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.

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.

Hi greekman, it looks like everyones left this ship apart from you and I.
Trading recently has been quite active, as you say something could be brewing.....the takeover would do very nicely thank you :-)

doubtful

I'm sure it's being so cheerful that keeps you going cynic! LOL

laughing at myself certainly does .... held this stock months ago on the alleged promise of a t/o ...... i should live so long!

There are no promises in this game, only possibilities or just ocassionally the probability. KCOM is IMO moving towards the latter.

probability of t/o in my lifetime? .... lol

Are you VERY old cynic?

Yoiu should never buy a stock in anticpation of a takeover

Did not SWW, had them some while.

opto .... yes indeed i am, but come from a very longed lived family! ..... more seriously, the major problem here as you well know is hull council's 30% holding ..... kcom had an approach about a year ago, but they could not get the council to accept their offer.

opto - yes but I bought and sold a while back.

I look in now and then.

cynic...live on :-)
re HCC yes they blocked it last time but it tells a potential bidder that the price to offer has to be in excess of that offered last time, 85p I believe.

Trades building fast this morning.

Hi Optomistic, and others.

Nice to see some company on this thread.
KC start their new roll out on Monday for faster speed broadband. Although not the cheapest package on it's own, if you calculate it with it's phone package which I understand you have to have it's comparable.
My speed will increase from 2.3 Mbps to at least 5 Mbps, with a possible max to 8 for those living nearer the exchanges. For me to increase to 5+ the monthly package price stays the same. I have no idea how the roll out is going re number of customers signing up (existing and new) but when I get chance I will make some enquiries re any engineer who I see working on the connection boxes.

Not a bad picture:

As most of us know, a rumored take over of KC has been doing the rounds for some time.
But the following is a snippet from the Hull Daily Mail of yesterday.

Kingston Communications could be the target of a fresh takeover bid after a surge in interest in its shares, experts said today.
The fresh speculation comes after millions of KC shares were bought and sold each day for the past few days.
About one million KC shares would be traded in a typical day, but Tuesday saw almost 15 million shares sold.
And earlier this month more than 21 million shares were sold in one day.
Hull City Council is still KC's controlling shareholder, and its consent is needed for any deal to happen.
The sort of companies private equity firms tend to favor are those with predictable income streams. KC has that in its Hull business.
Hull City Council is still KC's controlling shareholder, and its consent is needed for any deal to happen.


My comment.... The massively expensive Hull Ferensway redevelopment is nearing completion.
Just a thought but don't these projects always massively over run in cost.
Hull City Council, are well known for making a mess of just about everything they touch, hence the council having a government watch dog to over see it.
As the council is still the largest share holder in KC, they would still have to okay any takeover. Last time a deal fell through, will the next one fair any better. My guess is YES. Don't forget KC announces its half-year results next Tuesday, with analysts expecting the company to show a solid performance.
Maybe things could start to move after that.