Is Tiscali about to kiss UK goodbye?

By published

Embattled Internet Service Provider (opens in new tab) Tiscali has fired its CEO and is pondering whether it should sell its broadband business including its crown jewel, 2 million UK internet subscribers.

Vodafone and Sky are reportedly interested in acquiring Tiscali UK; Tommaso Pompei, its former CEO, had announced back in January 2008 (opens in new tab) that the company would expect its businesses to be purchased by 2010 by bigger rivals.

Tiscali has been often associated with mediocre support (opens in new tab) and sub-par quality of service and internet speed.

It came last in a recent survey with a paltry 1.72mbps speed and has often been caught blocking users' traffic although it came on top of another customer satisfaction survey in December 2007.

Tiscali acquired Pipex back in June 2007 and has actively promoted its new landline phone service as well as its Video on Demand services (opens in new tab).

The Italian-based copany, which is also UK's fourth largest ISP, has also announced that it will relaunch Toucan Mobile which runs on the T-Mobile network.

Désiré Athow
Désiré Athow

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website building and web hosting when DHTML and frames were en vogue and started writing about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium. Following an eight-year stint at ITProPortal.com where he discovered the joys of global tech-fests, Désiré now heads up TechRadar Pro. Previously he was a freelance technology journalist at Incisive Media, Breakthrough Publishing and Vnunet, and Business Magazine. He also launched and hosted the first Tech Radio Show on Radio Plus.