Digital Region Project may seek commercial operator to rescue it

[Dardandec 32]

Hopefully it's the end of origin pete touting for business.

 

When they start connecting more people, using different networks on a wider playing field, he might get worse Good luck to them anyway, I always like to see local business's thrive

[Mikes10 10]

A little off topic for this thread but:

 

The government are moaning that they have awarded all their contracts to BT

to rollout Rural Broadband, whereas they really wanted a mix of companies

carrying out the installation. So why wasn't DR managed better?

 

I get the impression all the government of the day wants to do is

sit on a committee and dish-out contracts without any checks and

balances in place.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24227096

[anywebsite 10]

A little off topic for this thread but:

 

The government are moaning that they have awarded all their contracts to BT

to rollout Rural Broadband, whereas they really wanted a mix of companies

carrying out the installation. So why wasn't DR managed better?

 

I get the impression all the government of the day wants to do is

sit on a committee and dish-out contracts without any checks and

balances in place.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24227096

 

No, the government are quite happy with giving all the contracts to BT, that's why they designed the contracts so that only BT could win them (backhander?). It's the Public Accounts Committee who aren't happy about it.

[AlexAtkin 10]

It was a given really that only BT had the infrastructure and funds to do it. Digital Region being a prime example of how costly it is to do WITHOUT someone like BT on board.

 

And, you know, they ADVERTISE.

[Origin_Pete 10]

Hopefully it's the end of origin pete touting for business.

 

I wrote the odd post when people mentioned they had issues with their WBC based service, with my last mention of it being on the third of April. On a few of these occasions I failed to read the posts properly and notice that it was a wider issue or router based - and was criticised for this at the time.

 

Why are you still sticking the boot in five months later?

 

Our company has grown considerably from nothing in the last 18 months because we fought to make as many people as possible aware that they could get a fibre service when they believed they could not. At times it felt like we were the only ones trying to tell people about this amazing network South Yorkshire had been given access to.

 

We've been very successful from this venture and have a solid plan in place to maintain our growth. We're going nowhere.

 

THANK YOU to the people who've supported Origin to get to where we are now. You've given us a solid platform to move forward from and we are going to employ as many local people as we can in the future thanks to this. In addition to broadband, one of our side projects is a data centre we've just opened in Sheffield. We expect to have that facility alone employing 6-10 skilled Sheffield workers by the end of next year and then we aim to open a bigger facility that will hire more people and generate more in taxes.

 

I've said this before... if we can maintain the track we're on, this project will have allowed us the opportunity to provide a benefit to the South Yorkshire area for years to come.

[Sid Umpley 10]

pete, it seems theres a good few who seem happy that the project hasnt done well.

 

they have been knocking DR for a long time.

 

for me personally i am more than happy with Origin. they gave me decent internet over a year before anyone else could. and i will be sticking with them if they continue to operate.

[karl101 10]

On the network:

I chose DR as they provide/provided a fibre connection, Unlike BT, and I'm on the Sheffield City Centre exchange, not living out in the middle of nowhere. BT have no plans to put fibre into Sheffield City exchange.

 

If BT could be bothered to supply Fibre to Sheffield I would of chosen them instead (mostly because they'd of done advertising).

 

On the ISP:

If Origin were on BT fibre I would of chosen Origin. Contacting BT has always been a bad experience, and when I was on Virgin, the service was always poor.

 

I don't get these people who jump for joy when BT becomes even more of a monopoly. DR failing means huge numbers of people being deprived of a high speed internet connection, as well as the opportunity to connect to one. BT can treat their customers, wholesale and retail, with a little bit more contempt.

 

K.

[Paul Blade 10]

I wrote the odd post when people mentioned they had issues with their WBC based service, with my last mention of it being on the third of April. On a few of these occasions I failed to read the posts properly and notice that it was a wider issue or router based - and was criticised for this at the time.

 

Why are you still sticking the boot in five months later?

 

Right from day 1 certain posters don't seem to like the idea that BT is not the be all and end all of life on Earth, and can do nothing wrong

 

pete, it seems theres a good few who seem happy that the project hasnt done well.

 

they have been knocking DR for a long time.

 

for me personally i am more than happy with Origin. they gave me decent internet over a year before anyone else could. and i will be sticking with them if they continue to operate.

 

 

Same here

 

On the network:

I chose DR as they provide/provided a fibre connection, Unlike BT, and I'm on the Sheffield City Centre exchange, not living out in the middle of nowhere. BT have no plans to put fibre into Sheffield City exchange.

 

If BT could be bothered to supply Fibre to Sheffield I would of chosen them instead (mostly because they'd of done advertising).

 

On the ISP:

If Origin were on BT fibre I would of chosen Origin. Contacting BT has always been a bad experience, and when I was on Virgin, the service was always poor.

 

I don't get these people who jump for joy when BT becomes even more of a monopoly. DR failing means huge numbers of people being deprived of a high speed internet connection, as well as the opportunity to connect to one. BT can treat their customers, wholesale and retail, with a little bit more contempt.

 

K.

 

Agree 100%

I rang BT up before joining Origin to see if I could be on FTTC. They told me 18 months until it would be available in my area Fact (not assumptions)

 

Origin told me within days after filling in forms Fact (not assumptions)

 

The transference went over faultless and on the day and time promised Fact (not assumptions)

 

Within a month BT had put a cabinet at the side of the DR one advertising 'it was available Fact (not assumptions)

 

Now either BT 'rushed' the cabinet through or they deliberately lied to me about when it would be available , so that if I waited then they would appear 'brilliant' at getting FTTC through. I know what I think it is

(Cue DR haters )

[denomis 10]

My problem was with the way you (Pete) would just jump on any problem and say that switching to your company would solve said problem, when clearly it would have solved nothing, as for sticking the boot in i would have done that to you whichever company you worked for be it bt/origin/sky etc etc.

 

I was mearly pointing out that you were/are a corporate shill and what you were/are doing is miss selling a product by telling people you could solve there problems, which you couldn't.

[karl101 10]

I was mearly pointing out that you were/are a corporate shill.

 

That's unfair, origin_pete has always quite clearly stated who he is employed by and what his job is. There's nothing misleading about that.

 

K.

[denomis 10]

To make myself clear i wasn't having a go at origin, I'm sure they offer a fine product and service, i was knocking the sales tactics and what seems its social media mouthpiece.

 

---------- Post added 27-09-2013 at 16:23 ----------

 

That's unfair, origin_pete has always quite clearly stated who he is employed by and what his job is. There's nothing misleading about that.

 

K.

 

You must have missed the post where Pete was telling someone with a faulty router that switching to origin would solve there problems when in fact all that was needed was a new router and was nothing to do with the service they were getting.

[AlexAtkin 10]

That's unfair, origin_pete has always quite clearly stated who he is employed by and what his job is. There's nothing misleading about that.

 

K.

 

True, but denomis does have a point.

 

There have been occasions when people have had WiFi or landline problems on BT and Pete suggested they move to Origin to fix it, with blatant disregard for the fact such a change was unlikely to fix that particular issue. That IS misleading, because with all due respect to Origin, line faults get fixed FASTER on BT and a LOT of WiFi issues are misconfiguration or the fact the spectrum is totally overloaded now.

 

Many a Digital Region customer have moved back to BT purely because Openreach were utterly useless at fixing faults if it was a Digital Region service. I would go so far as to accuse them of being anti-competitive with how they dealt with DR lines.

 

I also have cringed at how frequent the advertising posts were, it did feel like it slipped into the land of spamming the forum rather than light advertising. However, the forum mods seemed okay with it so who was I to argue?

 

Its a difficult balance, because how else could they get across the message that there WERE alternatives to BT for fast broadband? I can understand both sides and neither is necessarily right.

Edited September 27, 2013 by AlexAtkin