By: MarkJ - 4 September, 2010 (1:35 AM) - Score: 16203 - Fixed Line Broadband
The incumbent phone and broadband provider for Hull and East Riding in Yorkshire, KC ( Karoo ), has welcomed a move by rival Virgin Media to publish its average customer broadband speeds each month and thus increase transparency. KC is one of the only other ISPs to adopt a similar system and even went so far as to completely remove advertised speeds.Nick Thompson, Director of Consumer Services at KC, said:
"Hats off to Virgin Media, as this is definitely a step in the right direction, and one that other ISPs need to take if the industry is to regain consumer trust. When it comes to broadband, the need for speed is key for consumers, and the demand for bandwidth hungry apps is only going to increase in the future with the prevalence of next generation services like Telehealth and IPTV.
People are simply fed up of being hoodwinked by headline grabbing up-to speeds that fail to deliver in reality and it is interesting to note that Virgin plans to monitor and publish only two thirds of its customers’ speeds. Transparency is key in rebuilding the industry’s image, which is why KC has led the way with an interactive speed map that allows users to put in their postcode and check the broadband speed and performance of existing users in their street.
We also make our download limits clearly available to customers and have actually recently increased download allowances. With the news that the ASA will be launching a comprehensive policing of online advertising, I expect we will see increasing levels of transparency across the industry."
"Hats off to Virgin Media, as this is definitely a step in the right direction, and one that other ISPs need to take if the industry is to regain consumer trust. When it comes to broadband, the need for speed is key for consumers, and the demand for bandwidth hungry apps is only going to increase in the future with the prevalence of next generation services like Telehealth and IPTV.
People are simply fed up of being hoodwinked by headline grabbing up-to speeds that fail to deliver in reality and it is interesting to note that Virgin plans to monitor and publish only two thirds of its customers’ speeds. Transparency is key in rebuilding the industry’s image, which is why KC has led the way with an interactive speed map that allows users to put in their postcode and check the broadband speed and performance of existing users in their street.
We also make our download limits clearly available to customers and have actually recently increased download allowances. With the news that the ASA will be launching a comprehensive policing of online advertising, I expect we will see increasing levels of transparency across the industry."
Earlier last month KC also attacked rival ISPs over their broadband speeds, which it claimed was because most had failed to put "adequate investments [into] their networks" (here).
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Comments: 10
DarrenPosted: 4 September, 2010 - 8:57 AM
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I used to be with Kingston Communications "Eclipse" internet service and it was one of the best ISP's out there if you were stuck with a decadent BT phone line. I then changed to Virgin though because they were cheaper as I could have the internet with Virgin and a phone through Vonage without paying BT's line rental, but if Eclipse ever did introduce cable style internet to Warrington I certainly would return to them as they were really good, and it's great to see that both these and Virgin are stopping this unfair system of duping people into believing their internet will be faster with them. I know people who have changed thought it was going to be faster and are now really disappointed to be stuck with a 12-month contract at appalling speeds.
markPosted: 4 September, 2010 - 5:54 PM
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KC may be publishing the correct speed users can aim to acheive - me being one of them - but it fails in that if you live within their telecom area then you can't go elsewhere anyway because neither BT Virgin or Sky have any cable hardware in the city! Great that the service works but compare the prices for line rental and broadband....
NickPosted: 4 September, 2010 - 6:17 PM
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All very well KC attempting to 'out' other ISPs for claimed speeds, but they themselves have been guilty of exactly the same misadvertising for years. And not only that, but to have their phone and broadband services (i've got no choice, as i live in Hull) costs roughly 4 times what comparable services cost out there in BT-land. What a bunch of mealy-mouthed hypocrites they are (everyone in Hull already knows this, but nothing wrong with everyone else knowing it too). If you want some figures: i pay £79/month to have 8Mb/s adsl and phone line rental with one of KC's 'call packages'. If they didn't have a monopoly here, i could get similar for £30.
PaulPosted: 4 September, 2010 - 9:09 PM
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I think this is all a bit rich coming from Virgin Media. There head line figures might be a average of 10Mps on it 10Mps connection but what they are failing to tell you is your severely traffic shaped and if you go over your meagre limit of lets face it no more than an hours worth of good quality video or less than half a game download your then restricted to five hours or more and yes you can hit it twice in one day of a line speed of 2.5mb its all smoke and mirrors on Virgin Media's part I think and they are not cheap. The unload speed are half that of the other suppliers no good in the age of unloading to social networking sites.
ChrisPosted: 4 September, 2010 - 10:23 PM
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no need to publish virgin media's broadband speed, I'll tell you it. between 2 am and 6 am 10mb all other times 2.5 mb max, it's the most god awful service i have ever had the misfortune of buying, and as for customer service, forget it
DinoPosted: 5 September, 2010 - 12:33 AM
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To give Orange their due, they have been fantastic with me. I signed up 3 months ago after getting 1.4Mbps with Tiscali. Orange managed only 300kbps because, despite their advertising, they didn't have LLU in our exchange. They spent 3 months trying to get it right with Customer services phoning me constantly and finally let me out of my contract. Their speeds may be terrible but they couldn't have done more to try to help
hondoPosted: 5 September, 2010 - 12:41 AM
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Sat, 4 Sep 2010 23:39:21 UTC
Test 1: 1024K took 890 ms = 1150.6 KB/sec, approx 9481 Kbps, 9.26 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 906 ms = 1130.2 KB/sec, approx 9313 Kbps, 9.09 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 891 ms = 1149.3 KB/sec, approx 9470 Kbps, 9.25 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 1578 ms = 1297.8 KB/sec, approx 10694 Kbps, 10.44 Mbps
Overall Average Speed = approx 9740 Kbps, 9.51 Mbps
benPosted: 5 September, 2010 - 5:28 PM
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on 10mb with virgin, always get 10mb as well
when i download a song in the middle of the day; i get the full 10mb downstream (1MegaByte), which is quick!
hats off to VM
seeyouenteePosted: 6 September, 2010 - 10:18 AM
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Nick Thompson what a twat trying to take the attention away from kc.
bastardfromthenorthPosted: 8 July, 2011 - 10:30 AM
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Nick Thompson has always been a sly c*nt
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