walkerx Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 To be honest that's what all businesses say even when they know things are going bad. You'll never get anyone who works for a company to say "Yes things are really bad right now and we fear the worst". They would be too worried about being fired. I hope things turn out ok for all those involved in the digital region project. Totally agree with that, look at RipWire they kept saying everything was fine, still taking on orders and then ceased trading about 2 weeks after I switched back to BT. They must have known for a long time they were in trouble and would have been in talks with Digital Region and everyone else prior to closing. It's just not an overnight thing for big companies. Either way I think something good will come of the Digital Region Network in one form or another and I don't think it will just cease to exist. BT, Sky, TalkTalk or Virgin could even take it over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tintin123 Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 Now the government has bailed out of their share, I don't see how the councils can legitimately continue to pour another £1m a month into the black hole. As the minster has said the market has changed. The business plan was flawed. No body will make it pay. Time to shut up shop. Origin may have agreements, but they'll be worth diddly squat when the network is powered off. I think the best us customers can hope for is that we are given a decent amount of notice to make alternative arrangements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikes10 Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 An appeal: http://drlforum.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=649 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Blade Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 An appeal: http://drlforum.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=649 Not really an 'appeal' is it more of "What would you do now to save it? I'm interested to hear people's ideas. " I don't know the person but he doesn't seem to have anything to do with DR apart from using them Bio "Founder of the Unofficial RiPWiRE Support Forum which then became the "Digital Region Community Support Forum". " I would be worried if one of the Origin team posted this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerx Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Not really an 'appeal' is it more of "What would you do now to save it? I'm interested to hear people's ideas. " I don't know the person but he doesn't seem to have anything to do with DR apart from using them Bio "Founder of the Unofficial RiPWiRE Support Forum which then became the "Digital Region Community Support Forum". " I would be worried if one of the Origin team posted this SpencerUK is the forum administrator and has broadband knowledge, he was also with Ripwire and that is how the original forum came about, when Ripwire ceased trading the forum was changed to what is it now known today. The forum is a community of people who are on the network and also have been on the network and are they to help other users. It is also the best place to go for answers and information as Origin are quite active on there and quite a few users from SF also participate regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexAtkin Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 There are also several users on the forum who AREN'T on the network but are considering moving there, smart people who are testing the water before committing. What really gets my back up (not on the forum, people are more sensible there) are the people who moan about the network being a waste of tax payers money but who never even considered using the network. I wonder how many of those people have Virgin or some other comparable service. Its easy to call out the network with hindsight but when I got the service BT had no plans to do my exchange. Even now they have my broadband connection is 10Mbit faster in both directions than I can get anywhere else. Granted I was fortunate to get the line card upgrade but if more people were willing to move over then they would have a reason to upgrade the cards. This bad publicity could easily be half the reason the network continues to dwindle, they are scaring potential customers off the network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerx Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Thanks Alex thought I had also put in about users moving to the network The only reason it's so called 'waste of tax-payers money' is because there has never been a huge drive to get people on the network and as Alex says there has been a lot of negativity about it. In a way I think the project should have been done in such a way that South Yorkshire became like Kingston upon Hull and had it's own infrastructure away from BT, especially as KCOM helped build the infrastructure for Digital Region... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexAtkin Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 (edited) That is a good point and its "kind of" what they were going for I think by pushing VoIP. The problem is that the big cost of all this is paying BT for that last mile connection to the cabinet, which means its actually cheaper to keep your POTS line and go with the likes of Primus for line rental. If they could have run their own cables, or gone full fibre to the home, in the long run it would likely have worked out cheaper. But that is another thing people miss about all this. When Digital Region started, BT were not allowing anyone to share their conduits. It was only once Digital Region had actually finished laying all their ducting that Ofcom forced BT to offer their ducting to competition. So its all very well the government pointing the finger but if they had gotten BT to lease their ducting sooner, Digital Region could have saved a fortune and rolled out MUCH quicker. They might not have had to lay any ducting at all. Edited July 28, 2013 by AlexAtkin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerx Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 that is very true - and i was surprised they never done FTTP where they could as the cable runs past quite a few houses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikes10 Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 I cannot see how DR can continue. The revelation ( if true ) that the 4 councils have been making secret payments to keep the business afloat will only anger local council tax payers who want libraries and other services maintained. Some reports suggest DR needs a customer base of around 100,000 to be viable, well how is that going to be achieved? It would mean attracting customers away from the existing major providers (BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet). So if you are having a really bad experience with your current provider you may decide to move otherwise why should you? The major providers are advertising on TV most evenings. When (if ever) did you see a TV Advert for Digital Region? I'm with BT and at least once a month I get a letter/ flyer/ or email offering some service or hardware. Sky and Talktalk send flyers ( delivered by the postman ) offering their services. The DR affair has the echoes albeit small echoes in the UK government's investment in the Delorean Sports Car of the 1970s-80s: A Parliament inquiry after it's collapse concluded the project was 'Poorly researched' and 'poorly managed'. However, in mitigation the car plant was build for political reasons rather than economic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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