Opus said its interest in the consumer business “remains unchanged”.

However, Enders Analysis described BT as a “buyer of last resort” and warned the ramifications of a TalkTalk collapse would have been “very serious”.

Its analysts wrote: “Some of BT’s competitors may well protest but unless they actually make an alternative offer for the company, the failing firm theory is proven.”

“It’s probably the least bad deal for BT, because they were going to take some pain anyway,” said Karen Egan, head of telecoms at Enders Analysis. “They were going to lose wholesale revenues for a few months [and] they were going to have a bad debt for Openreach.”

“There’s now a question mark over whether BT is going to be able to stabilise that customer base,” Egan said. “I would say stabilising is a big challenge and they’re probably not going to be able to immediately.”

“BT’s a big group — they can find £50m, £100m down the back of the sofa here and there … You don’t have to cut that many costs in order to get [TalkTalk] to almost break even on an operating cashflow basis”, said Egan at Enders Analysis.

With entry-level broadband prices in the UK standing between £20 and £25, an £11 surcharge would represent an increase of more than 50pc for some customers.

James Barford, at Enders Analysis, describes this as “quite a dramatic increase if you’re trying to spend as little money as possible”.

It’s not just young people, though. Older people who are marginal broadband users may choose to ditch their contracts and make do without.

Moreover, any decline in broadband take-up would result in what Barford brands a “doom loop”.

BT is the biggest broadband provider in the UK, with a market share of about 30%, according to estimates by Enders Analysis. Openreach, the broadband network owned by BT, is also TalkTalk’s biggest supplier. BT can expect to add a further 1.5 million broadband customers as a result of the deal.

A tie-up between the companies would normally trigger a competition review because BT’s broadband network Openreach is TalkTalk’s largest supplier. BT is also the country’s largest broadband provider with a market share of roughly 30 per cent, according to estimates from Enders Analysis.

The TV star saw far ahead of others the dangers and risks posed to children by technology such as smartphones and the internet, according to friend and media executive Claire Enders. “She had a brilliant insight into the prevalence of abuse in an online world,” said Enders, who pointed to the introduction of the Online Safety Act in 2023 as a culmination of her campaigns over the decades. “She was able to galvanise people to act. She used her voice with utter conviction and effectiveness.”

We may see the deal called off before the official CMA decision on Dec. 15, unless Nexfibre and Netomnia still believe that there is a sufficient chink of hope that is worth holding on,” Karen Egan said. “The CMA is taking the view that VMO2 will upgrade its network from cable to fiber whether this deal happens or not.”

Karen Egan was quoted in the FT on "BT seeks government nod for potential TalkTalk takeover"

Karen Egan said that “when companies get to the level of distress that TalkTalk appears to be in, competition concerns tend to take a back seat.”

“In this instance, the government will be more concerned about security and continuity of service for vulnerable customers,” she added.

 

Karen Egan, head of telecoms at consultancy Enders Analysis, told the BBC that TalkTalk, which had 4million customers in 2019, has become laden with debt and ‘struggled to invest’ in keeping them.

‘At the same time, the industry’s become incredibly competitive – a lot of excess market entry – and prices have collapsed,' she said.

Ms Egan said about £1billion of debt was likely to have to be written off as part of the sale process, which would be a ‘very large number for the banks to swallow’.

She added: ‘I’d be surprised if there’s actually real disruption for the TalkTalk customers. If indeed this deal with Opus Broadband goes ahead they will take over the running of the operations I would expect.’