KCOM has appointed Richard Schäfer as the company's permanent chief executive.

The UK network operator confirmed his appointment late last week.

Schäfer has been interim CEO at Hull-based KCOM for the past six months, and is the long-term replacement for Tim Shaw, who stepped down as CEO in July.

Schäfer only joined KCOM in February of last year as chief finance officer.

KCOM chairman Richard Greenleaf said: “We’re grateful for Richard stepping into the CEO position last year. His commercial background, financial acumen, deep understanding of telecoms, and his passion for delivering KCOM success make him the right person to take the company forward.”

A UK telecoms veteran, Schäfer has held senior roles at a number of companies, including Three UK, Vodafone UK, Onecom, Lebara, and, most recently, the Lyca Group, where he was group CEO.

KCOM has long held a monopoly in its home city of Hull, and is the only city in the UK not served by Openreach's network, after KCOM refused to merge with other regional providers during the formation of the former telecoms monopoly. Notably, the city's telephone boxes are even a different color.

Founded in 1904 as Kingston Communications, KCOM has seen its dominance in the region challenged in recent years by several rival full-fiber network providers, also known as altnets. CityFibre, Connexin, Grain, and MS3 Networks are some of the altnets building out rival networks in the city.

In 2015, KCOM sold most of its fiber network to CityFibre for £90 million ($112m) in a cash sale.