Digital Region Project may seek commercial operator to rescue it

[Paddy]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5130-digital-region-project-may-seek-commercial-tender-to-rescue-it.html

 

Who do you think will buy it? I'm hoping that Sky buy the network.

 

More Digital Region news here.

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5131-digital-region-confirms-it-will-adopt-the-more-commercial-bduk-model.html

Edited March 30, 2012 by Paddy

[AlexAtkin]

Geez, didn't see this coming.</sarcasm>

 

In all seriousness though, how can they possibly expect to dig themselves out of debt if nobody knows the network exists? Plus all the bad publicity just discourages people joining, not at all helped by the cost of connection.

 

Such bad planning. They should have set aside funds for advertising or at least free connection so that ISPs had more money to spend on advertising themselves.

 

The question is, who is going to buy a network that only covers south yorkshire? The whole reason no big ISP has come on board is because its a small concern in the great scheme of things.

 

If Sky did buy it, would the still allow competing ISPs on the network,? I would expect it to be part of the purchase agreement that they must allow it.

[Swampster]

I'd lay good odds, that if anyone did buy the entire network they'd have to offer wholesale equivalency like BTOR has to do with their FTTC. So yeah I guess there would be scope for other ISP's.. however whether they could possibly compete once the big boys move into town is another issue altogether.

[AlexAtkin]

I just hope I can stay with Origin as Be (who I was with before) started to go downhill once O2 took them over. It leaves very few alternatives especially as I like to have a static IP so I can remote access into my home PC more easily.

Edited March 31, 2012 by AlexAtkin

[Swampster]

Unfortunately what it will likely mean is the introduction of FUPs and traffic 'management' etc

[AlexAtkin]

FUP and traffic management are usually implemented at the ISP level not the network, so there should be no need to change anything at all.

 

Digital Region said from the start the network was designed to have huge capacity so that FUP and traffic management was not necessary. So I do not think there is too much worry on that front.

[anywebsite]

I'd lay good odds, that if anyone did buy the entire network they'd have to offer wholesale equivalency like BTOR has to do with their FTTC. So yeah I guess there would be scope for other ISP's.. however whether they could possibly compete once the big boys move into town is another issue altogether.

 

I'd hope that somebody who only provides wholesale access buys the network. Maybe the local councils should buy it & then provide wholesale access to ISPs - actually don't they already own it?

 

What you should ask is why it's being mismanaged & badly marketed by the local councils & partner ISPs.

[Paddy]

A bit of an update for this thread:

 

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/07/bt-bid-for-troubled-uk-south-yorkshire-digital-region-broadband-network.html

 

Also some more Digital Region News here:

 

http://www.cable.co.uk/news/yorkshires-digital-region-broadband-scheme-hit-by-spiralling-costs-801433088/

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5385-fluidata-to-bring-more-isps-to-digital-region.html

 

I do hope BT end up buying the network because there is a DR cabinet at the end of my street. Then I will hopefully be able to get Fibre Optic broadband from my current ADSL provider - SKY.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Paddy

[kinetic]

I just hope I can stay with Origin as Be (who I was with before) started to go downhill once O2 took them over. It leaves very few alternatives especially as I like to have a static IP so I can remote access into my home PC more easily.

 

I've had Be (then changed to O2 when they bought it because I also have an O2 phone, and if you have both broadband and phone they charge you £10 less a month for basically the same service as Be), for maybe 5 or 6 years. And my IP address has NEVER changed, even when I changed from BE to O2 (I know this for a fact because I have a sub-domain pointing to my home IP address, and haven't needed to change the DNS!). I don't pay for a static IP. Maybe it's not even a static IP, just a shared IP with a long lease time (say 7 days or something, my router's never been turned off long enough to test it).

 

I should also say, I've had practically zero downtime in all those years. There's been a couple of occasions in the middle of the night it's gone down for an hour or two (due to maintenance I guess), but apart from that it's been steady as a rock. Flying along at 20Mbps.

 

I've always been an early adopter when it comes to technology/Internet. But I've been so happy with O2 I've never even really looked into the newer alternatives (without doubt it helps that I live right next to the exchange).

 

They also have a British based support service with humans on the end instead of a menu system!

[Paddy]

Looks like the Digital Region Management Team are not going for BT to run the South Yorkshire network and are going for a French company.

 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5710-digital-region-does-not-pick-bt-as-preferred-bidder.html

 

I'm a little disappointed about this because I was thinking that if BT took over then some of the major broadband providers (I want Sky on there) would be able to use the network.