I went to uni in hull in 2002-2005, and KCOM were the spawn of the devil at that time, reaping the benefits of their monopoly. While the rest of the country could get decent broadband, we, in the city centre, were given a 1.5mbps line. Connecting it to multiple computers was forbidden in the TOS. It would frequently go down or stop working for multiple days with no explanation.
They sent us the wrong password for the initial modem setup, and blamed us for it. The guy that set it up wasn't moving back into the house for a couple of weeks either, fortunately their state of the art call-center was able to help us when one of us pretended to be the guy (since they wouldn't talk to anyone else) on the phone - despite him answering the security question 'what is your date of birth?' with 'I don't know' and 'what is your mother's maiden name?' 'I don't know'. Fortunately the third question was 'what is your cat's name?', and one of us happened to know he was called Tibbles, so that was enough - 'Thank you Mr Smith, how can I help you?'.
The price was extortionate compared to the rest of the country, the service was total garbage, and there was *no* alternative. I sent a letter to OFCOM asking if there were any alternatives to KCOM, and they replied back with a generic 2 page letter ignoring my question about how KCOM is *not* a monopoly... which wasn't what I asked. When there's no alternative providers, it's a monopoly, though...
Since those two years of hellish unreliable internet, I will NEVER trust KCOM ever again.