Kcom, the former Kingston telecoms, has chosen French group Thales as it's preferred bidder in it's fibre-to-home trials.

The defence and engineering group fought off more that 70 rivals, including BT, to trial 50Mbps fibre broadband in the South Yorkshire area. The trial be be for around 600,000 homes, but once complete the network will provide access to 1.3 million homes across Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham, as well as 40,000 small businesses. Additionally extra capacity will be sold on a wholesale basis to other providers.

 Although the cost of the project has not been released as yet it is expected to be funded by public money, partly from the European Union, and private investment, with Sheffield City Council being a major backer.

In the past Kcom has been accused of  not investing in the broadband arena, forcing it's customers to put up with higher prices than those on BT's national network, but it seems that this project puts BT's much smaller Ebbsfleet trial in the shade.