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Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
18-04-2012, 04:58 PM
Post: #1
Question Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
I know back on the old forum, Jon himself said they would rather keep quiet, but with LittleBigOne and Origin advertising, it doesn't make much sense that they don't do it themselves.

Are they embarrassed being on the Digital Region network or something? Don't want customers?

Can anyone here think of any reasons why they won't advertise?

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Spencer Davies
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18-04-2012, 07:39 PM
Post: #2
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
I emailed them about their product and they were very helpful. But they are shooting themselves in the foot with their website. It doesn't entice me to place an order in the slightest. Whereas Littlebigone and Origin's are much, much better.. Maybe you're right, they aren't interested in expanding.

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18-04-2012, 11:39 PM
Post: #3
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
Suggesting they may be embarrassed about being on the network seems a little, well, left field? Unlike some of the other DR providors (I think?) their existence isn't purely down to the network, rather they already have an established business and DR seems like an extension of their portfolio. From where I'm sitting, Ask4 don't NEED DR but that isn't to say they don't want to succeed with it. I can't help but feel they are currently content to stay a little "low key" until they have all their systems for it in-place - as an example: they don't have a support portal for it yet, though I'm led to believe one is being developed. Once they have a more robust infrastructure in place I'm sure we may see them starting to make a push to advertise themselves more as a DR ISP.

@LeJimster, I agree their site is poor, however their support from what I have experienced so far is top notch.
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19-04-2012, 11:54 AM
Post: #4
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
I agree that ASK4 don't need Digital Region, but in the reverse of that, why buy RiPWiRE's customer base?..It could have gone to LittleBigOne or Origin...or even better yet, let the customer decide.

As I said in a previous thread, I'd love to see what plans (if any) they have on Digital Region.

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Spencer Davies
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20-04-2012, 11:41 PM
Post: #5
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
Perhaps more effort than its worth? We are small fish for them is my bet. Maybe they are testing the water with us and seeing if its worth really going for?

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21-04-2012, 11:19 AM
Post: #6
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
I agree with @SpencerUk that the customer should have been given the choice of who they moved to - also in my opinion when contracts are taken over the customer should have been told if they weren't happy with the service they were receiving they could switch without any penalties

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22-04-2012, 11:57 AM
Post: #7
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
It’s quite an interesting point raised here by @SpencerUk and I have to admit one I have often thought about!!

The reason I believe Ask4 don’t actively promote and advertise their selves as an ISP on the DRL network is due to both cost and human resources to run the product.

With the way the Digital Region network is setup and the way the network is managed by Thales the amount of time needed to resolve end users issues is quite a lengthy process. When a customer calls in with support the advisor has to obtain as much information as possible to understand the nature of the fault. All the ISP has is your connection details package and the data of your connection once your router has created a PPPOE connection into their network. This means any line faults, slow speeds, latency issues etc all have to be referred to Thales and the advisor then has to relay the customer’s problems to someone at the NOC.

This means whenever there’s a problem the advisor who takes the call is busy for a minimum of half an hour dealing with the EU and NOC to resolve the problem and acts as the man in the middle. From a business point of view like Ask4 what has a successful portfolio in other services and products it wouldn’t make financial sense to promote the product as advertising in any sense costs a vast amount. As there take up increases the likely hood of faults also would meaning more staff required to deal with problems. Other ISP’s are only selling DRL products so it’s there main business and dealing with DRL problems have to be done to ensure customers stay with them. The difference with Ask4 is they are successful in other areas so DRL is just another product they can provide and when a lot of the teething issues are ironed out or a new network management company take over then it’s likely they will promote a stable and reliable product more.

This of course is just my take on the issue and with that said it does appear they are currently creating a new website for their Digital Region services http://digitalregion.ask4.com

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24-04-2012, 01:20 PM
Post: #8
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
Got to admit the new web page does look a damn site better than what the old one was!.

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Spencer Davies
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14-05-2012, 06:27 PM
Post: #9
RE: Why Doesn't ASK4 Advertise Digital Region?
AFAIK everything with DR is manual, including the provisioning! There is no automation as far as I am aware, which after all this time is madness - they should have copied the API interface that BT have (doesn't matter that it is all different behind the scenes), as this would have made it a lot easier for ISPs to take the service up.
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