p2p news / p2pnet: Britain’s biggest cable- television provider, NTL Inc, is to buy Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile Holdings Plc for 962 million-pounds ($1.67 billion), says Bloomberg News.

The buy will add wireless-phone services to NTL’s Net and TV networks.

“The purchase will help NTL fend off companies including Cable & Wireless Plc. in the booming market for combined TV, Internet, and phone services,” says the story.

“The sale will allow billionaire Branson to extend his Virgin brand beyond a current range of activities that stretch from airlines to financial services.”

The deal’s logic, “rests on the hope that the Virgin brand can rescue NTL’s sullied reputation for customer service,” says the Guardian Online. “But also key to its rationale is the promise of ‘quadruple play’ – a one-stop shop for pay TV, broadband, fixed line and mobile telephony.”

However, analysts are wondering if consumers, “actually want to have all four of these services provided by the same company and point out that Virgin Mobile’s customer profile is weighted towards younger consumers less likely to be in charge of household billing decisions,” says the story.

Also See:
Bloomberg News – Virgin Mobile Accepts $1.67 Billion Offer From NTL, April 4, 2006
Guardian Online – Will NTL prove the sceptics wrong?, April 4, 2006

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