Apology & Market Research...

[hullservers]

Hello Everyone,

Firstly, I would like to apologise for any confusion and distress which may have been caused by my posts last year in regards to a PSTN ADSL Service in Hull. Sadly we were relying on information from our suppliers and backhaul providers along with investors which pulled out at last minute due to the costs involved and the significantly higher risk with the current state of the economy over the last 12 months.

However, since our launch of our "Broadband In Hull" campaign in February 2008 (which we have since removed from our website and stopped marketing due to the amount of responces we were getting), we have had around 5,000 emails and phone calls from consumers who reside in the city. Due to the amount of calls and emails we were receiving we have now stopped dealing with these calls manually.

This amount of demand for a relatively low cost marketing campaign and research project was fantastic, we never expected to receive such as high response, there were times were many of us here were struggling to cope processing all the calls and emails.

After much consideration we have decided to carry out some further research into what consumers in the city are wanting from there broadband service, we will use the information gathered to decide which type of service we think would be best to plan and rollout in the area.

Obviously due to the lack of a BT infrastrucutre in the city, any service we plan to rollout will use some parts of the KCOM Network, which could limit us in terms of what we can achieve. However been a HUll based company, we are committed to providing the best possible service to our customers for the lowest possible price.

I would appreciate if as many members of this forum could not only reply, but also pass the details onto as many friends and family as you can.

Please reply with the following:

Your Postcode: (Don't have to be full postcode, i.e HUX X is fine, just to give us a rough idea as to which part of the city you are in)
What usage option you are on with KC: (i.e 2GB, 10GB, 75GB, Unlimited)
What usage option you would prefer: (specify in GB, eg 10GB, 20GB)
What price you think you would be willing to pay per month for the usage option you choose
Would you be willing to pay a setup fee for a new service?
What are you thoughts on a "cloud" network been setup (see notes below).
You can also include any further comments you feel are required.

Notes:

1) Our "cloud" network idea is very similiar to that of BTs Product. Basically you allow a small portion of your internet connection to be shared wirelessly to all other "cloud" customers in return when your out and about, you can uses other customers wireless connection
2) The entire purpose of this research is to get a good idea of what consumers want, so if you could be kind enough to provide as much information as you can to tell us what you want

I appreciate your support and look forward to hear from you all soon,

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask me on here.

Kind Regards,
David Catherall,
HullServers.com

Note to Moderators: Apologies in advance for posting email address, if you feel email addresses and links should be removed, please feel free to do so and replace with another option of contact. ie PM

[dylan]

Actually, it might be even better if people posted their responses here (minus the personal info of course).

It would be interesting to share them with the various companies who pop up in the forums offering to connect residential customers up (although who also strangely don't seem to manage to actually do it!).

Dyls.

[hullservers]

Hi,

I have modified the original post, it would be most helpful if you could reply with the following details:

Your Postcode: (Don't have to be full postcode, i.e HUX X is fine, just to give us a rough idea as to which part of the city you are in)
What usage option you are on with KC: (i.e 2GB, 10GB, 75GB, Unlimited)
What usage option you would prefer: (specify in GB, eg 10GB, 20GB)
What price you think you would be willing to pay per month for the usage option you choose
Would you be willing to pay a setup fee for a new service?
What are you thoughts on a "cloud" network been setup (see notes below).
You can also include any further comments you feel are required.

The more people that reply, the more insight we can get as to what consumers in the city really want...

Kind Regards,
David Catherall,
HullServers.com

[miken]

You want us to reply here now?

Your original post still says

I would appreciate if as many members of this forum could not only send one email, but also pass the details onto as many friends and family as you can.

[hullservers]

You want us to reply here now?

Your original post still says

I would appreciate if as many members of this forum could not only send one email, but also pass the details onto as many friends and family as you can.

Hi,

Yes, if you could reply in here, I have modified the original post to reflect this.

Kind Regards,
David Catherall,
HullServers.com

[miken]

I'll start the replys off then.

Your Postcode: HU10 7 (Kirk Ella)
What usage option you are on with KC: 75GB
What usage option you would prefer: atleast 100GB (peak) keep in mind we get through about 0.5TB a month
What price you think you would be willing to pay per month for the usage option you choose: no more than £40 (expensive but don't see you competing with LLU price wise)
Would you be willing to pay a setup fee for a new service: I'd rather not, however I'd consider paying a little extra to be on a one month contract if needed. Wouldn't want to come and the service is terrible but be stuck for a year.
What are you thoughts on a "cloud" network been setup: I'd rather not share our connection, its all residential around here anyway so wouldn't get used

You can also include any further comments you feel are required.

My gripe with Karoo is they they mainly concentrate on the smaller user market (their first 2 options are completely useless to us and the Pro option hasn't really got enough peak usage), since they have to try and cater for all the types of broadband user. Which leaves us with a connection we can only really use overnight.
However what I would like to see if you provide a service is high speeds at peak which I can't fault Karoo packages provide.
Btw provide us with a completely unlimited ADSL2+ product (over peak aswell) for £45 and I'd probably sign up (£45 is dam expensive for broadband these days but im sick of not using the connection during the day), we would still probably use the same amount of usage, but more of it during peak time.

[The Dominator]

Your Postcode: HU13
What usage option you are on with KC: 3000Max
What usage option you would prefer: Unlimited - I am thinking of streaming media etc
What price you think you would be willing to pay per month for the usage option you choose: I pay £40 for a 3meg link so would want to pay around the same
Would you be willing to pay a setup fee for a new service: Depends what I get for that service.
What are you thoughts on a "cloud" network been setup: Not too happy, especially if that cloud network is providing the bandwidth, too many hops mean increased latency and half-duplex is not nice.   I want a tangible fibre to my home, WiFi/WiMax etc are no substitute for fibre. 

You can also include any further comments you feel are required.
The only way forward is with Fibre to the home, any cloud network can only be a temporary affair and will need to be backed up by digging. 
I would also like symmetrical bandwidth so I can upload those large media files to the BBC, etc.  When we arrive at the point where bandwidth is irrelevant will be the day when I  am happy.  We will then find the immersive technology that has been waiting in the wings for far too long.
What everyone wants is choice, so on that note - good luck!

 

[miken]

You seem to have misunderstood what The Cloud is, It just makes a small % of your broadbands bandwidth available to the public who want to check there email etc. Basically your running a little wifi hotspot.

[The Dominator]

doh - your right Miken, sorry!



Yes, after reading the post again (with brain engaged!) I am totally FOR the cloud principle.
Using QOS it should be just dandy.

)

[dylan]

You seem to have misunderstood what The Cloud is, It just makes a small % of your broadbands bandwidth available to the public who want to check there email etc. Basically your running a little wifi hotspot.

Sounds a bit like Fon http://www.fon.com/en/

[hullservers]

Hello,

I think I should clear up the "Cloud" confusion caused, I think I should have worded the questions and statements differently however, our idea is very similar (in fact quiet a lot like) I beleive the BT OpenZone product available.

We have not finalised anything as yet, hence we are asking for your feedback...

Heres the current main concept:

User A has broadband connection and decides to share a percentage of his/her internet connection to wireless users. In return when User A is travelling around the city, User A can access any other "hotspots" which are available free of charge.

The system will be an opt-in system, each hotspot will be secured, and will require you to login to use the "hotspot". There will be some sort of bandwidth control (maybe Qos?) to prevent wireless users using all your bandwidth.

The main reason for the idea is the lack of available wireless hotspots in the city.

I hope this clears things up a bit

Kind Regards,
David Catherall,
HullServers.com

[hullservers]

Hello everyone i am new to this forum.

I have a question is this service in the HU7 area, i am currently on the Broadband Max package 40GB usage option with Krapoo lol.

If i can get this service a buisness option looks a nice deal = 90GB for £31


 

Hi there,

Firstly apologies for any confusion caused, but our Broadband Services listed on our website are currently not available in the city of Hull nor any areas where Kingston Communications is the only telecom provider, our services are also not available on the Isle of Sky.

We are currently conducting research on whether launching a service in the city of Hull could be profitable and to get a general idea on what the consumers in the city want.

I hope this answers your question,

Kind Regards,
David Catherall,
HullServers.com