Origin Digital Region Update

[Hippojay]

Well BTOR apparently requires a minimum contract for the wholesale FTTC product of 12 months. I would expect that Origin won't want to take on the additional risk of people leaving before especially (as you point out) that other provides have "value added" services. Perhaps origin will have a keen price to entice you to stay.

[fibretyke]

I do hope so, because I would like to stay with Origin if possible. But I want BT sport to be able to watch MotoGP, and £25 for unlimited 40/10 plus another £12 on top makes it a dear do.

[Ray_Von]

The date today is exactly 6 months till the closure of DR. A requirement by law to let users know.?
If so I'm guessing Origin has known for some time what will be happening.

[john1]

I would love to stay with Origin................but

[SpencerUk]

This was the most annoying part of the statement

"As you may be aware, we have been working tirelessly since this announcement to ensure that Origin’s customers are
not disadvantaged as a result. Due to the scale of the planning required, we have not been able to inform our
customers every step of the way as we would have liked to"...

I can't speak for all members, but Origin had been very distant with communication until very recently asking for help from users to nominate them for awards..

I think the key thing Origin need to get right is how it treats its, I would imagine, still core customers that are connected to the network.

Offering Annex M isn't a real solution, yes it is considered the top dog for ADSL2, but its a big come down from FTTC.


My final thoughts at 01:50

Origin have essentially confirmed what we already knew, Digital Region was closing down. The only thing we didn't know for certain was how Origin was going to deal with it.

I'm very interested to see what Origin will do now they are essentially a BT Wholesale reseller. I highly doubt that they could subsidize a package like Plusnet do (granted, via BT's help) and still turn over some tangible profit, so what would make them any better than say Plusnet, Zen, A&A?. With the financial climate as it is, people want value for money and it will be interesting to see how Origin will adapt to this.

Also with them becoming a reseller, the market opens up nationally for them which is great to see. I suspect there will be a ramp up of staff within the company to compensate. I would hope its less sales (as the last 4/5 announcements have been adding in this area). I just hope customer service doesn't take a turn for the worse.

I'm tempted to fire off an email of questions to Origin as I have done before with previous ISP's behalf (no guarantee that I'll get answers), so if anyone would like to ask questions if you could we can collaborate and fire it off. If you could make the subject as "Origin Question To Send", it will make it easier for @Chalky, @Mirdragon and myself.

[alexatkin]

Not impressed, the only thing this actually confirms is the date that everyone needs to be migrated by.

I find the fact they do not explicitly state the new network is BT as either very sneaky (trying to make people think its something better than if they moved to a different ISP) or promising (perhaps it IS more than a simple migration to BT?). The latter seems highly unlikely though.

There is also the "little" issue that BT FTTC do NOT provide a Max package, so everyone on that will essentially be downgraded unless Origin have some unique agreement with BT (unlikely).

Suggesting that Annex M is somehow helpful to people stuck back on ADSL2+ is odd too. Its only any use on SHORT lines (it wouldn't work on mine, I tried it on Be) as it halves the downstream in order to double the upstream. That is a very odd selling point seeing as most people got Fibre for the downstream speed not the upstream.

[littlegreengeek]

I won't be happy if I'm paying for the max package, as the equivalent package on BT is half the price.

[Hippojay]

To be fair, Origin can only (re)sell what's available. If the cab isn't enabled for BT fibre, then they can't provide it, and in general ADSL2+ is the next fastest product (although not suitable on all circumstances).

And I can't see the MAX product surviving as there is no corresponding BTOR/BTW product.

Contractually, a daresay a lot of people are on one month rolling, and assuming that there were little to no sign ups after 14th august last year, then that'll be 99% of people. You get at least your 30 day notice (if not 90) to migrate or terminate so there is not a lot you can do.

I'd be more interested in how the migration will be progressed as the systems (Thales and BTOR) don't seem to allow this to happen seamlessly. It'd be great if Origin could manage this down to a short outage.

[Ray_Von]

I'm wondering just how competative Origins ADSL package(s)will be.

Just been looking at Plusnet..ADSL Broadband with a 10GB cap and 12 month contract for £8.49 a month including free router.That is broadband only,don't want to move my line rental away from BT as I only pay £15.10 every quarter.

The estimate for my line is from 1.5mb to 5mb with 2mb being quoted as average.
I was with BT for 2 and a half years and only every got between 1.2mb and 1.75mb.

Edit...Why are Origin making a big thing of Annex_M,which I am told is no good for anyone who has a long line...

Edit2....I also note that Origin haven't posted anything on their Facebook or Twitter feeds..

[jimmyt]

Not good news at all really.

By my caclucations I'll be 16 months into my 18 month contact when the plug is pulled.
By the looks of it I'll be dropping backdown to ADSL as although my exchange has BT FTTC enabled the cabinet I'm connected to hasn't been enabled but others in my village have.