Kingston Communications
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| KCOM | |
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Formerly called
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Kingston Communications (KC) |
| Public company | |
| Traded as | : |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | Originated 1882, floated as PLC 1999 |
| Headquarters | Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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Bill Halbert (Chief Executive) |
| Products | Retail and Wholesale local and national telecommunications services, Broadband and internet services and IT and Network Solutions, Mobile service (KCOM Mobile) |
| Revenue | £348 million (2014/15) |
| Website | www |
KCOM Group (formerly known as Kingston Communications and latterly KC) is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters are in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, where it serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services. It is listed on the .
The area has no BT landlines, as it would not be economically viable to build a BT network there. Therefore, the vast majority of residents and most businesses in Hull, Cottingham and Beverley are served only with telecoms services by KCOM, and as a result, there have been complaints around internet service provisioning. KCOM's broadband service is the only fixed-line residential broadband operator in the Hull area. This means that the company has a virtual monopoly in Hull, despite the fact that there are now some competitors to KCOM's telephone services.
On 22 August 1902, Hull Corporation (which later became Hull City Council) was granted a licence under the Telegraph Act 1899 to operate a municipal telephone system in the Kingston upon Hull area, opening its first telephone exchange on 28 November 1904 at the former Trippett Street Baths.
At the time, there were a number of such municipal telephone companies around the UK, all of which – with the exception of the one in Hull – were gradually absorbed into the Post Office Telephone department, which was subsequently to become British Telecom (BT). Hull's bid to renew its licence in 1914 was made conditional on the £192,000 purchase of National Telephone Company infrastructure in the city. The council gave its approval, securing the future of the country's only remaining municipally owned telephone corporation.
The first Rotary automatic exchange opened in 1922, and from 1934 Strowger exchanges were installed. Rotary and Strowger exchanges were operated to 1975 and 1988 respectively, and two Crossbar exchanges to 1989, when the network became fully digital.
Hull has therefore remained an exception within the UK telephone network, being the only place in the UK not served by BT and is noted for its distinctive cream coloured telephone boxes and innovative services, for example becoming the UK's first fully digital network in 1989, using Marconi System X telephone switches (Central Offices or Class 5 switches).
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Wikipedia