Weekly Brief – 25th September 2026

TalkTalk in the final stages of the sales process for its businesses

TalkTalk has issued a strategic update to investors with the disposal of its PXC and TalkTalk Consumer businesses. It is reported that it’s now in the final stages of its sales process and expects both transactions to conclude imminently. Octopus Investments had been in line for the wholesale business, PXC, although it is believed that Epiris, a private equity firm, is lined up to take over the business. Opus Broadband is expected to take on the consumer division for a cut-price offer of around £100m after previous discussions circling the £250m mark.

“[Our] top priority is to ensure that every customer stays connected and that all TalkTalk employees’ roles are protected.”

Opus Spokesperson

Virgin Media O2 launches customer service AI voice agent

VMO2 will be using a new AI voice agent to help with certain broadband fault calls and to help customers get help faster with routine issues. This will allow customer service agents to focus on more complex issues that require specialist support, although the firm says that a real person will remain available to all customers if needed.

Aquiss calls for changes to One Touch Switching to avoid unsolicited transfers

One Touch Switching (OTS) was introduced to make broadband switching simpler for residential customers, but a gap in the framework exists, according to Aquiss Broadband, which say around 2-4% of switches arrive with no OTS match. The current system means that a gaining provider can raise an order to take over a line without ever completing an OTS match.

“One Touch Switching was meant to take friction out of changing provider, not to open a back door onto a working line. We still see between two and four per cent of outbound migrations arriving with no OTS journey behind them and no match attempted.

The Switch ID already exists. It is issued when a proper switch is performed. What it does not do today is travel with the order onto the underlying network, and the network cannot check that it is valid. Until those two layers are tied together, gaining providers who skip the match can still move a live service and then suggest the problem sits with the losing provider. That is the wrong way round.

We are not asking for OTS to be unwound. We are asking for it to be finished. Put the Switch ID on the network order, let the network validate it, and the industry will finally be able to say that a switch is a switch — not an unsolicited transfer wearing the same clothes.”

Martin Pitt, MD, Aquiss