Eclipse Broadband, previously known as Eclipse Internet and Eclipse, is a UK provider of business technology services previously based in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and Hull,

East Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to th ...

where it was owned by

KCOM Group PLC KCOM Group (formerly known as Kingston Communications and latterly KC) is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters are in the city of Kingston upon Hull, and it serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telep ...

. Eclipse supplies connectivity, cloud and communication services to support businesses. Its three product portfolios include ADSL, fibre and leased line broadband services; wide area networks as a managed service; backup, Lync, Hosted Exchange and data hosting services; and communication services, including both fixed line and IP-based voice. Eclipse Broadband is now a part of the Global 4 Group.

History

''Eclipse Internet'' began in 1995 as a

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

internet service provider utilising an 0845 dialup number. In 2001 Eclipse launched its first

Broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

product, based on BT's wholesale

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

service. In 2004 the company was purchased by

for a total of £12.5 million. £9.5 million was paid in cash, whilst the remainder was paid in KCOM Group PLC shares. In 2005 Eclipse began trials of a combined

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

and

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

service. Eclipse also rejigged its broadband packages into three new packages and removed its fair use policy, the only restrictions on use now being the amount of data downloaded. In 2010 Eclipse gave an official response to proposals by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

to investigate

Net Neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

in the UK. In 2021 KCOM sold the Eclipse customer base to Global 4 Group who serves the customers as Eclipse Broadband Limited.

References

External links

* {{Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom Internet service providers of the United Kingdom