Tiscali knock on quad-play door

Friday 04 January 2008 09:37:57 by John Hunt

Tiscali will be joining the quad-play club later this year as it plans to rebrand the Toucan Mobile business to give its customer the option of a mobile service alongside its current broadband focus. 'Quad-play' will give Tiscali the ability to offer the 4 essential technology related products all from one name- telephone, broadband Internet, television and mobile telephone.

Toucan currently uses the T-Mobile network to provide its service, but this could change as The Telegraph reports that Tiscali have been in talks with the main four UK mobile operators with regards renting space to provide the service. Tiscali do not have plans to sell handsets and would be providing a SIM only based product. Customers would either have to purchase a phone separately or use their existing phones.

The entry into quad-play was an easy to decision to make in the current broadband market where bundling products together can help win customers on the price point. This announcement should help Tiscali, the fourth largest broadband provider following its acquisition of the Pipex broadband offerings and related brands (including Toucan), compete against its two larger rivals, BT and Virgin Media, who both also offer all four quad-play services. Tiscali previously purchased Homechoice in August 2006 to acquire their television over broadband service, however customer numbers have dwindled since then falling to around 36,000. O2 and Orange are expected to launch TV services later this year which will also bring more competition to the triple and quad-play markets respectively.