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 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.”