Kingston Communications, our regional business and internet services business, has delivered another strong performance. Revenue increased 4.6 per cent to £56.3 million (2005: £53.8 million) as we continue to benefit from growth in broadband and the rebalancing of our consumer revenues towards a greater level of subscription income following the successful launch of our inclusive calling packages last year.

At the half year, broadband connections stood at 140,851, an increase of 45.0 per cent year on year. With more than 45.0 per cent of our broadband revenues now coming from the business market, our focus nationally continues to be on growing our share of revenues from this segment, avoiding the highly competitive consumer market. At the same time we have begun taking wholesale unbundled local loop services from a third party to help reduce our dependency on BT Wholesale as well as reduce costs. Locally in East Yorkshire, where 66.0 per cent of our broadband revenues are from consumers, we have seen strong interest in our recently launched 8Mb internet service.

This growth in broadband, coupled with our move last year to bundled call packages, means that 70.0 per cent of revenues are now subscription based services compared to 62.0 per cent in the prior year.