UPDATE3 KC Users in Hull UK Hit by Broadband Connection Problems

Customers of Hull’s incumbent telecoms and broadband provider, KC (KCOM), are this morning still suffering from broadband connectivity problems after a fault began plaguing the network at around 3pm yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately KC does not appear to provide anything in the way of a useful service status page, which has left many customers to feel frustrated with the lack of communication. The most recent update from the ISP via Twitter, which was posted a few minutes ago, does precious little to help that perception.

As you’d expect, customers are fuming (small sample of comments below)..

Cocteau Twin said:

“No internet throughout the day today. KC’s service is an absolute joke. We pay £59 and get less than 3mbps. Absolute daylight robbery. I’m considering not even waiting for Lightstream.. may just go wireless. I can’t keep throwing money at this garbage.”

Joe Munro said:

“ASAP DOES NOT GIVE US AN IDEA OF WHEN TO EXPECT IT BACK. You said that TWO hours ago and have given no update since. I have work to do and I need to use my internet. Cant use my phone forever (which incidentally has always had faster internet than KC).”

John Taylor said:

“Internet been down nearly 24 hours now, can’t believe how incompetent you all are at that company!”

Kim Smith said:

“Any update as to when you expect your broadband “service” will be up and running?? I work remotely from home which means I need Internet connection to be able to carry out my job – I’m sure I’m not the only customer of yours in this position. Will you be providing compensation for the downtime? Customers should not be billed for a service you are unable to provide.”

We have contacted KC in the hope of finding out some more information and will report back when / if they respond.

UPDATE 9:38am

A Spokesperson for KC told ISPreview.co.uk, “Yesterday afternoon we experienced a problem with a piece of equipment in our city centre exchange that has led to around 1,900 customers being unable to connect to the internet. The fault has been identified and our engineers are working to fix it as quickly as possible. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience caused to the customers affected and will update them on the estimated repair time as soon as we can.”

UPDATE 3rd March 2016 (8:38am):

The problem appears to be on-going and at the time of writing there hasn’t been an official update for the past 14 hours.

UPDATE 3rd March 2016 (9:59am):

KC have finally issued an update that offers some real detail on the problem.

KC Service Statement

Our engineers have worked overnight and more than 1,500 of the affected customers can now get online. We’re doing everything we can to reconnect the remaining customers as quickly as possible. We understand how frustrating and inconvenient it is to be without internet access and we’re sorry this problem is taking longer to fix than we would like.

Some customers have asked for more information about the cause of the problem. It lies with a DSLAM in one of our exchanges. Put simply, a DSLAM (digital subscriber line access multiplexer) links your telephone line with the internet. Each DSLAM has a number of shelves which in turn connect a number of customers. One shelf of the DSLAM in question has developed a fault which means the customers normally connected to that shelf are unable to access the internet.