|
Kingston Communications PLC is a telecommunications provider based in Kingston upon Hull serving primarily the East Yorkshire area. Telecommunication is the extension of communication over a distance. ...
Hull or Kingston upon Hull is a British city situated on the north bank of the Humber estuary. ...
Categories: Stub | Yorkshire | East Yorkshire ...
The company was formed in 1999 but still managed (validly) to celebrate its centenary five years later [1]. 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
Its history is an interesting one. On 22nd August 1902, Hull Corporation (part of Hull City Council) was granted a licence to operate a municipal telephone system in the Kingston Upon Hull area, opening its first telephone exchange in 1904 at the former Trippett Street Baths.
At the time, there were a number of such municipal telephone companies around the UK, all of which - with the notable exception of Kingston Communications - were gradually absorbed in to the Post Office Telephone department, which was subsequently to become British Telecom (BT). BT Group plc (which trades as just BT, and is commonly known by its former name, British Telecom) is the privatised former British state telecommunications operator. ...
Hull's bid to renew its licence in 1914 was made conditional on the £192,000 purchase of National Telephone networks infrastructure. The council gave its approval, securing the future of the country's one remaining municipally owned corporation.
Hull therefore has remained an exception within the UK telephone network being the only place in the UK not served by BT, and is noted for its distinctive magnolia coloured telephone boxes and innovative services, for example becoming the UK's first fully digital network in 1989 using Marconi System X telephone switches (Central Offices or Class 5 Switches). Marconi may be: People Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) Corporations: Alenia Marconi Systems GEC Marconi Marconi plc (formerly GEC) Marconi Electronic Systems Matra Marconi Space This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
This article or section should be merged with Big Mac (supercomputer) System X (telephony) is also the name of a telephone switching platform from Marconi plc System X is a supercomputer assembled by Virginia Tech in the summer of 2003, comprising 1,100 Apple PowerMac G5 computers. ...
Term used in the US telecommunications industry referring to the type of telephone switch to which end-users connect (as opposed to tandem switches which purely transit calls). ...
Since then, due to the relatively unusual nature of its network topology Kingston has also been able to pioneer services such ADSL, Video on Demand and Digital TV. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide. ...
Video on demand systems are systems which allow users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. ...
Digital television (DTV) uses digital modulation and compression to broadcast video, audio and data signals to television sets. ...
Kingston Communications was floated on the London stock exchange in 1999, during the peak of dot.com euphoria, and soon found itself in the FTSE 100 group of companies, only to exit the FTSE 100 shortly thereafter. The Financial Times Stock Exchange Index of 100 Leading Shares, or FTSE 100 Index (pronounced footsie), is a share index of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. ...
The Financial Times Stock Exchange Index of 100 Leading Shares, or FTSE 100 Index (pronounced footsie), is a share index of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. ...
It now consists of a number of group companies including Kingston InBusiness (formerly Torch Telecom - its business services arm) and Eclipse the Internet Service Provider and has a national SDH fibre-optic backbone. Synchronous Optical Networking, commonly known as SONET, is a standard for communicating digital information over optical fiber. ...
Because of its very small footprint Kingston is also in an enviable position with respect to predatory behaviour by rival operators. Although it is under the same Ofcom and EU obligations with respect to Local Loop Unbundling etc. the addressable market is so small that the economics do not - by and large - justify entry in to the market. The Office of Communications, usually known as Ofcom, is the UKs communications regulator. ...
Local loop unbundling (LLU) is the process of allowing telecommunications operators to use the twisted-pair telephone connections from the telephone exchanges central office to the customer premises. ...
It has recently started to expand its resdential phone services beyond the boundaries of Hull in to adjacent areas like Scarborough, but its footprint is still minute when compared with that of BT.
See also
The UK telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Numbering Plan, is regulated by the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which replaced the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) in 2003. ...
External links | 
Feeds |
Contact