Telecoms firm launches trials of superfast broadband

The company has laid fibre-optic cables to replace its copper network allowing 15,000 homes in East Yorkshire to benefit from broadband speeds 10 times faster than currently available.

Up to 280 households in Woodmansey, near Beverley, will be the first on the network.

The new technology means households will be able to stream videos, high definition TV, websites and other online services to multiple devices like PCs, iPads and TVs, simultaneously and with excellent picture quality, the firm said.

KC is the only provider in the area apart from mobile broadband providers.

Current customers are being offered free upgrades and KC staff will be out in Woodmansey from today offering other residents the chance to sign up.

In the 280 cases where it’s possible to lay fibre into the home, people can look at getting speeds of 100mbps; where it can only go as far as the kerb, with the rest of the connection by existing copper cable (in around 80 homes), speeds will be around 40mbps.

The company is not ruling out a further trial, but wants to see what uptake is like over the next 18 months.

KC’s Director of Consumer Services, Nick Thompson, said: “In preparation for the trial we’ve been testing the different technologies we’ll be using.

“The online experience we’ve encountered was amazing – for example at 100Mbps Apple apps downloaded in under a second.”

KC expects the first household to be connected by the end of the month.

To publicise the trial, KC is also holding a space-themed family launch event at The Warton Arms Pub in Woodmansey on Saturday from 11am to 4pm.

The Government has said that by 2015 it hopes to see 90 per cent of homes and businesses having access to broadband speeds of 40mbps with the remaining 10 per cent having access to at least 2mbps.