Karoo Monopoly?

[being ripped off]

Hello, I’m presently living in East Yorkshire & the only broadband supplier I am allowed to use is Karoo, which is part of the only telephone company that I’m allowed to use, Kingston Communication.
When I say allowed, I mean that if I try to get a quote from any other provider, they just shrug their shoulders & tell me that they can’t connect me as I don’t have a BT line. This is for both telephone & broadband.

Today I received a marketing email from Karoo advertising their new broadband packages and I’m not too happy about their decision to limit usage. The package I am on costs 16.99 a month and although the speed check on the Karoo website states
“For postcode hu**** we can confirm your line could support a typical connection speed of 4.5Mbps.”
When I use other connection checkers, it averages at
Download Speed 1467 kbps (183kB/s)

I have lots of problems with my broadband, I get regularly disconnected, it can take up to a minute to display web pages at any time of the day and it can take over 10mins to get through to the customer service line.

The questions that I have are

1) How do I find out my “usage”, so that I don’t over the new limits that they have set out?
2) Is it allowed for one company to have a monopoly on broadband in any area?
3) Is it allowed for a company to “confirm” a connection speed but not deliver it?
4) Are there any legal loopholes that would allow me to use another company?

[Admin]

Originally Posted by being ripped off

The questions that I have are

1) How do I find out my “usage”, so that I don’t over the new limits that they have set out?
2) Is it allowed for one company to have a monopoly on broadband in any area?
3) Is it allowed for a company to “confirm” a connection speed but not deliver it?
4) Are there any legal loopholes that would allow me to use another company?

Hi There,

I understand completely your gripe with Kingston Communications and Karoo, but here are the "legal" answers to your questions:

1): Get a free download monitor such as Netmeter.

2): Karoo don't have a monopoly in the sense that no other provider is allowed by law to provide services in the Kingston Communications area, any ISP is legally allowed to setup in the area, it is just that so far none have chosen to do so.

3): If you read the small print on the speed confirmation there will be a clause related to the word "could" that will state that this speed can be affected by a number of external factors out of the control of the ISP, such as interference from electrical equipment in your property for example.

4): Until another ISP decides to setup in your area then there are no legal loopholes to exploit as there is physically no other fixed line supplier to take.

You do have an alternative in mobile broadband, which is available in the Hull area, this is not delivered via the fixed line network, it uses the mobile network instead. Take a look at our mobile broadband guide for more details.

I hope this helps, the onus really is on another ISP to delve into the Kingston Communications area and provide some competition.