One.Tel to rebrand iomart DSL service

Discount telco One.Tel believes it will be a major ADSL provider within the next five years following Centrica's £2 million acquisition of iomart's broadband business.

One.Tel, part of Centrica Telecommunications, will rebrand the iomart service in the next couple of months.

According to Centrica Telecommunications MD, Ian El-Mokadem, One.Tel's 110,000 Internet users will be among the first to be offered broadband.

But will One.Tel use the vast resource of Centrica - parent to household-name brands including the AA and British Gas - to takes on the likes of BTopenworld and promote its new broadband business?

"We're not going to throw large sums of money at it, if there's no return," Mr El-Mokadem told The Register. "We won't go for broke at all costs.

"The again, we don't tend to just dip our toe in the market either," he said. "Over the next five years we will become a significant player in this market."

Instead, it's a matter of timing. Like others, One.Tel believes broadband is set to take off, but issues such as pricing, service quality and availability are still an impediment to take-up.

The acquisition of iomart's business and expertise gives One.Tel a relatively low-cost toe hold in the broadband marketplace without having to start from scratch. And when Centrica decides the time is right and puts its full weight behind this business, it might well prove to be a match for BT. ®

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