ConnectMK

This profile will no longer be updated and has now been archived.

ConnectMK is a private company owned by Milton Keynes Council and formed specially to deliver improved broadband services in Milton Keynes. ConnectMK has two other objectives – to rent out PCs to the Milton Keynes market and to open new Digital Service Centres in the region.

Milton Keynes council, via its subsidiary ConnectMK, intends to improve digital access in the town. Although it is a new city, built since the 1960s in an area where there was previously just a network of villages, Milton Keynes suffers from a poor telecoms infrastructure, at least as far as delivering broadband is concerned. As a result of various economy measures, such as the use of narrow-gauge copper, using aluminium instead of copper, filling gaps with TPON (telecomms passive optical network) and lengthy cable routes, council managers estimate that about 20,000 people are without good quality broadband. ConnectMK intends to improve this situation.

On 18 December 2007, ConnectMK launched its WiMAX broadband packages, catering to both residential and business customers. ConnectMK partners with FREEDOM4, jointly owned by Intel and Pipex, to provide the technology platform for its services.

In early February 2012, Connect MK informed customers via email that their service would cease on February 28. According to Steven Jewell, chief executive of Connect MK, “This termination chiefly reflects a requirement by UK Broadband for Connect MK to cease using the wireless spectrum that is licensed and owned by UKB."