After acquiring Tiscali in a takeover last summer, TalkTalk has been planning to discontinue the brand name and migrate all current customers over to a TalkTalk price plan. As a result, TalkTalk has now stopped Tiscali from taking on any new customers and the switchover process is about to get underway.

The merger of the two firms has resulted in the creation of the UK’s largest single home broadband provider, which will now serve over 4.1 million customers around the country. TalkTalk’s parent firm The Carphone Warehouse bought Tiscali for a modest £235 million in May 2009 and it joined a group of other subsidiaries that included fellow broadband provider AOL.

The Carphone Warehouse’s CEO Charles Dunstone said in a statement that he hoped the change-over would be more significant for former Tiscali customers than an alteration to the logo. As such, he has assured the new members of the TalkTalk home broadband family that their tariffs are of equal value to those of existing Tiscali plans.

Mr Dunstone also indicated that the change meant that many former Tiscali customers would now be paying less monthly for their broadband service. A minority may pay more, but cheap cable broadband could be a solution.

Some people will welcome the news, as the TalkTalk broadband brand has undergone quite a metamorphosis over the past few years. At first it was not particularly well regarded, but with a turnaround in customer service quality and a competitive pricing strategy it has now become a trusted brand.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added that “if ex-Tiscali customers are not keen on staying with TalkTalk after the switchover is complete, they can always migrate their service to an alternative provider with ease. Cheap cable broadband offers an excellent alternative to ADSL for those living in cabled areas and rival ADSL providers will be looking to snap up any customers that may not be enamoured with TalkTalk.”