LONDON, February 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Move Will Undercut BT by 60%

- Opal to Claim 20% Market Share and Create Schism

- More Than 10,000 Customers Already Signed, Contradicting Current
Economic Downturn

Opal, the UK's leading provider of next generation
communications technology for business, is today announcing plans to move
against the economic slump by launching a high-end premium business broadband
service which aggressively undercuts its competitors on price. This move is
intended to dominate the business broadband market and could force out less
competitive operators.

The company, which is the B2B division of The TalkTalk Group,
is launching Opal Office Broadband, a new premium-grade and prioritised
business broadband service which will offer the most technologically advanced
broadband currently on the market, for a fraction of the price.

With this new product offering, Opal believes it has the
opportunity to take a 20 per cent share of the market, an ambition supported
by post-Christmas test sales of the product, of more than 10,000 new
connections.

Opal Office Broadband gives businesses a premium
business-broadband service with speeds of up to 24 Mbps and network priority
for just GBP10 per month; 58% less than BT's nearest equivalent. Crucially,
it operates across the group's Next Generation Network, which is the most
widely penetrated and developed in the UK, giving Opal significant
technological and scale advantages over its competitors.

Opal is anticipating that the product's advanced technology
and bold pricing will create a schism in the market similar to that created
by TalkTalk, which disrupted the consumer market in 2006 when it launched its
free broadband package.

Paul Lawton, Managing Director of Opal, said: "TalkTalk
overhauled the residential broadband market in 2006 with its free broadband
offering and we anticipate the launch of Opal Office Broadband will do the
same in the business sector.

"The group has spent two years and a GBP200m investment
programme building a resilient 'Next Generation' national network which
supports over 1.4 m broadband customers. It is this investment that has made
the launch of Opal Office Broadband possible. There are no other providers
that can compete with us on price, quality and coverage.

"This move is in contrast to market conditions. With the
country sliding deeper into recession, we see this as a key enabler in
helping UK businesses to obtain a high quality business grade service and
save money. We also anticipate this aggressive move may make trading
extremely tough for those telecoms operators which are less competitive in
the market place and it could result in some consolidation.

http://www.Opal.co.uk