KCOM makes historic move across the Humber

KCOM is set to cross the Humber in a historic move to bring its award-winning full fibre network to North Lincolnshire as part of its £100m expansion programme.

The Hull-based broadband provider will reach households outside its traditional East Yorkshire heartland for the first time in its 116-year history by deploying ultrafast broadband to 10,000 properties in the North Lincolnshire towns of Barton-Upon-Humber and Brigg.

KCOM chief executive officer Dale Raneberg said: “I’m delighted to announce that the next phase of our ambitious expansion plan will bring the benefits of full fibre broadband to North Lincolnshire homes for the very first time.

“As a local business with deep roots in the region, reaching the short distance across the Humber was an obvious choice for KCOM when we were looking for areas to expand our award-winning network.”

Locally based provider KCOM is already rolling out its fibre network to new destinations including Driffield, Market Weighton, Pocklington, Howden, Goole, Howden and Hornsea as part of its expansion with customers in many of these new areas now enjoying gigafast speeds.

As well as focussing on the larger towns of Barton-Upon-Humber and Brigg, KCOM has also signalled its willingness to build cutting edge full fibre infrastructure in smaller communities such as Barrow Upon Humber and Goxhill if there is demonstrable demand.

The company will announce further North Lincolnshire destinations in its multi-million pound roll out later this year.

Mr Raneberg said: “We’ve had an excellent response from the communities where we’re providing our services for the first time, showing recognition and support for us as a truly local business, and demand for the high-quality broadband we provide.

“As many more people are working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, fast, reliable broadband has moved quickly from being an optional extra to an essential utility enabling people to get on with their daily lives. By scaling up capacity to bring our full fibre to these new areas we’ll be creating new opportunities and making life easier for thousands of people.

“Our investment in Fibre To the Premises (FTTP) infrastructure is not just making life easier with faster download speeds for people surfing and streaming at home – it is also helping to create growth and innovation and will play a massive role in underpinning the region’s economic recovery after Covid-19.”

Despite challenging circumstances, KCOM’s key worker engineers have continued building critical network capacity throughout the coronavirus pandemic, helping to connect local authorities and companies on the frontline against Covid-19 while also supporting local communities.

The economic impact of KCOM’s investment in FTTP technology, which delivers broadband speeds of up to 900Mbps directly to customers’ homes and businesses, has been huge with the benefits going well beyond faster browsing.

Research from tech research consultancy Innovation Observatory found KCOM’s full fibre network added more than £469 million in value to the Hull and East Yorkshire economy between 2012 and 2018.*

KCOM’s expansion plans also support the Government’s goal to make gigabit-capable connectivity available nationwide by 2025. Just 15 per cent of UK properties currently have access to full fibre broadband.

KCOM’s full fibre network has been recognised as a leading light in broadband provision by both the communications industry and the European Commission.

As well as being named Best Consumer Broadband Provider at the Internet Service Provider Awards (ISPA) 2019, KCOM also triumphed in the Quality and Affordability of Services category at the European Broadband Awards in December.

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