Kcom apologises after firms hit out at costly Internet blackout
Thousands of residents and businesses in Hull were left without Internet access for hours after Kcom suffered a network failure.
Firms were counting the cost today after the broadband blackout over the weekend affected Karoo customers.
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Kcom in Carr Lane, Hull
The failure occurred at 3pm on Saturday and was not rectified until 11pm.
Some large businesses and organisations, including Hull and East Yorkshire Hospital NHS Trust, escaped the problems because they have independent networks.
But Adrian Eves, a Hull-based business manager for Panasonic Europe, said the company had suffered.
He said: "This will have cost local businesses thousands of pounds.
"I am extremely angry and frustrated with Kcom.
"In my job, I have to communicate with factories and offices in China, Japan, the US and Germany."
Dave Beasley, managing director of Classlane Media, a video production company based in Hessle, called for more choice of Internet suppliers for the city.
He said: "I came in specially on the Saturday only to find the Internet wasn't working.
"We had clients expecting to see a DVD on Sunday, but that was not feasible after the Internet went down.
"Our deadlines haven't moved, but we lost a full day's work, so it was hugely inconvenient for us.
"We are moving to Newport, near Howden, soon and we were jumping for joy that we will have other suppliers there."
KCom, with its offices based in Carr Lane, Hull, apologised for any inconvenience the network failure may have caused their customers.
A spokeswoman said: "We had a significant network failure on Saturday starting at about 3pm with service being restored at almost 11pm.
"Working with our suppliers, Nortel and Cisco, we isolated the issue to restore the service.
"We are working with our suppliers to understand the exact root cause of the issue and ensure the appropriate actions are taken to mitigate the risk of it happening again."
97 Comments
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by Paul Todd, North Hull
Friday, August 15 2008, 2:13PM
“I was one of the people that didn't get there connection back until Sunday afternoon.Some i get the impression Karoo are understating things here.I would like to see a rebate in my bill,even if it is only 30p.Now add all those 30p's together thousands of times and it sure adds up and that money is our loss and KC's gain.Not to mention the businesses that missed out.I will soon be going the way of the mobile phone dongle,they just keep getting cheaper and already it would work out better for me to use one.It would be the same speed if not faster,more reliable and cheaper.I can see a great many users going this way,especially as the mobile dongle service prices just keep falling.Unlike KC!I think we can all at least agree were sick of KC and that we all wish we were in a BT area.Can we at least agree on that?KC must be so proud of them selves (sarcasm)”
by chris, skirlaugh
Friday, August 15 2008, 7:19AM
“kc, formaly hull councill phones are the best in the world, i have lived out of the area, bt & others are not as good as kc, you who think i am on computer all day are wrong, my wife talks to her family in philippines on line, we had no way of telling them we coudn't be online,their is no phone lines or mobile signal where they live, so they paid p40 for four hours in the internett cafe, that to them in their poor contry is like us paying £120.00, wasted”
by Danielle, Work
Thursday, August 14 2008, 12:18PM
“eastyorkspikey, eastyorks - a lot of people need the use of the internet for their job/work/career...”
by eastyorkspikey, eastyorks
Wednesday, August 13 2008, 9:09PM
“Who gives a crap if the net goes down, you sados who sit at the computer all day & totaly depend on it to exist get a life.
Hey Bill & Gaz so what if HDM do record your IPS id kick the crap out of the multi cutural, PC, preaching bums if they wanna make anything of it.”
by ade, Hell
Wednesday, August 13 2008, 3:04PM
“Unfortunatly Kay things do break from time to time..
And i didnt know billions of people lived in Hull :p”
by kay, east hull
Wednesday, August 13 2008, 12:23PM
“chris!!!!!bet you one of these people who sit on your Ass all day and night dont work and dont give a damn about others....30p or £10 what matters is they have done this to billions of people.......thay shouldnt be able to get away with it...get a life or a job”
by Chris, Hull
Wednesday, August 13 2008, 10:54AM
“Ha Ha no i dont work for karoo, i just understand that sometimes s**t happens, as for people being reimbursed for the outage, ha ha do you actually realise how much you're asking for???
even on karoo pro, 8 hours works out to around 30p..
cash or cheque???”
by Fordy, Hull
Tuesday, August 12 2008, 3:53PM
“My 20 stone virtual online girlfriend has dumped me thanks to Karoo. We were planning an evening of cybersex.
I feel cheated!!”
by Insider, Hull
Tuesday, August 12 2008, 3:52PM
“For all those who think they are free when using mobile phone dongles, think where the data goes... back to the mobile phone mast then in to kc lines before it goes out to the providers network - you cant escape!!
If virgin or anyone wanted to come in then they need to put several hundred grands worth of kit in here, a connection to hull and pay same wholesale costs to kc as they would to bt before offering service and getting a few thousand customers. They wont make enough money for it to be viable so we are stuck!
Im moving out of hull when i can afford it!”
by Jo, Hull
Tuesday, August 12 2008, 3:05PM
“@ Gaz
Perhaps if you do not tell HDM who you are then they cannot contact Kcom to slow you down.! Try a hotmail or yahoo email account and a bit of common sense, who knows it may work.!”