TalkTalk Group (TTG) today announces it is creating two new wholesale divisions to support both its B2B and Consumer wholesale segments. The announcements reflect the material growth in both areas, the integration of newly acquired Virtual 1, and the focus on accelerating take up in high bandwidth FTTP and Ethernet services across the Group’s Wholesale Platform.
TTG is also today announcing the intention to competitively tender its B2B Ethernet supply as the demand for higher bandwidth services is rising fast with UK businesses of all sizes requiring more usage and ultra-high bandwidth connectivity. The tender also reflects the newly competitive environment in wholesale infrastructure supply.
B2B Wholesales Services and Consumer Wholesale Services:
The newly formed TalkTalk Business Wholesale Services division will be led by Tom O’Hagan, founder and CEO of Virtual1, which TalkTalk Group acquired in April 2022. It will offer premium and high bandwidth services to resellers, aggregators, and system integrators. The division will trade as two brands: TalkTalk Wholesale Services and Virtual1, giving partners maximum choice. The proposition for customers combines TalkTalk’s major national scale with Virtual1’s market-leading portals, improved automation, and sophisticated API capabilities. The vision is to be the fastest growing provider of Software Defined High Bandwidth services in the Wholesale Business market.
The newly formed Consumer Wholesale Services division will be led by Nick Gunga, current Managing Director of Wholesale, Nick has held a number of leading positions across TalkTalk’s consumer business over the last 17 years. The division has over one million residential customers including the recently acquired SSE Phone and Telecom base from OVO as well as long term customers Telecom Plus and Shell Energy.
Competitive tender for B2B Ethernet services:
The combination of the Virtual1 and TalkTalk network footprint now extends to over 3,000 on net exchanges, placing 1,500 high bandwidth Ethernet orders per month across on net, off net and altnet solutions. TTG has over 25% market share of the UK's B2B high speed Ethernet market and, in the first three months of this year, took 31% share of all new Openreach connections. The group serves both the direct and indirect markets and is the UK's fastest growing Ethernet business. The newly competitive tender presents a major opportunity for both large scale and smaller providers, covering 14 areas across the UK.
Tristia Harrison, CEO of TalkTalk Group, said
“The pace of innovation in both the B2B and Consumer wholesale telecoms has accelerated, and businesses and consumers across the UK are requiring more and more usage and great bandwidth connectivity. That is why we are delighted to be announcing these two important wholesale growth divisions as well as a competitive tender for our B2B Ethernet supply. We are also delighted to welcome Tom O’Hagan and the wider Virtual 1 team to the group and very excited about the future growth projections for the business.”
Tom O’Hagan, founder and CEO of Virtual 1, MD of TalkTalk Business Wholesale Services, said
“The combination of TalkTalk’s national scale and Virtual1’s market leading software was always going to be a winner. The creation of this new division will allow us to bring all those advantages to customers more quickly and at greater scale.”
Nick Gunga, MD of TalkTalk Consumer Wholesale Services, said,
“Our vision is to become the fastest growing provider of consumer services in the wholesale market. We already are market leading in this area, and we can use our experience to further deepen our relationships with our key partners. We will be able to focus on being the best we can for our customers, and we can't wait to start.”
About TalkTalk Wholesale Services
TalkTalk Wholesale Services is one of the largest B2B telecoms providers in the UK, serving the needs of business and public sector customers nationwide and working with over 650 partners. We remain focused on being a fibre first provider and delivering a full range of business-grade communications products and services, including Connectivity and Networking, Hosted Solutions, Voice and IP telephone systems. It’s our mission to democratise fibre, to level the playing field for UK businesses, enabling them to achieve their every ambition. Through our partners, we are Britain’s largest provider of wholesale broadband to small business and consumers, with over 60% market share. Our full suite of Ethernet products allows us to serve businesses from SMEs to enterprise as well as public sector.
About Virtual 1
Virtual 1 is the UK’s leading wholesale-only network and cloud infrastructure provider, powering businesses towards tomorrow with state-of-the-art technology and a team of the industry’s best. Our customisable, automated, and streamlined connectivity covers over 95% of the UK’s population, while our cloud delivers world-class security, backup, and performance. Our award-winning 1Portal puts you in control, letting you manage customers’ solutions entirely online, while you adapt and evolve to their needs with ease. With efficient automation keeping everything on track, we’re able to focus on giving you all the support you need to outpace the competition. One network, with so much more behind it.
About Tom O’Hagan
Tom is the Founder and CEO of Virtual1 and led Virtual1 to become one of the largest wholesale providers in the UK B2B market. By combining unrivalled capability in automation, sophisticated API capabilities and leading-edge portal experience, Virtual1 was able to lead the industry with award winning innovation and deliver significant year on year organic growth.
Tom has more than 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry, having worked for leading global telecommunication providers both in the UK and the USA before founding Virtual1. This drive, determination and ambition for the channel saw Tom recognised as the Entrepreneur of the year at the Comms National Awards in 2017.
About Nick Gunga
Nick Gunga, Managing Director, currently leads our industry-leading Wholesale Services division, helping our Partners capitalise on TalkTalk Wholesale Services’ innovative Next Generation converged Voice and Data products and services.
Nick is a highly experienced telecoms expert with a career spanning over 26 years in the industry. Nick led on our award-winning full fibre roll out, as well as launching our 10GB high-bandwidth services, and has overseen the creation of Wholesale Services. Nick was previously Chief Operating Officer of TalkTalk Consumer, having been in the role since April 2018. He joined TalkTalk Group in 2005, and in the last 17 years he has spanned a variety of senior roles in sales, customer service, digital transformation, and operations.