Cheap Broadband Still AWOL in Hull

BROADBAND may be about to get cheaper for Hull residents after Ofcom gave the green light for bundled services to be sold in the area.

Many analysts however, remain dubious about the extra value this announcement will deliver to customers of Kingston Communications after it emerged that the UK's other broadband providers still had no plans to invest in the area.

TalkTalk, BT and Virgin Media all believe that it still remains 'uneconomic' to invest in the Hull area, despite there being no restrictions on entering into the Hull telecoms market.

Broadband Monopoly

KC - the sole provider in the area - has had a monopoly over broadband and phone services in the Yorkshire city for more than 100 years.

Currently KC customers must pay for separate telephone and broadband packages. KC's basic landline package is £10.99 a month and their basic 'lite' broadband package is £12.99 a month.

The 'lite' broadband package does provide speeds of up to 24Mb but is poor value for money as it only includes a measly 5GB per month download allowance.

When compared to services available across the rest of the country it becomes clear why many in Hull are frustrated that cheap broadband services remain out of reach.

TalkTalk for example offer broadband - TalkTalk Essentials - and phone services for £18.48 a month including unlimited evening and weekend calls as well as up to 24Mb broadband with a 40GB per month download limit.

Sky customers in the Hull area could benefit even further as both services currently cost just £11 a month for TV subscribers.

It's true that many broadband users outside of Hull aren't able to access these 'unbundled' services as not all providers cover all areas of the country but most large cities and towns - like Hull - have access to a range of different providers.

One Hull of a Problem

It's not yet clear how much KC's bundle packages will cost per month but it's hard to see any incentive for the company to push prices much below the current £23.98 monthly total.

Nick Thompson, KC's Director of Consumer Services, recently criticised other broadband providers after Akamai's 'State of the Net' report suggested the UK had an average broadband speed of 3.8Mb.

Mr Thompson said that 'We're proud to say that customers using KC's network get to benefit from an average of 7.65Mb according to Net Index. The Akamai research suggests that providers are not making adequate investments in their networks and the Government's unambitious target of 2Mb by 2015 is clearly not going to improve our position on the global stage."

It's not really possible to compare these speeds fairly as they are the results from two very different surveys but Karoo does appear to have decent speeds running over its network.

Residents of Hull, however, will still feel that they miss out on access to the cheapest broadband deals the UK has to offer and Ofcom's announcement won't do much to alter that.

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