Finally Digital Region is available in my area.

[snooze 10]

 

As long as the terms are the same (£25/40/10/unlimited) and the speed it good then i'd try them out.

 

 

* Heres a posting on the unoffical ripwire forums

http://ripwire.netscapist.com/discussion/39/ripwire-migration-update-7212

 

me too and i found this after i had phoned digital region oops

[Swampster 10]

I think it's totally ridiculous that people get to move to ASK24 for free.. yet if they want to move to another provider they have to pay a £50 admin fee...

 

In fact I think it's ridiculous that there's a fee of this type at all.. as it is obvious there is no need for BT to be involved, so this is a DRL entirely generated fee. It appears this network/management is determined to kick itself in the gonads whenever the opportunity arises.

 

Amazing that one can move from DRL to BT/Sky/Virgin etc without a fee of any sort but switch from one DRL ISP to another and it's "kerching £50 please"... there's no wonder average Joe Bloggs doesn't want to come on board this network.

[walkerx 10]

I think it's totally ridiculous that people get to move to ASK24 for free.. yet if they want to move to another provider they have to pay a £50 admin fee...

 

In fact I think it's ridiculous that there's a fee of this type at all.. as it is obvious there is no need for BT to be involved, so this is a DRL entirely generated fee. It appears this network/management is determined to kick itself in the gonads whenever the opportunity arises.

 

Amazing that one can move from DRL to BT/Sky/Virgin etc without a fee of any sort but switch from one DRL ISP to another and it's "kerching £50 please"... there's no wonder average Joe Bloggs doesn't want to come on board this network.

 

The fee is probably for the admin work to be performed on the cellpipe, which can be configured remotely.

 

I agree as it was this fee of moving to another provider on the network that swayed me to moving back to BT for free. If it had been free at the time then I would have stayed.

 

As for current customers on Ripwire I know it has been agreed for all to be taken over by Ask4 as it probably won't be much of a configuration change thus giving minimum downtime (ie you may use same logon details meaning only the routing needs to change) - if move to others you will need reconfigure the cellpipes and your router.

 

When there have been other isp's close, usually one isp takes on all their customers for free, if the users wanted to go somewhere else then they would have to arrange themselves and pay a fee. So based on this it is actually the same process.

 

There must have been a reason to select ASK4, but that will be between all relevant parties involved in the discussions....

[SuperOwl86 10]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5028-ripwire-customers-acquired-by-ask4.html

[mapadale 10]

I think it's totally ridiculous that people get to move to ASK24 for free.. yet if they want to move to another provider they have to pay a £50 admin fee...

 

In fact I think it's ridiculous that there's a fee of this type at all.. as it is obvious there is no need for BT to be involved, so this is a DRL entirely generated fee. It appears this network/management is determined to kick itself in the gonads whenever the opportunity arises.

 

Amazing that one can move from DRL to BT/Sky/Virgin etc without a fee of any sort but switch from one DRL ISP to another and it's "kerching £50 please"... there's no wonder average Joe Bloggs doesn't want to come on board this network.

 

For starters customers are moving to ASK4, as they have initially bought the contracted from RIPWIRE. So yes it's going to be a "Free" migration as you will still be contracted under your original RIPWIRE contract.

 

BT have to be involved, as the access to the exchange is BT and no one else and DRL have to pay these costs, which you as a customer front only a small margin of. You have to remember with the whole DRL network, there is not one company who is solely in charge of it.

 

This is how the network is managed.

 

Thales : Manage the DRL Network, as it's in effect their network and not actually DRL's - There management of the network is from CAB - Exchange

 

Magdalene : These are the NOC engineers for Thales and manage the network along side Thales and Thales & Magdalene should be the only ones accessing the CABS (These are not BT cabs)

 

BT : Manage everything else that Thales & Magdalene don't, so that would be everything in the exchange, CAB to premise and the copper network that provides the connection from the CAB.

 

DLR : These are only a wholesale provider, so they sell on to providers = ISPS

 

So yes you do need to be paying that setup fee, as it's not going to any one company, but several and trust me when I say the costs for access to DRL network is bloody cheap. BT only waver the cost when you sign up for them, as they recoop the cost from you in the long term anyway and if BT did place the costs on customers for setup, you wouldn't be looking at low figures such as £50. You would be looking more in the regions of around the £300 mark, £128 as standard for a line (If not provided) and then the costs on everything else.

 

Oh and by the way, if you don't go with BT and you went with another provider, you still pay a setup fee, you just don't see it and it is in your T&Cs....

[Swampster 10]

For starters customers are moving to ASK4, as they have initially bought the contracted from RIPWIRE. So yes it's going to be a "Free" migration as you will still be contracted under your original RIPWIRE contract.

 

OK fair enough...

 

BT have to be involved, as the access to the exchange is BT and no one else and DRL have to pay these costs, which you as a customer front only a small margin of. You have to remember with the whole DRL network, there is not one company who is solely in charge of it.

 

Why? I really doubt that for every single migration of customers already on SYDR requires physical access to the cab/exchange.. once someone is already on the DR network, they are already being routed by Thales to the prospective ISP's surely? All it should require is Thales to change the routing?

 

This is how the network is managed.

 

Thales : Manage the DRL Network, as it's in effect their network and not actually DRL's - There management of the network is from CAB - Exchange

 

Magdalene : These are the NOC engineers for Thales and manage the network along side Thales and Thales & Magdalene should be the only ones accessing the CABS (These are not BT cabs)

 

BT : Manage everything else that Thales & Magdalene don't, so that would be everything in the exchange, CAB to premise and the copper network that provides the connection from the CAB.

 

DLR : These are only a wholesale provider, so they sell on to providers = ISPS

 

Yes most of us know most of that, although I did think Thales were merely contracted to technically manage the newtork, while DRL were the managment for the whole project and actual 'owners' of the network..

 

So yes you do need to be paying that setup fee, as it's not going to any one company, but several and trust me when I say the costs for access to DRL network is bloody cheap.

 

I'm still not convinced about the costs incurred for moving customers already on the network from one DR ISP to another. Appears (and that's the most important thing here.. appearance to Joe Bloggs customer) that it's simply a money grab.

 

BT only waver the cost when you sign up for them, as they recoop the cost from you in the long term anyway and if BT did place the costs on customers for setup, you wouldn't be looking at low figures such as £50. You would be looking more in the regions of around the £300 mark, £128 as standard for a line (If not provided) and then the costs on everything else.

 

Oh and by the way, if you don't go with BT and you went with another provider, you still pay a setup fee, you just don't see it and it is in your T&Cs....

 

Again appearance, if every other known named ISP can 'hide' the costs from the end user then it isn't exactly going to be attractive to potential customers.

 

If how you're describing how it works is entirely correct, then it's even worse than I imagined and the network will never stay afloat without a white knight investor. So perhaps my optimism about the network has been misguided all this time, and the general publicity about it all being Ill conceived, poorly designed, poorly implemented and poorly managed would appear to be correct?

[walkerx 10]

Once you are on the DRN it does not require another ORE to visit the cabinet to make changes - the changes are done remotely by Thales and the fee you pay for switching is the administration fee of reconfiguring the network settings on the cellpipe and on the network itself.

 

As Ripwire has ceased ASK4 are taking these contracts over and are absorbing the costs they would get charged by Thales - this will have all been bashed out during negotiations

[Swampster 10]

Once you are on the DRN it does not require another ORE to visit the cabinet to make changes - the changes are done remotely by Thales and the fee you pay for switching is the administration fee of reconfiguring the network settings on the cellpipe and on the network itself.

 

Indeed, and £50 (which we're led to believe is only part of the cost) is taking the p*ss for such a simple task, which will more than like be script executed.. and if it isn't something as simple as you suggest, then it is indeed poorly designed/implemented.

 

As Ripwire has ceased ASK4 are taking these contracts over and are absorbing the costs they would get charged by Thales - this will have all been bashed out during negotiations

 

Yeah I got that much

[walkerx 10]

finally found the BT cabinets - they are the small type version and not the huge ones like the DR cabinets - even 1 half of the DR cabinets is bigger than the BT one

[mattyatty1 10]

Are you on the Digital Region Network?

Are you thinking of signing up with an ISP on the Digital Region Network?

Do you have a question about the network and wan't it answering?

 

If you want to discuss anything relating to the Digital Region Forum then go to http://www.drlforum.co.uk - The Unofficial Digital Region Support Forum!

Edited February 22, 2012 by mattyatty1

[HbroChris 10]

I think I'm probably ready to sign up to Origin, but I have a couple of generic questions:

 

1) Does anyone know if Origin does a "refer a friend" scheme (one of my mates was asking me)? I know I can just ask Origin this, but I also need to know if:

2) Anyone has any experience with Vodafone Sure Signal (the femtocell-over-broadband gizmo that delivers voda 3G to your house) on Origin? I hear tell it doesn't play nice with some router/ISP combos (although from their forum I suspect that a lot of this is PEBKAC).

 

So I thought I'd post here and I might drop on to the Unofficial DR forum too.

 

Cheers in advance!

[TTM13 10]

I only know the answer to the first question - yes. From memory I think you get a one off payment between £5-10 and 50p off every bill for every customer you recommend.

 

While I'm in this thread, I have noticed that Infinity are installing their fibre cabs next to the DR ones. I've noticed two locations on my way to work - here and here. And infinity have put a poster on their cabs advertising the service, can't DR do the same?