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[roseway]

"Internet service provider Tiscali is fighting for its life after failing to clinch a deal with BSkyB.

The Italian company has been trying to sell its British Pipex operation to the satellite broadcaster.

Tiscali, Britain's fifth largest broadband supplier with 1.8m subscribers, has breached banking covenants on its crippling £447m debt mountain. "

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=480254&in_page_id=3&ito=1565

[waltergmw]

Hi Roseway,

If so, what a relief once the mayhem that creates has been tidied up.

Kind regards,
Walter

[HPsauce]

BBC News have just reported that their shares have been suspended in Italy.

[UncleUB]

I'll tell my mate,he has just gone back with them  and he is also moving his line rental over to them. 

[kitz]

Gosh this is turning into a right farce isnt it?

Theres been several offers that have been dropped once Tiscali opened their books to the potential buyers... and if they cant reach an agreement with Murdochs deep pockets, I wonder what the future now holds for them.

Their network is in a bit of a mess and its no wonder some of their users are seeing appalling speeds due to the ISP not having the funds to invest in new capacity. 
It is quite astounding though how they are in such a financial mess you'd think with the large amount of customers that they do have and the obvious very high contention rates they use that they would break into profit....  the money isnt being spent on bandwidth, nor CS... so just what are they spending the money on?


cynic mode
~ fat cat salaries?
~ wasting CS resources by making users do every trick in the book and dragging things out over months instead of admitting where the real problem lays.
~ sending users out new routers in the hope that it shuts them up - and solves slow issues - when it wont.  Ive seen way to many instances where their CS will send out a new router which wont make the slightest difference to the the problem in hand.

/cynic mode.

[kitz]

BTW

Tiscali have today updated their prices and products - their new product set is as listed below

New Pricing
Product 1
Broadband only
Up to 8Mb unlimited Broadband
Completely Free set up 
Free email anti-spam & anti-virus
Free Modem or £10 wireless router
Free 6 email addresses
All for just £14.99 a month.

Product 2
Broadband, Weekend Talk & Phone Line Rental
Up to 8Mb unlimited broadband
Inclusive UK Weekend phone calls*
Inclusive Weekend International landline calls*
Inclusive phone line rental
Free Modem or £10 wireless router
All for just £14.99 a month ( A one off £30 set up fee applies)

Product 3
Broadband, Anytime Talk & Phone Line Rental
Up to 8Mb unlimited broadband
Inclusive Anytime UK phone calls*
Inclusive Anytime International landline calls*
Inclusive Phone Line rental
Free Modem or £10 wireless router
All for just £19.99 a month ( A one off £30 set up fee applies)

I havent had chance to update the main site yet...  as Im still looking around trying to find out what cap/fup applies to the products released today.
Seems that all new accounts are treated the same with the same FUP.  Little info about it though.

[HPsauce]

I've just been to see a client who happens to have Tiscali for both phone and broadband.
When I told her what I knew the response was - great, I hope we can get out of our contract ASAP as they're terrible, especially when the phone stops working (which it does often).
I might add that this is on a relatively new and large development that is part of a large newish hospital complex so no "antique" copper involved.

[BritBrat]

When I told her what I knew the response was - great, I hope we can get out of our contract ASAP as they're terrible, especially when the phone stops working (which it does often).

I was thinking the same thing and TalkTalk next

But if there are fewer ISP's prices may go up.

Heaven forbid that only BT are left and Virgin for Cable.

[jid]

My Dad has seen this and has rung Sky regarding it.

They have told him we can go from LLU to them if we just order Sky Talk first.

They will install a Sky Talk Line (sky line rental I think £10 a month) and add the anytime calls bundle to it.

Then when its active we will need to order 16meg bband so will be without broadband at most for 10days.

Will see what happens before we do a definite switch but it seems like they are in real trouble...

[kitz]

Embattled internet service provider Tiscali has suspended its debt repayments as it tries to thrash out a new financing deal with its banks.

The company, based in the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, has run into financial trouble after admitting late last week that talks to sell its UK business to BSkyB had collapsed.

The company had been hoping to use the proceeds of the sale to help pay off part of its €500m (£461m) debt and trading in the company's shares had to be halted on Monday after they plunged 40% on the news that the board now felt it was "de facto impossible to proceed" with the sale because of the economic downturn.

Tiscali has about 1.7 million British customers, having grown through the acquisition of Pipex and broadband TV company Home Choice.

Late on Tuesday night Tiscali said that "pending the proposal for a standstill agreement from the main lending banks, the company has suspended payments on the long-term bank debts, including those due in March".

Its most recent payments, totalling €11m, were due today and on Friday this week.

More info from the Guardian


The timesonline also reports it has suspended payments on loans and debits in an attempt to help the group restructure its finances.

The company, which has been fighting for its life following the collapse of sale talks with BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster that is 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, announced that its creditors, led by JPMorgan, had agreed to suspend payments on loans including €11 million (£10.1 million) owed this week.

/snip/

Tiscali has been struggling to compete with giants like Sky and Virigin Media and has been losing subscribers.

/snip/

Analysts believe that Sky, BT and Carphone Warehouse are all waiting in the wings, hoping to pick-up Tiscali's customers on the cheap, if it goes bust. The mobile and broadband group, O2, could also be interested.

[joss]

I think back to the days of screaming.net then tiscali took over. Really nothing has improved over the years has it.

[kitz]

It is interesting to note that the times says it is struggling to compete with the likes of sky and Virgin, but since Tiscali have their own (LLU) network, this should have put them into a position to be able to compete with the 2 mentioned companies price-wise.

Since Tiscali were at one point one of the largest UK ISPs, could the dwindling user base actually have anything to do with the fact that more and more consumers are realising the poor performance of the network, and more consumers be moving elsewhere once their contracts have expired?

We may also see the disappearance of Tiscali products from certain "broadband comparison sites"* as one of the affiliate networks advises its users that payments at the present time cannot be guaranteed and to asses their risks and make a decision on whether to continue promoting Tiscali.




*This does not include kitz.co.uk and thinkbroadband, who are both independent and do NOT review ISPs on a commission basis.

[roseway]

Tiscali have their own LLU network, and also sell network capacity wholesale to other ISPs. It's difficult to see how they couldn't have competed, other than by incompetence. They must have tempted no end of non-technical people with their cuddly TV adverts offering 'unlimited' connections for next to nothing, and no doubt a significant proportion of those people ended up being disappointed. They over-hyped the sales pitch.

[joss]

You probably hit the nail on the head Kitz.

"ince Tiscali were at one point one of the largest UK ISPs, could the dwindling user base actually have anything to do with the fact that more and more consumers are realising the poor performance of the network, and more consumers be moving elsewhere once their contracts have expired?"

Providing a poor CS,and poor all round service, ultimately will result in customers looking to new pastures. More people are becoming savvy about broadband and bundled technology. They are voting with their feet.