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KC to roll out fibre optic broadband in Hull
The East Yorkshire telecoms firm could bring speeds of up to 100Mbps to residents in the city.
The company, which controls 90 per cent of Hull's broadband market, is set to replace its older copper cables with fibre optics that run directly to people's homes, reports the Hull Daily Mail.
At present, the average subscriber to Karoo - KC's internet service provider (ISP) arm - receives top speeds of 10Mbps, but this figure could rise as high as 100Mbps once the programme of infrastructure upgrades is completed.
Plans are afoot for the improvement work to be conducted across Hull and the East Riding over the next 18 months, although the company has yet to reveal which areas will benefit, the amount it will invest in the project or how much packages will cost.
Kevin Walsh, chief executive of KC, said fibre optic broadband is needed to allow multiple people in each household to browse the web at the same time.
"As services like iPlayer and YouTube become more popular and as households connect to the internet using iPads, smartphones and gaming consoles, as well as traditional PCs, the need for more bandwidth and faster download speeds is increasing," he remarked.
"Installing fibre means we'll be able to meet the needs of the most connected households not just today, but well into the future too."
According to a recent Ofcom report, the take-up of broadband in Hull is relatively low compared to the rest of the UK, with just 50 per cent of properties signed up to a fixed-line service.
In contrast, just under two-thirds of premises in the surrounding areas of East Yorkshire currently receive a fast internet connection, indicating that Hull's low figure may be related to "localised circumstances", Ofcom claimed.
Around one in ten properties in the city can only receive download speeds of less than 2Mbps, the study found.