Posted: 08th Nov, 2011 By: MarkJ


The incumbent phone and broadband provider for
Hull and
East Riding (
Yorkshire,
UK), KC ( Karoo ), has been asked to extend its
trial of superfast fibre optic broadband ( FTTH ) services to cover thousands of
Hull University students (i.e. the Avenues, Newland Avenue, University and Beverley High Road areas).
The request itself was made by two prominent city councillors,
Karen Mathieson and
Dave McCobb, whom claimed that the related areas also had a "
much higher than average level of internet use and need the service". They also complained that some residents of the above areas were currently paying for a broadband service that they cannot receive.
Nick Thompson, KC’s Director of Consumer Services, said (Yorkshire Post):"Every customer on our Hull and East Yorkshire network already has access to our up to 24Mbps high-speed broadband through our Karoo Lite, Mid and Pro services.
As is the case with all UK mainstream broadband services, the download speeds customers receive vary according to how far they live from the nearest telephone exchange – this is nothing to do with our local network infrastructure.
We’re investing millions of pounds to install super-fast fibre services and will announcing the locations for the next phase of our fibre deployment before Christmas. The vast majority of our customers already receive download speeds that would be the envy of many broadband users elsewhere in the UK."
Perhaps saying that the present problems are "
nothing to do with our local network infrastructure" isn't entirely correct, after all the ADSL2+ technology employed is a part of that infrastructure and it was KC's choice to use it. Such services can also be affected by problems at the ISP too.
KC ultimately aims to make its new service, which will use both
Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) and
Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) style solutions, available to
15,000 homes in the region before the end of 2012. We'd be very surprised if they didn't eventually cover the University too, although it's always rather tedious to ask an ISP to do this during a
TRIAL.
Separately KC has launched a new
free international calls service add-on for their existing broadband and phone subscribers. For just £5 a month customers can make FREE calls to 50 of their favourite destinations.