TalkTalk’s CEO Dido Harding has dismissed any suggestion that her company would look to bolster its MVNO by snapping up Tesco Mobile’s subscribers.
She was speaking as TalkTalk published its annual results where it disclosed a 4.2% rise in revenues…
TalkTalk’s CEO Dido Harding has dismissed any suggestion that her company would look to bolster its MVNO by snapping up Tesco Mobile’s subscribers.
She was speaking as TalkTalk published its annual results where it disclosed a 4.2% rise in revenues to £1.8bn and its lowest ever churn following its push towards convergence.
Commenting on speculation that it might buy Tesco Mobile, the 50-50 joint venture between supermarket giant Tesco and O2, Harding said she didn’t see the value in buying an existing customer base and that TalkTalk could offer customers better value by growing its MVNO organically. She added that Tesco Mobile customers were “paying too much”.
A report last week suggested Tesco was on the brink of putting its 50% stake in Tesco Mobile – the UK’s largest virtual operator – up for sale and has been exploring possibilities with bankers. Tesco declined to comment on the report. The UK’s largest grocer posted an annual loss of £6.4bn in April and is pressing ahead with asset sales.
TalkTalk has already done business with Tesco this year. In January, it bought Tesco’s video-on-demand service Blinkbox, as well as its 75,000 broadband and 20,000 landline telephone customers in an all-cash, debt-free deal.
That acquisition was part of TalkTalk’s quad-play strategy and Harding said it was an area the company would be looking to grow in future. The fixed-line player said TalkTalk TV is now the third most popular TV platform in the UK, with 1.4 million customers and that its churn had fallen to its lowest ever level.
Pressure on regulators
Harding also took the opportunity to express TalkTalk’s views on BT’s takeover of EE.
“We believe firmly that competition will drive the innovation and investment that Britain needs in this essential infrastructure and urge the respective regulatory bodies currently reviewing the various mergers and industry structure, to put strong competition at the heart of their decisions.”
She dismissed suggestions from BT that Openreach, its wholesale business which supplies TalkTalk, needs to continue to be owned by the incumbent to ensure investment in infrastructure.
“Frankly, BT wouldn’t be deciding if Openreach invests or not if Openreach was independent,” Harding said.
“Openreach is TalkTalk’s single largest supplier, owned today by our single largest competitor,” she said, adding that BT was continuing to get bigger and bigger.
She said Openreach should therefore become independent. “If you were starting from a blank sheet of paper of course that’s how you’d do it,” Harding said.
