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.

I stayed with this company for quite a while, but am glad I got out when i did .... Iam afraid i see no great future for KCOM without a bid which, after the last fiasco, seems to be a long way off

"the last fiasco" never really made it to bid status. A proper bid will shake things up, can't come soon enough!!

From SDA INDIA

Kingston Adds PageOnes Desktop SMS Text Messaging

Kingston Communication has partnered with PageOne to provide web-based desktop SMS text messaging to its business customers. Under the terms of the agreement, PageOne's connect product will be re-branded and integrated by Kingston Communications to allow its customers to send and receive text messages directly from their Kingston Communications account.

As to the so called fiasco, it was only a bid approach, which was called off as terms, structure could not be agreed. It was deemed that the offer mentioned was too low. KC know that this company is on the up. I suspect after the results are announced, further offers will flow in. Even if KC continue as a company, I think since the overhaul of the management lessons have been learned.
A company with a good product,good customer base and a good management team.

Just had time to skim through but results look as good as expected.

Hull Council are in something of a cleft stick with their effectively controlling 30% stake ...... It seems that the previous offer was for 85p but HCC deemed it too low and/or they are very worried about being seen for selling out for too little ...... At the end of the day, like with houses, you can ask whatever price you like, but whether you can get it is another matter.

Paul Simpson today acquired 30,000 shares.

KEVIN WALSH acquired 21,000 SHARES.

KERRY SIMPSON acquired 30,000 shares

Nice to see three fairly large purchases by personds connected to the company.

Perhaps something IS brewing

Nice to see a positive RNS.

KC sign another contract. Their reputation, re IP integration into county councils and private companies is spreading. This makes them even more a takeover target.

It appears Karoo (KC broadband) are experimenting at putting speeds out up to 8mb. A bit of a technophobe myself but I understand this is fast.
They will also be looking at price structuring for their broadband packages.
You will no doubt have noticed that many broadband providers have increased speeds and lowered prices, so it is about time KC got competitive again.
No time limit has been mentioned but hopefully they will have to get a move on or they will start to loose customers, which is a shame as their Karroo customer service is excellent and in most cases free.

Time this thread came back to the top again,
Nice trading update last week.
May even get Little Woman posting again soon :-)



The Group has seen a robust start to its new financial year with the momentum created in the second half of last year continuing in to the first quarter of the new year.

Affiniti has made an encouraging start to the year. As expected, we have seen strong growth in revenues from our direct business-to-business channel, in particular reflecting increasing demand for converged communication services. At the same time, following the launch of our mass interactive call platform in the first quarter, we have seen increased sales to the media and quiz call sector. The combination of these two trends has more than offset the anticipated reduction in our indirect partner business, which has a greater exposure to traditional basic voice services. Contract wins during the first three months of the year include Fife Council, CSEE Transport, GVA Grimley, Balfour Beatty and ADT Fire & Security.

Kingston Communications has performed strongly. Broadband services continue to be a key area of growth where our focus continues to be on building our business in less price sensitive segments of the market, where availability and service quality, rather than price, are valued by customers thus building stronger loyalty. The customer base at the end of June was over 129,000, an increase of 51 per cent year on year.

Michael Abrahams, Chairman commented: During the first quarter we have seen ongoing momentum across the Group resulting in good contract wins, a strong order pipeline and continued growth across the business. As a result, trading is in line with our expectations.

Kingston Communications will announce its Interim results for the six months ending 30 September on 28 November.

and meanwhile, i see little long-term future and with Hull CC holding 30% i feel this is a stock with much more likely risk than reward.

Oh dear cynic, I was just beginning to look ahead optimistically and along you come to dampen my enthusiasm, on the oilers as well!
Insight on what stocks you are positive on would be interesting?

first of all, bear in mind that i am still not convinced that thye markets are heading back up, notwithstanding that Dow surged past 11150 and even 11200 ..... very much feel markets are choosing to ignore what is still potentially a very ugly situation in M/E.

Of the oilies, i very much like BUR which i think is a cracking company, very well managed and is a proven producer ..... in mining, i like ANTO and POG and perhaps CER and ENK ...... BARC looks a good solid hold and BVIC, though that may now be a bit late ...... on the speccy side, still keen on VOG and CHP ..... and the DOW and NASDAQ 100 are worth watching, though I would not be a uyer at these levels ..... Gold is also interesting though i have rather lost track of where it is now going; probably upwards, but i am not sure if there are any resistances close at hand.

Cheers cynic, thanks for your reply....... I still like the potential of KCOM irrespective of the HCC holding.

Hull City Councils center of Hull regeneration is well under way.
The city center is virtually closed to traffic and will be for some time.
I only mention this for the following reason. The project is looking to be completed by Sept 2007 at a cost of 150,000,000. No doubt the council will not be liable for the full cost due to the EU assistance, city generation schemes etc, but if you look at just about every similar project, they always (alright being generous) nearly always come in late at well over budget.
If they do start looking for extra cash, they may start looking at share offloading via KC or at least back any sort of buy out.
I can't see KC staying independent for much longer.
Only my opinion obviously.

If this doesn't lift the price tomorrow what will, why was the announcement delayed until after the close?

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Affiniti chosen by The Carphone Warehouse to install three new IP contact centres to underpin business growth
Expanded capacity to reach 60 per cent market penetration by 2008
Virtual structure ensures the ultimate flexibility combined with an excellent customer experience
Local loop unbundling driving ambitious customer acquisition programme
Contract worth 3m over three years
The Carphone Warehouse will improve customer service and business efficiency, by means of three new virtual IP contact centres. Installed by communications integrator, Affiniti, the new centres will allow The Carphone Warehouse to reach its goal of 3.5 million customers by 2009. The contract is worth approximately 3m over three years and involves the planning, provision, building and ongoing management of the Cisco-based contact centres.

Through the new IP contact centres, The Carphone Warehouse will benefit from efficient integration of new agents, sites and applications. Utilising Affinitis intelligent call routing, enquiries can be distributed via different agents on different sites. Calls can be placed depending on the agents skills, ensuring individual requests can be appropriately answered. Agents will benefit from increased facilities such as CTI technology with screen pop-ups - callers are automatically recognised giving agents open access to their history and preferences.

The contact centres will manage much of the traffic generated by new services from The Carphone Warehouse, for example, the Free for Life broadband proposition that has been opened up by local loop unbundling. 1,800 new customer service advisers will meet increasing levels of demand. Two of the contact centres are located in the North West of England and one in South Africa.

As The Carphone Warehouses longest serving communications partner, Affiniti was chosen for its open and trusted working relationship, proven track record for delivery, attention to detail and consultative approach to delivery.

Robert Kent, Business Relationship Manager for CRM at The Carphone Warehouse said: The new contact centres will enable us to service our customers quickly and efficiently. We currently handle around a million calls a month and expect this to rise significantly as more and more customers take the Broadband product.

He continued: Affiniti de-risked the project for us, providing invaluable technical expertise to complement our in-house skills and offsite testing resources to ensure efficient implementation.

Gary Young, Managing Director of Affiniti, said: Affiniti has worked closely with The Carphone Warehouse over a number of years providing a wide range of solutions. This latest series of contact centre projects will play a key role in supporting the companys rapid business expansion for both TalkTalk and its mobile business.

Good news indeed.
As to waiting till the market closed before the announcement release, you will find this is often the case so it gives as much as possibly an equal opportunity for punters to buy.
As you say this should lift the price, although a contract worth 1 mill per year for the next 3 years, it may not move too much.

Morning Greekman,
The release was accompanied by this article, nice bit of 'back slapping' :-)

Affiniti tops National Performance Results
New industry report reveals Affiniti as a top performing communications provider in the UK
99.7% orders completed on time
Affiniti, the communications integrator, has demonstrated its top performance in independent research, supported by the industry regulator Ofcom.

The survey results, which are published by TopComm, the industry forum for quality of service, reveal that Affiniti, a Kingston Communications business, has performed strongly in a number of key areas for both its direct and indirect network services.

The research, which includes names such as BT, NTL:Telewest and Cable & Wireless show Affiniti registering excellent results in terms of order completion, fault repairs, service restoration and accuracy of billing; all of which are seen as the key areas in effective service delivery to customers.

The results confirmed Affiniti's commitment to its customers with 98 per cent of Affiniti's orders completed by the date promised in comparison to the national average of 94 per cent.

For its indirect services, delivered through channel partners, 99.7 per cent of Affiniti's orders were completed by the date promised in comparison to the national average of 91.4 per cent.

Affiniti also performed strongly in the billing accuracy category where it had only 0.1 justified complaints per 1000 bills whilst the national average was significantly higher at 1 complaint per 1000 bills.

We are delighted with the results we have delivered. says Andrew Tapley, managing director of Affiniti Partner Services and Regions. They confirm our commitment to providing excellent service to our customers from the point of connection to the accuracy of our billing system.

Affiniti was also among the top performing operators in terms of registering the lowest number of fault reports, which serves as evidence regarding the increasing resilience and effectiveness of its national telecommunications network infrastructure

Cheers for that Optomistic,

Strange they did not put out an RNS.

Saving money perhaps. LOL

Far higher volume today, would think something brewing, but it is probably the aged rumor of a takeover. Buys only just outdoing sells 4 to 3.