Sky Talk moves to BT Wholesale

Promises improved reach and reliability but no reversal of April price hikes

All Sky Talk calls will move onto BT Wholesale platform in the next three months

Broadband provider Sky is to migrate over a million Sky Talk telephony customers onto BT's wholesale voice platform in the next few months as part of a new three-year deal to carry Sky's voice traffic over BT's telecommunications backbone.

The company says the move will extend Sky Talk's reach to include more UK telephone exchanges and increase the reliability of Sky Talk calls.

Sky owner the BSkyB group purchased BT rival Easynet for £211m in 2005, and will continue to use the Easynet local loop unbundled (LLU) network to support Sky's broadband data packages.

Sky Talk incensed its user base in April with significant increases in per-minute charges and connection fees. The company has not yet indicated if any further price alterations will be implemented following the BT Wholesale deal.

Delia Bushell, BSkyB director of broadband and telephony, said the agreement is expected to yield "increasing cost efficiencies as we grow the [Sky Talk] service".