communications - KCOM Group
Photograph by Ed Yourdonon Flickr.
In February 2006, Kingston Communications announced that it would be ceasing its Video on Demand and Digital communications TV services (called Kingston Interactive TV - KIT) on 1 April 2006. The KCOM Group now consists of a number of group companies including Kingston Communications, Affiniti (merging Kingston InBusiness, Omnetica and technica) - its business integration and services arm and Eclipse - its Internet Service Provider. KCOM s Hull operation covers communications a relatively small geographical area. Kingston Communications was the shirt sponsor for Hull City for the 2007–08 and 2008–09 seasons.
Considerations include concerns over KC s acceptable use policy, the cost of the service and the inability to use other providers. In December 2005, Giacom, the owner of Hull24 communications - a rival broadband provider in the Hull area - complained to Ofcom regarding the provision of network access to KC s rivals. In August 2007 the alleged monopoly of Kingston Communications was referred to the European Commission by Yorkshire and Humber MEP Diana Wallis. In May 2008, the Review of communications the wholesale broadband access markets In July 2009, Nexus Telecom signed an agreement with KCOM enabling them to offer effective wholesale line rental and call tariffs to business consumers within the Hull area so giving them a choice of service provider. The ground shared by Hull City football club and the Hull FC rugby league team is sponsored by and named after Kingston Communications - the Kingston Communications Stadium, more commonly known simply as the KC Stadium. According to a decision from the European Commission in 2004, Kingston Communications plc (“Kingston”) have a 100% market share in the wholesale market of broadband services in the Hull area.
Karoo appeared on the home (amber) shirts and Kingston Communications featured on the away (white) kit. The company also sponsors the name of the local radio station KCFM99.8 who broadcast live coverage of the sporting events from the stadium, but they do not own the station. Telecoms and Internet Services Kingston Communications · Karoo · Eclipse Internet · Hull Colour Pages · Know · Kreate Integration and Managed Services Affiniti · JAM IP · Smart421 . It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. On 22 August 1902, Hull Corporation (which later became Hull City Council) was granted a licence to operate a municipal telephone system in the Kingston upon Hull area, opening its first telephone exchange in 1904 at the former Trippett Street Baths. At the time, there were a number of such municipal telephone companies around the UK, all of which - with the exception of the one in Hull - were gradually absorbed in to the Post Office Telephone department, which was subsequently to become British Telecom (BT). Hull s bid to renew its licence in 1914 was made conditional on the £192,000 purchase of National Telephone networks infrastructure.
KCOM Group (LSE: KCOM) is a UK communications and IT services provider. Although it is under the same Ofcom and EU obligations with respect to local loop unbundling the addressable market is small that the economics do not - by and large - justify entry by other companies. A further complication for any would-be rival of Kingston Communications is the fact that in Hull the first 1 km of wire from the exchange has a cross-section of 0.3 mm sq, as opposed to the standard 0.5 mm sq, requiring a more expensive DSLAM in the telephone exchange for providing an ADSL service. As residents and most businesses in Hull are served only with telecoms services by Kingston Communications (KC), some service users are unhappy with the monopoly position KC has in the Hull area. The main concern is that of Internet service provision; Kingston Communications Karoo service is the only residential broadband operator in the Hull area.
