A MAJOR energy supplier with 6.8million customers has sold its broadband arm.
Octopus Energy has sold Shell Energy's broadband arm to TalkTalk.
Around 480,000 Shell broadband customers will switch to TalkTalk in the coming months.
It comes just months after Shell agreed to sell its domestic energy and broadband arm to the energy firm last September.
At the time, Shell Energy provided domestic gas, power, and broadband services to approximately two million customers.
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The suppliers completed the sale in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Octopus Energy said there will be a smooth transition over to the firm and no disruption to a customer's energy supply.
Industry experts expected Octopus Energy to divest their telecoms base to another telecom provider.
With this now confirmed, the move replicated what happened when Ovo Energy sold its SSE Broadband base to TalkTalk in October 2022.
A statement on the TalkTalk website reads: "Further to reports, TalkTalk confirms that a vehicle controlled by TalkTalk's major shareholders has acquired Shell Energy's UK broadband customer base from Octopus Energy.
"Shell Energy Broadband has been a longstanding wholesale customer of TalkTalk, with services offered through the company’s unique national network platform, and that relationship will now continue."
All Shell energy and broadband customers will now be contacted about the next steps.
In a statement released this week, an Octopus Energy spokesperson said: "The migration process will begin in the coming months.
"For now, customers should sit tight; they will be contacted once their account is ready to move over to TalkTalk's systems.
"Until migration, Shell Energy Broadband customers will be looked after by the same teams as before."
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Octopus Energy recently completed the transfer of 1.5million Bulb customers in just six months – an industry record.
Greg Jackson, chief executive and founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: "Following a stringent process, we are pleased to be acquiring Shell Energy Retail in the UK and Germany.
"Our commitment to customers is paramount and we will do whatever it takes to deliver the Octopus promise when we welcome these new customers too."
Affected customers are usually given several months' notice before their accounts are transferred over to the new supplier.
However, the acquisition of Shell Energy's customer base has now catapulted Octopus Energy to become the UK's second-largest energy supplier with 6.8 million customers.
The last major supplier to place its domestic arm up for sale was SSE back in 2019.
SSE Energy Services, which provided gas and electricity to 3.5million households, was acquired by Ovo Energy in January 2020.
Octopus Energy said in October 2022 that it would take on all 1.5million Bulb customers after the troubled energy supplier fell into administration back in November 2021.
At its peak, Bulb was the country's seventh largest energy firm and provided gas and electricity tariffs to 1.7million households.
But it was the biggest provider to go under after several other smaller firms failed to stay afloat.
Unlike, the smaller suppliers which went bust with hundreds of thousands of customers, Bulb had over one million.
This meant that Ofgem couldn't simply get another supplier to take on all its customers, as it has done with the 28 other firms that collapsed in 2021.
Instead, Bulb was placed into special administration - which meant that it was allowed to operate as normal and customers don't need to do anything.
In this format, the company was kept afloat thanks to the input of £4billion worth of taxpayer cash.
But in October last year, Octopus announced a deal with the government to buy Bulb and take on its 1.5 million customers, backed by the Government.