Kcom cleared of keeping out rivals
Hull telecoms company Kcom is not blocking other Internet
Service Providers (ISP) from operating in the city, a report by
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Ofcom has cleared Kcom of blocking rival companies from entering the Hull broadband market
industry watchdog Ofcom has revealed.
The report, entitled Review Of The Wholesale Broadband
Access To Markets, is part of a wide-ranging consultation on
the national broadband market that surveyed some of the
country's largest ISPs, as well as broadband customers.
Ofcom received 111 responses from Kcom's Karoo customers as
a result of the public consultation process in November last
year.
It revealed a “general discontentment” among respondents in
the city about having no choice of broadband.
But the findings of the report, which included submissions
from BT, Cable and Wireless, O2 and Tiscali, revealed none of
the firms questioned claimed Kcom was “acting in a way from
preventing them entering the Hull market”.
Critics of the company have claimed Kcom blocks rival firms
from operating in the city by charging extortionate wholesale
prices for the use of its telephone lines – the so-called local
loop prices.
However, the report described the company's wholesale
service as “broadly similar to BT's in terms of its structure
and price”.
The report went on to say rival ISPs felt operating in Hull
was not cost-effective.
The size of the market – just 190,000 homes – meant
potential returns after investing in operational connections
were not sufficient, it said.
Rival ISPs also felt there was a significant number of
customers who are loyal to the Karoo brand, so as not to make
it worth their while to enter the Hull market and were
reluctant to divert resources away from existing projects.
A spokeswoman for Kcom said: “As we have said many times in
the past, Kcom does not prevent other broadband providers from
entering the Hull market.
“We believe Ofcom's recent review of the UK wholesale
broadband access market makes this clear.”
50 Comments
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by eatmywords
Friday, December 16 2011, 11:30AM
“That's not really the case Mark of Hessle and I'd say you are in a very tiny minority who think that. An MD of a small ISP that would love to take advantage of a potential 300,000 homes, to complement the services they are allowed to run off BT's services, put me in the picture of their predicament: "I can appreciate your frustration on this matter Rest assured we would like to be available to every single home and business in the UK. This matter was debated at EU level some time ago and the decision was that KCCOM had 100% control in your area. Until the EU order the area to be open to full competition we simply cannot force the issue and KCCOM have complete autonomy."”
by Phil K, kingston upon hull
Monday, November 10 2008, 5:57PM
“If anyone gets a petition against Karroo please put me on it
”
by Ismail khan, gibraltar
Sunday, October 19 2008, 11:17AM
“we at rock-equity group are starting ISP services in Yorkshire & Lancashire - including Hull - would appreciate feedback from critics of Karoo. info@rock-equity.com”
by Mark, Hessle
Monday, June 23 2008, 12:40PM
“It says in the report that their stucture and charges are broadly similar to BTs. So why is KC extortionate but BT isn't?”
by Boaz, In Goal
Monday, June 23 2008, 12:24PM
“Mark, are you not reading hwat is said BT DO want in KC are blocking the incoming ISP with high infrastructure rental... WHY is this so hard for people to see. KC HAVE A MONOPOLY by charging too much to other suppliers.”
by Mark, Hessle
Monday, June 23 2008, 11:23AM
“It isn't a monopoly, regardless of how dissatisfied you are. BT don't want in and that's that.”
by blueline-uk, hessle
Monday, June 23 2008, 9:47AM
“just go and get one of them mobile broadband dongles, a contract mobile phone with hundreds of free minutes and do away with your landline altogether, thats what i've done and its better, I have a mobile that i only use anyway and now with the dongle i can take my laptop anywhere and connect to the internet. KC offer poor service because they know that they can. Nuff said.”
by mike hard at work at bae, brough
Friday, June 20 2008, 9:58PM
“Im happy with Karoo but what choice would i have if i wasnt ? no choice !! its a monopoly and that isnt right.”
by Andrew, Market Weighton
Friday, June 20 2008, 9:44PM
“As a resident of Market Weighton, I have a choice. I had Karoo for about a year, I decided to change to BT after experiencing bad download speeds and routers that kept locking up. I did 3 diferent speedtests before and got a result of 350kb download speed for karoo. Now I'm on BT I pay less, have got a great homehub with a much better wireless signal strength and get an average speed of 6500kb download. I'm fed up of people defending the monopoly KC has in Hull. I used to live in Hull and can understand everyone's frustration. The service I've had from BT has been great so far, and the installation was far easier than KC too.”
by Charles, west hull villages
Friday, June 20 2008, 9:36PM
“Are Karoo and Ofcom having a relationship? they seem to be patting each other on the back rather a lot. Maybe someone could investigate why this is so. As for Karoo and Kingston Telephones, I'm going back to BT, and having sky phones, broadband 8mb(£5) and tv for all inclusive £31 a month, plus line rental. Quite a bargain, my bills are going to be halved, literally. Sorry to you Hull folks have no choice.”