KCOM - Live in Melbourne (Yorkshire)

Mainly for Andrew's information but also anyone interested in Altnets roll out info - KCOM have now got properties live in the village of Melbourne (Yorkshire) - with around 300 properties available to order. They are expanding to other villages around the area.
So whilst not big numbers - great for rural areas around here where there's no OR FTTP plans at present.

It was a demand led deployment - as I was able to generate enough interested in the village for KCOM to approve a business case earlier this year. It's taken around 6 months but there are a now a few properties live in the village and I (and others) have install dates for early next year.

Some people seem to hate on KCOM at times (like most Telco's they do make mistakes) but they were the only ones interested in doing this at no upfront cost to residents. They will utilise DCMS vouchers of course where they can but it was much simpler, quicker, (and cheaper) than the BT OR community alternative. Note - I am not badmouthing BT OR - just sharing the news and journey.

I live near Melbourne Derbyshire and spent weeks trying to get Kcom to supply me with FTTP once our village PON's went live January 2021, even although Kcom tried to take my order there system would not let them set it up and process it.
I gave up with them in the end and have FTTP via 'Trunk Networks' and had no problems since install.

Do you mean you had KCOM via their National Business that they sold off earlier this year ?
(i.e. where they are using other networks infrastructure)
Was this a business connection.

Since as far as I am aware KCOM haven't rolled out in Derbyshire.

Full details in this thread: https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4682733-so...

Basically, they tried to buy Openreach FTTP from KCOM in an area that KCOM don't serve.

Edited by candlerb (Thu 23-Dec-21 16:18:14)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Full details in this thread: https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/f/4682733-so...

Basically, they tried to buy Openreach FTTP from KCOM in an area that KCOM don't serve.

Yes that's correct.

Are they offering any promotional incentives on their Lightstream packages?

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 24-Dec-21 09:42:26)

Best place to look for that is probably http://pricing.kcomhome.com there are also a few packages they don't show on thee website, full link is http://pricing.kcomhome.com/residential-services/spe...

I've been meaning to point out the availability page https://www.kcom.com/home/availability/ the source of which might be of interest to Andrew since it shows all the postcodes and their availability status.

Nice work 👍

Hi,

Yes.. they are.
I signed up for their 500/100 package at £40 for 18months.
They were starting at £24.99 for 175/50 and £30 for their 300/75 packages.

The availability site isn't 100% up to date.. so just be aware.

Thanks Pgre

Thanks.. remember the Thread - but just wanted to check that the situation wasn't the same. i.e. Melbourne (Yorkshire) deployed their own FTTP service.. where as what APTMAN was trying to do was buy service from KCOM as an ISP using OR's infrastructure. (or possibly another Altnet)

Whilst they may not be the cheapest FTTP prices in the country.. they are pretty competitive, and especially when I currently only get 30/5 speeds and pay £25 for Plusnets cheapest package here. Small village so not much competition.

So it's certainly a massive improvement for many who's speeds on FTTC were on 10/1 even if they go with the 175 package.

So good to see plenty of Altnets out there, I am guessing there will be more consolidation through due to overbuilds etc - and would love to see focus going on areas that can't get at least one option for full fibre today.

In reply to a post by Pgre:

Thanks.. remember the Thread - but just wanted to check that the situation wasn't the same. i.e. Melbourne (Yorkshire) deployed their own FTTP service.. where as what APTMAN was trying to do was buy service from KCOM as an ISP using OR's infrastructure. (or possibly another Altnet)

Yes that's what I was trying to do as Kcom said I could order FTTP and they could supply me over BT Wholesale but it turned out that it could not be ordered on there system at the time, I got a feeling it was to do with them selling off a part of there business at the time.

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

Yes that's what I was trying to do as Kcom said I could order FTTP and they could supply me over BT Wholesale but it turned out that it could not be ordered on there system at the time, I got a feeling it was to do with them selling off a part of there business at the time.

I'm sure from your postings and the news at the time that that's exactly what the issue was.
You were a former Eclipse customer and KCOM were in the process of selling off Eclipse (and its user base). Eclipse have never had an Openreach FTTP offering.

At the time KCOM had national FTTP availability of Openreach FTTP for business customers via BT Wholesale.
They then stopped taking orders for Openreach FTTP unless you were a large business/corporation.
Now they don't appear to sell it at all or certainly make no mention of it on their website.

I suspect their sale of Eclipse also had a non compete clause where they couldn't sign up customers from the user base they were in the process of selling.