KC Claims Hull UK Economy Boosted by their Superfast Broadband Rollout

The incumbent telecoms operator for Hull in East Yorkshire, KC, has today published a new report which they claim proves the positive impact that their FTTP dominated roll-out of superfast broadband is having. Overall the local digital economy now accounts for £6.93bn per annum (24% of the total).

Back in March KC confirmed that the new “Lightstream” network, which is dominated by their ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) technology (packages offer up to 250Mbps) and just a little FTTC, has already achieved a total coverage of 45,000 premises and uptake stands at an impressive 30% (rising to over 40% for business customers).

The work so far is alleged to have cost the operator around £15 million to deploy and going forward KC plans to continue expanding their network and intends to reach an impressive total of more than 105,000 premises by March 2017 (here).

So it’s perhaps little wonder that KC has today sought to promote the benefits of this by commissioning analysts at the Innovation Observatory to research the impact of their deployment on the local economy.

Research Highlights

• The digital economy in Hull and East Yorkshire accounts for £6.93bn per annum (24% of the total local economy).
• It employs 57,600 people (22% of total employment locally).
• The local digital economy grew by 5.5% in 2014, compared to growth in the total UK economy of 2.6% (companies that are more active in the digital economy have also grown faster than the average).
• The local digital economy has “clearly benefited” from KC’s deployment of its ultrafast Lightstream broadband network.

Apparently part of the research involved surveying 271 local organisations of all sizes and across many sectors, although it’s frustrating to find that KC doesn’t actually provide any solid results except to speak in generalisations and a vague reference to the “many respondents” who have apparently attributed the local economic progress to KC’s fibre optic broadband roll-out.

According to KC, survey respondents said superfast broadband was “absolutely integral“, a “massive enabler” and an “absolutely key foundation on which the whole digital economy proposition depends“, but again they don’t offer any figures or percentages. Similarly respondents with Lightstream also claim to have reported a higher proportion of their revenues came from the digital economy (how high? What was it like before and after the roll-out? Etc.).

Gary Young, KC’s Managing Director, said:

“This research shows for the first time the huge impact of digital activity on the local economy. It also underlines the area’s credentials and advantages as a digital centre of excellence. Digital is a major opportunity for the region as a whole and for businesses across all sectors within it.

The research also underlines how important superfast connectivity is to business growth in the digital age and it is encouraging to see that, among the survey sample, businesses that use Lightstream reported faster growth than other companies that were surveyed.

The results support our belief in the transformational impact of Lightstream upon the local economy and the major competitive advantage it is delivering for local businesses.”

We don’t doubt that KC’s generally excellent deployment has had a significant and positive impact in the area, but it would be nice to have such claims supported by clear figures rather than just general totals and sweeping statements. Even smaller improvements can be significant in overall economic terms. A bit more detail would go a long way here.