MS3 Hit 20,000 Customer Milestone on Hull UK FTTP Broadband Network
Hull-based alternative UK network operator MS3, which has deployed their full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 234,000 premises (207k RFS) in the North of England, has announced that they’ve just connected their 20,000th customer in the Hull and Humber region (up from 19,000 on 3rd July 2025).
The announcement partly reflects the fact that MS3 has been focusing more on commercialisation of their existing network than rolling out new fibre over the past few months (here). At the same time it’s clear that quite a few people in the region do appreciate the fact that they now have more choice than KCOM’s local network.
Tony Jopling, MS3’s COO, said (Thisishull): “Our investment in the rollout of our full fibre network across Hull and beyond was a direct result of the long-standing monopoly in the region. We’ve always known market competition would benefit local residents by improving service quality and driving down prices, and the news of the 20,000th connection to our network is a clear sign that’s been the case. We’re delighted to have saved local people millions of pounds in recent years.”
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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It appears though still to be making a substantial loss
It’s capex, the money used to invest in the network will look like that, till it reaches its break even point. Any company with mass investment will show accounts in the same way. The money has been spent on building the network, the connected customers who are clearly on boarding in their thousands will even that out in time.
I don’t think this is simply down to capex…..the net interest alone looks to be over £19 per month.
While getting to 20k customers is to be celebrated it looks like growth has slowed compared to the rate 23 to 24.
Hull is a good example where the regulatory approach can have negative impacts on both residents and investors alike in my opinion.
They have made a number of redundancies in recent months don’t think they’re looking at huge financial gains
The fact , the unnecessary infrastructure build now blights the streets of Hull and surrounding villages is of no consequence I suppose ! Duplicate infrastructure or Triplicate where KCOM had poles and Connexin added theirs . Or Duplicate where all KCOM were underground in newer housing The fact that they are only now pursuing sharing of infrastructure with KCOM which could have been achieved earlier shows it can be done and they have no thought for potential customers environments will probably mean that they will fail to convince many to take up the services of the ISPs using their infrastructure
The fact they’re using infrastructure sharing products that were introduced in August 2025 means they could’ve used them before they existed? Okay.
I’m off to buy the Samsung S26. Doesn’t exist yet but that doesn’t seem to matter based on your logic. If I buy it on release date it means I could’ve bought and used it earlier.
As has been mentioned many times MS3 first pursued using KCOM infrastructure in the mid-late 2010s before they even considered residential FTTP.
Here’s MS3 asking Ofcom to help facilitate access to KCOM ducts in their response to the 2017 Wholesale Local Access Review, this to link two sites together.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/consultations/category-1-10-weeks/103181-wholesale-local-access—hull/responses/ms3?v=195394
A quick read of some documents I see it was routine for it to take 2+ years to get fibre into a KCOM duct or onto a KCOM pole. That’s one duct or pole. Was pursued, was opposed, law required sharing but wasn’t super specific so it cost a lot and they made sure it took so long it would be pointless.
I’ll get ready to dodge these facts bouncing off like everything else that doesn’t fit your point of view.
I’m sure existing KCOM are happy that competitors coming in have driven down the cost of KCOM’s fibre packages by £30 in some cases. If you’re not happy with their approach, don’t use them. Simple, really.
The investors aren’t bothered about infrastructure sharing, they pumped money in to a physical asset that could be sold on.
Landgrabbing customers with way-below-cost acquisition offers will soon need to turn in to big ARPU generators very quickly, and that will mean price hikes, which will be interesting to see given the number of different wires in the ground in Hull.
Strange the MS3 investors were so interested in infrastructure sharing outside of Hull: less than a tenth of the infrastructure built in Openreach areas relative to KCOM.
I mean you can believe whatever you want to but the evidence is perfectly clear. MS3’s Lincolnshire builds are almost entirely using Openreach infrastructure, which doesn’t fit investors wanting to build plant else they’d have done it there too. The only real difference is infrastructure sharing was available in Lincolnshire while it wasn’t in the East Riding bar a bit of Openreach infrastructure, and MS3 used it where they could.
I’m sure you’ve legit complaints with MS3 but that they were mysteriously not interested in using existing infrastructure in Hull and Hedon when they made extensive use of it in Grimsby, Immingham, Scunthorpe, Lincoln, Swinton, etc, doesn’t really seem to pass the smell test.
Never mind all the pros and cons of ms3. I have it by Hull fibre and get 1 gig up and 1 gig down with a ping of 1 for 40 quid a month.
Sure I had that installed. I was paying 75 quid for ADSL at 40 megs so it’s a no-brainer