Currently ultrafast broadband is available to just 2 per cent of homes in Britain, and Hull remains the only city in the UK where FTTP is being deployed as standard. For consumers, KCOM’s slowest Lightstream service in Hull is 50Mbps and its fastest is 250Mbps. For businesses, KCOM’s slowest service is 250Mbps and the fastest is 1Gbps.
Last month, KCOM outlined plans to accelerate its deployment of ultrafast fibre so that by December 2017 it will be available to approximately 150,000 homes and businesses – around three quarters of the properties covered by its Hull and East Yorkshire network. At the end of that phase of the programme, KCOM’s capital investment in its fibre deployment will have reached approximately £60 million.
Bill Halbert, CEO of KCOM, said, “Across Hull and East Yorkshire, we are making ultrafast fibre to the home available with speeds of 250 Mbps available to consumers now. And because we’re taking fibre direct to the home, rather than just to equipment cabinets situated on the street, we’re removing the speed limitations associated with a traditional copper connection. And so, we’re seeing much higher take up from our customers than the national average, with a new customer being connected every 30 minutes.”