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TalkTalk kills Tiscali

Alright, yeah, bye, OK, bye

In the end, it went quietly. As of yesterday, Tiscali is no more in the UK.

Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk boss Charles Dunstone wielded the axe on his corporate blog.

He said: "From today the Tiscali brand is no more and we're committed to giving all of our customers absolute clarity about who we are, the services we provide and the prices we charge."

Former Tiscali subscribers have been moved to TalkTalk tariffs. For some that'll mean no change in what they pay, for some Dunstone said there will be a "small increase".

In fact, some former Tiscali subscribers, who paid £14.99 for broadband only, will be charged an extra £5 per month if they don't subscribe to TalkTalk's phone service. They were warned of the change before Christmas.

Dunstone said: "We've gained a lot from the Tiscali acquisition, most notably TV and Portal expertise and some great people, but from today the brand name will disappear and our focus is on TalkTalk."

He has made some deep cuts at Tiscali, causing uproar among staff.

The brand is unlikely to be lamented by many customers, however. Particularly in the last two years of its existence, when its debt-laden Italian parent company sought to offload its British operation, Tiscali cemented a reputation for poor network performance and worse customer service.

The £236m acquisition and integration of Tiscali's 1.8 million customers is a central part of Dunstone's plan to spin off TalkTalk from Carphone Warehouse this year. It now has 4.1 million subscribers, second in the market behind BT on five million. ®

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