UPDATE Alternative MS3 Ultrafast Fibre Optic Network Goes Live in Hull UK

ISP MS3 Communications has announced that its new and independent ultra-fast fibre optic broadband ISP network in Hull (East Yorkshire, England), which will compete with local incumbent KC, has officially gone live and is beginning to take on its first business customers.

The new infrastructure has now successfully completed Phase 1 of their project to lay a new 116km long stretch of fibre optic cable around the City of Hull. The bulk of this work has been conducted by Welch Civils, which started with a £5.5m contract to hook-up the “first 50km” of MS3′s network. Telecommunications developer Compass Infrastructure UK (CI-UK) has also been involved.

The operator claims that its first customers are already experiencing “fantastic speeds and reliability“.

Tony Hales, MS3′s Managing Director, said:

“Our sales team has been busy over the last few months contacting businesses and the feedback we’ve had has been incredible. There is a clear desire for businesses in this city to have a choice of internet provider and that has been reflected in the number of sales we’ve already made.

I think that there is genuine excitement and interest in what we are developing in the City of Hull, the benefits of having the only all fibre network in the city are obvious in terms of reliability and the services we will be able to offer but this is only the start.

We want as many local companies as possible to support us, that way we can reinvest this revenue back into the network, increase our coverage and provide local businesses with a service and choice that they deserve but until now have somewhat been denied.”

It should be said that KC has been busy deploying a similar Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) and FTTC based broadband network (Lightstream) of its own (here), which claims to offer internet download speeds of up to 350Mbps (Megabits per second).

KC’s fibre based network currently passes over 15,000 premises and a further 2,000 are due to be covered this spring, with the long-term aim being to reach around 45,000 homes and businesses in East Yorkshire by March 2015.

Meanwhile MS3, which claims that its current build covers around 30km of the area, is now set to begin Phase 2 of its network expansion that will work to reach other parts of the city in the East Hull and North Hull areas. The final size of MS3’s fibre network is expected to total 200km over the next 3 years.

UPDATE 10:16am

MS3 has advised ISPreview.co.uk that they estimate Phase 2 as likely to cost around £3 million.