Karoo ISP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karoo
Type of Company	Public (LSE: KCOM)
Founded	1996
Headquarters	Kingston upon Hull, UK
Industry	ISP
Parent	Kingston Communications
Website	Karoo.co.uk

Karoo a UK Internet Service Provider formed in 1996, by Kingston Communications. Although the majority of Karoo customers are in the Hull area, in Yorkshire, UK, a Pay As You Go dialup service remains for customers outside of Kingston Communications telephony network.

[edit] Service History

Before the introduction of unmetered, '0800' dialup Internet access and broadband, Karoo was the one the first ISPs in the country to offer untimed Internet calls. It followed on from the success (or over success) of the Demon Internet Point of Presence (PoP) in Hull which allowed users in Hull to gain untimed 5.5p+vat calls to access the Internet in the early 1990s. Karoo followed on a few years after Demon removed their local PoP. Karoo Xtra allowed Kingston Communications customers 7 hours untimed access for the price of a 5.5p+vat call charge (and a subsription fee of £15 per month).

This led to the Hull gaining a reputation for being a so called 'digital city'.

[edit] Current Services

Today, Karoo provides dialup and ADSL broadband services, up to 3Mbps with POP3 email and web hosting including in the majority of packages.

Karoo broadband services are only available to residents in the Hull and East Riding area and only on a Kingston Communications residential line. Interestingly, Karoo is the only broadband service avaiable to customers with a Kingston Communications fixed line, leading many customers to believe Karoo operates under monopoly conditions.

In October 2006 Karoo began rolling out the new "upto 8mbps" ADSL services.