Kingston Communications is an established UK communications company. The Group's national business-to-business capabilities encompass the provision of fully integrated and managed network solutions, complemented by the delivery of voice, data and call handling services in the towns and cities served by the Kingston Communications network. This infrastructure comprises twenty-five metropolitan fibre networks and a long distance broadband network, which was initiated for service in May 2001. Kingston's new media activities include the DSL-based interactive television service, KIT, and satellite broadband content, storage and distribution arm, Kingston inmedia. The Group's East Yorkshire network operation has served business and residential customers since 1904.

Cheers opto. Like you, I've now got enough invested here. Roll on 30th November.

A while ago I put up an article warning readers of KCOM attitude to customers and efficieny of operations seen as one of the 20,000 broadband users (and TV & phones). The sp was somewhere around the 70 mark and I said I would not go near them until they clean uo their act. From the response I saw I susoect some KCOM employees contribute to this BB.

So then, not a surprise to me to see the chart and the fall off in price. I still have both BT & KCOM broadband (different houses), we are now on the 750. However today alone we suffered slow access rates and at one point this afternoon web pages were unavailable. We also have KCOM phones and Sat TV ( we also have BT phones so we are able to make a fair comparison).

In summary, KCOM are better than they used to be (a year ago) but still have work to do. From personal experience their broadband is slower than BT Yahoo broadband and the phones, especially on international calls which we do a lot of as hubby works abroad, are much more expensive. Just to clarify for doubters out there our BT set up is in our house in Newcastle, our KCOM is in Beverley (Nr Hull).

We have frequently traded KCOM shares in the past couple of years always making a small profit, our last sell was around the 70p when we were losing faith in them due to the service. The service is better now, and if it keeps improving then the shares may look oversold - keeping a watch on them anyway, may even go back into them sometime soon.

Thanks Minx, it's good to hear something even slightly positive particularly from a local user. Perhaps other local users have views but are reluctant to share them. If so come on do so nobody bites here.
opto

went back in at 52p on the expectation it has found the bottom and will now turn up to results, after all they are better than they used to be - now watch me be proved wrong! hope not.

ttt

Happy up to now, esp after the shares comments on the other thread, fingers crossed I made the right call.

Does this mornings news breath new life into KCOM:

Kingston to buy Omnetica for 169 mln stg from KKR-controlled funds
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Kingston Communications (Hull) PLC said it has conditionally agreed to buy Omnetica from a company controlled by funds managed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) for 169 mln stg, to be satisfied by 99 mln stg in cash, and 70 mln through the issue of new shares.

Kingston said it expects the acquisition to be both earnings and cash flow enhancing in the first full year of consolidation

The company added that when the deal is completed, KKR will become a strategic shareholder in Kingston with a 24.6 pct stake.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of December, and is conditional upon shareholder approval at its EGM on Dec 20.

Also to pay interim divi.

Good morning opto, all sounds v. positive to me. EBITDA up nearly 20%, resumption of divi's, major acquisition. Totally different message to that recently released by the likes of Thus. Glad I topped up last week.

Morning RCT, nicely timed top up. As to THUS perhaps this news from KCOM will shake them into action.

Very good news indeed.... the dilution of Hull's holding will give greater impertous to any stakebuilding.....re, this company turning around, it has started today as far as we are concerned.

We should see further rises this week....... the m/m's are working it well enough, no great rise just steady......any retracement hapened during the day, so we may see a clear rise on the charts each day for a while, untill the price needs a rest....IMHO

must be honest, as a local user the system has been pretty good over the last few months. Internet has been quick, phones are working fine, let's hope this is the future. The cable TV is still up & running but I do not know what is / has happened with that or if it changed hands, it is still called KIT. As we bought back in at the 52p sp hope it keeps going up. For the TA's amongst us looking at the charts it seems there could be a resitance along the top of peaks at 62p, although charts show 71p as the next resistance point.

Happy New Year

Minx

the actual payment of the preposed divi may well see kc breach the resistance 62p - dumping of the loss making KIT would also help

New contract announced today:

Kingston Communications connects new TSYS European HQ data centre to process billions of credit card transactions

Kingston Communications has completed a major contract to supply high bandwidth communications links for the European operation of TSYS, the American electronic payments specialists.

TSYS, already a Kingston customer, called on the company in 2003 when they decided to move from leased premises at Harrogate to a purpose-built European Data Centre at nearby Knaresborough. The 53,000 square-foot centre was built to accommodate client growth and the company's expansion throughout the continent.

TSYS aims to become the leading transaction processor in Europe. It currently serves more than 20 million consumer and commercial credit card accounts in Europe, a market with 562 million credit and debit cards issued in 2003 alone.

Keith Harrison, IT Director of TSYS Europe said, " Investing in a purpose-built data centre demonstrates our commitment to the European marketplace and helps us achieve our objective of becoming the leading consumer finance transaction processor. Kingston's expert management of our communications links during the move from our previous site was crucial to the success of this project".

Andrew Tapley, Managing Director of Kingston Communications' Partner Services division said, "The credit card industry is booming and the chances are increasing that the next time you use plastic your transaction details will wing their way down a Kingston line. This was an incredibly sensitive project, which had to go smoothly in order to avoid any risk to the public's credit card transactions - therefore resilience and redundancy of service were the prime considerations. Kingston was chosen as the preferred supplier of communications to the new centre because of the strength of the relationship we have built since TSYS' entry into the UK ".

The large-scale contract included supplying connectivity over eight fibre pairs and supplying and managing a STM 16 bandwidth for carrying data from the Harrogate offices to the European Data Centre.

Andrew Tapley explained: "TSYS wanted to migrate large quantities of data between their old and new centres without restriction. Our solution included managing the provision of fibre connectivity and service bandwidth for the duration of the project."

Lots of 'bot' sells into the market today K5, K10, K15 and at the end 4 * K25 apart from all the rest of the sells and the market soaked them all up. Perhaps we have a buyer quietly taking them off the MM's.

Hope not too many people ordered a new car on the closing price for KCOM on Ceefax today, + 114p at close.

They may advertise high bandwidth Broadband 3000, they should get the slower one's working first - nothing but trouble, lost connections and the engineers don't know what is wrong. Works fine at night, but recently has had regular crashes in the day - not too good for real time data or spread trading. I was tempted to short but the spreadbet company don't cover them.

Is there some 'light at the end of the tunnel'

Kingston Communications has seen off competition from telecoms rival Siemens to win a 2.4m contract with the University of Dundee. Affiniti, Kingstons corporate services division, won the five-year contract to replace the universitys existing communications network with a modern converged voice and data system.

In November, Kingston pledged to undercut its rivals and steal their customers in Scotland after it hired James Lind, a former director of Nortel Networks.

Still no release of this on the KCOM web site.
Has the PR machine had a relapse? LOL

News of the contract released AT LAST on KCOM's website!

http://www.kcom.com/news/articles/news_06_05_05_1.shtml

Problems again, I suspect they are too busy trying to fix the server than worry about much else. Broadband down since 10am this morning, came back on at 6pm - not a lot of use to spreadbetting and online share trades - As I was totally blond tot he market and my rather heavy exposure to the spreadbets I went out to the pub with other half and put another complaint in to KCOM. Not that that will make any difference! Still a long way to go until this company can offer a reliable service, we also now have the new 3000 service - lot of good that did.