TalkTalk asks for patience as merger problems continue

The boss of TalkTalk today said that customers would have to bear with her as she irons out the problems of merging its own service with those of Tsicali and AOL which the broadband group bought over the last two years.

"I cannot acknowledge that all the integration work is causing disruption," said chief executive Dido Harding.

"The challenges are not beyond us yet. This is a long journey and we cannot just turn on a sixpence. The vast majority of our customers are extremely happy."

Harding said she was delivering on the strategy she laid out in November which has seen TalkTalk concentrate on delivering better margins rather than chasing customer growth.

In the last three months it dropped just 25,000 customers leaving it with 4.2 million while revenues were flat on £444 million.

At the same time, the number of customers who were shifted onto the firm's own network rather than using more expensive lines leased from BT was higher than expected.

Some 85% of customers are now "unbundled" with Harding aiming to hit 93% within the next couple of years.