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KCOM symmetrical speeds, did the network upgrade happen?

Mark1

Pro Member
Two years ago an article on ISPreview mentioned that KCOM would be upgrading to 10 gbps, hopefully XGS-PON.


Did any upgrade happen as my contract with Kcom needs renewing to avoid the monthly out of contract charge they are charging me and I cant see any more up to date symmetrical speed packages on the website which suggests no network upgrade has been completed.
Reluctant to commit to a new two year contract if better contracts are coming or if other providers become available.
 
They have reiterated it in some of their corporate reporting over the years, https://www.kcom.com/responsibility/corporate-governance/reporting/ maybe with reports of Macquarie trying to sell them such upgrades could have been delayed or become less of a priority, but I’m not aware of them reporting anything recently.

Of the main altnets in their core area, Grain, MS3 and Connexin only the latter offers a higher speed 2.5Gbps symmetrical package and it's expensive so appears to me more of a marketing "look we are the fastest" ploy than a serious offering looking to attract many customers.

Personally, I just don't think higher upload speeds especially symmetrical is a big enough pull for the average customer, hence the altnets are primarily competing on price for 1Gbps and lower packages.

What I mean from the above is that currently the altnets are not offering faster speeds than KCOM, except upload, so for most customers their only draw is price and “NOT KCOM” but perhaps once 2.5Gbps+ is offered at a reasonable price it might force KCOM to make upgrades to offer similar.

I also think it’s quite likely KCOM would not offer symmetrical speeds even if it were possible, their statements thus far have been about “enable download speeds of 10Gbps”, unlike the altnets they have higher margin business customers to protect.

As far as I can see KCOM haven't made any changes to packages for several years but do now offer much more attractive deals to new customers and existing customers have been using the presence of alternatives to negotiate better deals, not great for the altnets but understandable and great for the consumer.

I'm happy with Squirrel on the MS3* network, I’ve been with them just over a year and stability has gotten a lot better over the last 6 months with fewer brief drops outs (usually MS3 problems).

I’d expect if you committed to a new KCOM contract they would let you upgrade in-contract if they offered faster uploads spees which required XGS-PON, I guess would just need a visit for a ONT swap. But if you want them anytime sooner than probaly best to enquire with the altnets.

*I wouldn't even consider some of the ISPs available on MS3.
 
KCOM today added a change notice for their wholesale local access product, effective 6th January.


So I expect they're pretty close to releasing such speeds on their own retail service.

They appear to be capping upload at a maximum of 550Mbps, which could indicate they are close to rolling out XGS-PON, or they want to offer the same speeds throughout the network (some remaining GPON), or maybe they're sticking with GPON, or they don't want to offer faster speeds than the business packages and don't want to make them symettrical as they'll compete with DIA.

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