founder and CEO of Virtual1, which TalkTalk Group acquired in April. It will offer premium and high bandwidth services to resellers, aggregators, and system integrators. The division will trade as two brands: TalkTalk Wholesale Services and Virtual1.
The newly formed consumer wholesale services division will be led by Nick Gunga, current MD of wholesale. Nick has held a number of leading positions across TalkTalk’s consumer business over the last 17 years. The division has over one million residential customers including the recently acquired SSE Phone and Telecom base from OVO as well as long term customers like Telecom Plus and Shell Energy.
The combination of the Virtual1 and TalkTalk network footprint now extends to over 3,000 on net exchanges, placing 1,500 high bandwidth Ethernet orders per month across on net, off net and altnet solutions. TTG has over 25 per cent market share of the UK’s B2B high speed Ethernet market and, in the first three months of this year, took 31 per cent share of all new Openreach connections. The group serves both the direct and indirect markets and is the UK’s fastest growing Ethernet business. The new competitive tender presents a major opportunity for both large scale and smaller providers, covering 14 areas across the UK.
Tristia Harrison, CEO of TalkTalk Group, said: “The pace of innovation in both B2B and consumer wholesale telecoms has accelerated, and businesses and consumers across the UK are requiring more and more usage and great bandwidth connectivity. That is why we are delighted to be announcing these two important wholesale growth divisions as well as a competitive tender for our B2B Ethernet supply. We are also delighted to welcome Tom O’Hagan and the wider Virtual 1 team to the group and very excited about the future growth projections for the business.”
