Massive growth in virtual telcos predicted

As the demand for telecomms services increases, more and more household names will start operating as telecomms resellers. This trend could increase ten-fold, according to ACC and will high street brands follow the example Dixons set when it launched its Freeserve ISP. Rod Ritson, director of resale at ACC Telecom, said: " Consumers are increasingly happy to buy services from their favourite brands. That’s why we’ve seen Manchester United become an ISP and Tesco become a bank." The company said it has carried out research into this market and claims to have witnessed a 60 per cent increase in enquiries from non-telecomms based companies looking to expand into this sector. ®