UK Post Office® signals entrance to residential home phone market

The Post Office® has signed up with Cable & Wireless to provide a fixed line phone service for millions of customers throughout the UK. The Post Office® has also chosen Inkfish to provide call centre support and Servista for customer care and billing services for the new venture.

Called Post Office® HomePhone, the new service will be available to 21 million customers who use BT as a fixed line telephone provider and will launch early next year.

Post Office Ltd Chief Executive, David Mills, said:

“We have one of the most trusted, credible and recognised brands in the country. We’ll be building on this to launch our Post Office® HomePhone service which will be amongst the most competitive in the marketplace.
“We’re delighted to have agreements with three companies that excel in their particular fields. They will play a vital role in delivering a top class service to our Post Office® HomePhone customers. Mills added: “Importantly, we’ve chosen companies with values that reflect those of Post Office® – excellent service, simplicity and value for money.

“Post Office® is at the heart of communities across the UK, with a network of almost 16,000 branches. Through listening to what our customers want we are responding to meet their changing needs by diversifying and offering a range of new products – from financial services to telephony – and updating familiar favourites such as the much-loved postal order”.
Royston Hoggarth, Chief Executive, Cable & Wireless, UK said of the new development:
" We are delighted to be working with the Post Office®. It is a business with a fantastic brand, great high street presence and a strong track record in brand extension – from banking to foreign exchange.
"When these skills are combined with Cable & Wireless’ expertise, scalability and the strength of our network, I’m confident that together we can make big things happen in residential telecoms."

David Potter, Sales & Client Services Director at Inkfish is delighted Post Office® chose Inkfish as their first choice outsourcer.

"The quality and depth of brand experience delivery that we were able to demonstrate during the selection process was decisive. The Customer Management operation we are establishing in partnership with Servista and Cable & Wireless will differentiate the Post Office® proposition in the market. We look forward to contributing our expertise to the success of this Post Office® venture".

Courtney Sheets, CEO at Servista said:

“Knowing how much the Post Office® values the trust of its customers, we’re delighted to be asked to handle the critical tasks of customer care and billing. The awarding of this contract is a great tribute to the continuing efforts of our team to deliver the quality demanded by clients that prize their customer relationships. We are therefore proud to be associated with the Post Office® and look forward to working with Cable & Wireless and Inkfish in making Post Office® HomePhone a terrific success.”
– ends –

Further Press Information: Ginny Reid, Post Office Ltd 020 7320 7193

Notes to editors

Post Office Ltd
The Post Office® has a network of almost 16,000 branches across the United Kingdom. Around ninety four per cent of the UK population live within a mile of a Post Office® branch. The Post Office® offers 170 products and services, including phonecards and mobile phone top-ups, financial and travel services, banking, bill payments, lottery products, licence applications and postal services.

The Post Office® is the biggest cash handler in the country – with more than £140 billion passing through its hands each year. More than 500 million household bills are paid at Post Office® branches each year – with a value of £12 billion.
www.postoffice.co.uk

Cable & Wireless
One of the world''''s leading international communications companies, Cable & Wireless provides voice, data and IP (Internet Protocol) services to business and residential customers, as well as services to other telecoms carriers, mobile operators and providers of content, applications and internet services.
In the UK Cable & Wireless is a leading supplier of Carrier Pre-Selection (CPS) services to businesses offering competitive residential telephony services as an alternative to BT.
Cable & Wireless CPS has streamlined, intelligent processes and systems to maximise quality of service.
Cable & Wireless'''' principal operations are in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Japan, the Caribbean, Panama, the Middle East and Macau.
www.cw.com

Inkfish call centres limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Domestic & General Group PLC. It operates from three main sites in Brighton, Nottingham and Slough and has a staff of 1400. The company has received work life balance awards and has been nominated as an Age Positive Employer Champion by the Ministry of Work and Pensions for the last three years. Inkfish call centres works for a number of high profile B2B and B2C clients including Renault, British Airways Holidays, BSkyB and Avon Cosmetics. Customer contact for the Post Office® project will be handled from Inkfish''''s call centre site in the heart of Brighton. www.inkfish.co.uk

Servista is the leading provider of outsourced customer care and billing services for the home services market. Delivering through a combination of highly experienced operational teams and innovative technology, Servista supports a wide range of services including gas, electricity, fixed line and mobile telephony, broadband and dial-up internet, pay TV and insurance. Servista’s solutions enable major service providers to build stronger, more profitable customer relationships, cut costs and launch new services rapidly. The company won ‘Best Utilities Implementation’ at the 2002 IIR World Billing Awards and ‘Best Customer Service’ at the 2001 Revolution Awards. Clients include Lloyds TSB and Tesco.
www.servista.com

www.postoffice.co.uk