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The company was formed in 1999 but still managed (validly) to celebrate its centenary five years later {Link without Title} . Its history is an interesting one. On 22 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). 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 ). 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 . In February 2006, Kingston Communications announded that it would be shutting its Video on Demand and Digital TV services (called Kingston Interactive TV - KIT) on 1 April 2006. 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. It now consists of a number of group companies including Affiniti (formerly Kingston InBusiness and before that Torch Telecom) - its business services arm and Eclipse the Internet Service Provider and has a national SDH fibre-optic backbone. 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. It has recently started to expand its resdential phone services beyond the boundaries of Hull in to adjacent areas like Scarborough, and provides some businesses and residential areas of Lincoln with its internet service, but its footprint is still minute when compared with that of BT. MONOPOLY ISSUES As residents and most businesses in Hull are only served telecoms services by Kingston Communications, there are many service users unhappy with the effective monopoly position given to KC. The main issue here is that of Internet service provision; Kingston Communications ‘Karoo’ service is the only residential Broadband operator in the Hull area. Issues include but are not limited to KCs "acceptable use policy", which prohibits the use of IP Multicast, the cost of the service and the inability to use other providers such as Tiscali, Bulldog or Virgin. KC's internet usage in general is closely protocoled. KC’s monopoly has gone largely unchallenged by the industry regulator OFCOM . The last attempt to resolve this situation in the late 1990’s resulted in a local newspaper organised an Angry Mob to greet the regulators officials and needless to say, OFCOM have not returned since. In December 2005, Giacom, the owner of Hull24 - a rival broadband provider in the Hull area - complained to OFCOM regarding the provision of network access to KC's rivals. The complaint is that "Giacom alleges that Kingston is not providing access on reasonable terms as Kingston's pricing is anti-competitive and prohibitive to service providers [other than KC ". As of February 2006, OFCOM say they are still considering the complaint[http://www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/comp_bull_index/comp_bull_ocases/open_all/cw_878/]. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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