Interesting news from the telco world. BT, to much fanfare, is boasting to all about its fibre optic lines being rolled out up and down the country. Well, its timbers are about to be shivered, because it's got serious competition and it doesn't even know it.
TalkTalk has quietly, sneakily been rolling out a very, very large network of dark optics all around the UK. And BT hasn't a clue - we talked to BT this morning which confirmed that it is unaware of any competition in the fibre optics market except for Virgin.
Fact is, Talk Talk has been doing this on the down low for a good while now. And in a couple of months it's going to make a shock announcement and let the world + dog know that it is connected all across the UK, and it's planning to undercut BT on prices, too.
This was confirmed for us last night at the Top10 Broadband Awards by a TalkTalk employee. Watch this space.
It also has some big plans for IPTV. Apparently this is what the industry is worried about right now and wants to keep on top of.
*EyeSee Pictured are new wave 80s darlings Talk Talk, the band.
*Update It was not Talk Talk who we chatted to, but another broadband industry insider. TalkTalk is very annoyed with us. The official line is: "The content of your article is completely inaccurate and and there has been no secret roll-out."
Essentially you spoke to a drunk guy in a bar who managed to convince you that TalkTalk are rolling out a super-secret infrastructure change nationally without anyone, especially BT who own the current hardware, noticing. I mean, how is that possible? Maybe dig up and repave the roads overnight, removing the dirt in ice cream vans and covering the holes with old bin bags?
Perhaps he also told you that Elvis is still alive, or that man never actually set foot on the moon or perhaps that the internet is actually a series of tubes laid underground in the 60's. Go dig up the floor and check... I'll wait.
I guess you don't know the code. Deny = it's true, categorically deny = It's true and then some.
Do you really think that TalkTalk has the capacity to rollout a fibre network without anyones notice? Given the cost that BT is paying for their fibre rollout, TalkTalk would probably need to spend about 20 years worth of free cash flow to be able to replicate BT's network. Its even more foolish to suggest that BT wouldn't know that someone was making serious changes to their hardware.
It would also go against every comment that senior management have said about what they consider to be realistic possibilities for fibre, and I am sure senior management know more about this than a 'TalkTalk employee' which you managed to chat to at a bar.