Tiscali in white-label online phone service

The ISP will develop the b2b relationships as part of a strategy to provide low-cost calls.

Allowing users to make normal voice calls to mobile, national and international numbers, the 'Smart Talk' package will introduce a 'price promise', where the ISP will credit users with the difference in any price between its service and those of rivals. It will also offer users 1p-a-minute internet calls.

Alastair Dixon, commercial voice director at Tiscali UK, said it was open to linking up with players in a variety of sectors to offer tailored telephony services. "We can offer a co-branded or white-label deal, he said.

Dixon added that Tiscali is using assets gained during its acquisition of the LibertySurf ISP last year to offer the service.

"This is a big infrastructure, he explained. "If the business grows 10 times, we will be prepared. We inherited a voice portal from Liberty Surf. It hasn't been given a lot of marketing in the past few months, but we will change that."

He added that Tiscali had sent out a test run of 100,000 direct mail shots to promote the service. The activity precedes the launch of the second phase of Tiscali's branding campaign, which is set for mid-September.