Mobile broadband bandwagon leaves Sky and TalkTalk trailing

Over recent weeks TalkTalk has been the ISP that has dominated the headlines. And unlike say Virgin Media, whose brushes with the ASA continue to mount up, it’s mostly been for the right reasons. Its offer to waive charges for a six-month period for customers in particular was an inspired piece of pr.

But as bit of canny maths from Top 10 Broadband showed, recently they’ve not always been so quick to react to shifting moods in the UK broadband market. Over the last 12 months, TalkTalk and Sky have been notable absentees from the mobile broadband market. And the site calculates that as a result they are missing out on £36 million of potential revenue every month by failing to do so.

Jessica McArdle, marketing manager at the site, however predicted that it’s only a matter of time before this happens. She said: “TalkTalk and Sky must be looking into ways of offering mobile broadband either as a standalone product or as part of a bundled deal – failing to do so would amount to commercial suicide”

It’s hard to disagree with her. The worry is that in the meantime, rivals such as O2, Vodafone, 3 and Virgin Media are carving the market up for themselves. Thus by the time that TalkTalk and Sky have readied a mobile broadband service, they’ll have to work twice as hard and offer deals three times as eye-catching in order to capture a share of the sector.