If RiPWiRE Rumours are True....

[SpencerUk]

Who do you think Digital Region would migrate us over to?.
I have a funny feeling they would split the userbase to the 3 companies out there..First set of customers to Origin (as the site seems fairly respectable), then to Ask 4 for the Q3 last year sign ups and the new ones to LittleBigOne
I can't see ISP's bidding to take RiPWiRE's customers..Unless they offer enticing deals?
Your thoughts?

[Originb]

Hi,
I'm not sure what we can and cant say at this time, but any customer worrying about loss of service etc should not be overly alarmed.
Plans are in motion and your service is being looked after. Any customer who is concerned about their services should contact Digital Region directly.
We hope this bit of information helps anyone who is not sure what is currently happening.
Origin

[SpencerUk]

What a nice surprise to see another DR provider on here. Welcome!..even if it maybe for a short period lol.
So I take it you are confirming the status of RiPWiRE then?..Comes as a surprise but if you are making a loss, its going to hard to sustain.
I don't believe Digital Regions lines are open on a weekend?.

[GigabitG]

It will be intresting to see Digital Regions comments on this, as potentially thats a lot of customers in need of migrating. Though it doesn't come as any shock with regards to RIPEWIRE, as the rumours were there when I was working for a Digitail Region partner company, it was just a matter of time.

[SpencerUk]

Hi GigabitG
Welcome onboard.
Which partner company was you working for out of interest?.
I had heard whispers late October of someone having issues, but didn't suspect RipWiRE as they were pretty much the only provider. Guess I was wrong.
In relation to DR, this is a major blow to them. The network itself is currently heavily under the microscope in terms of public funding so this isn't a good thing for them. I can't see Digital Region themselves coming on here and explaining anything. It's a credit to Origin who have signed up and explained to some degree what happening.
I think RipWiRE will hand over the details to DR and they will just split everything over the remaining ISP's and then the new ones give a username and password and get them to set up a new Direct Debit. Can't see them ceasing each customer and telling em to join up with a new provider.

[Rigsby]

That sounds promising Origin. Thanks for the update.
I'll be hoping that all us little orphans end up with Dr Barnado's and not Fagin.

[Originb]

Hi Spencer,
Thanks for the welcome! Its nice to feel wanted :-)
Unfortunately its not our position to comment on the current status of RipWire, but to make sure that any customer worried about their services know that they are not alone!
I know its not much but don't worry.
Origin

[GigabitG]

Hay Spence,

I used to work for Lakeside IT, a partner for Digital Region.

As far as I'm aware, Lakeside IT do the managed service for Digital City Region (Though could be wrong). It's intresting to see what will happen with RIPE customers and keep my fingers crossed that its a smoth transition over to one of the remaining few providers for them all and its also intresting to see how things pan out from this point, as it's never a good thing for a company to cease on something so young. Could more follow, who knows, only time will tell really.

[SpencerUk]

That sounds promising Origin. Thanks for the update.
I'll be hoping that all us little orphans end up with Dr Barnado's and not Fagin.

Orphans sounds like the appropriate status for us at the moment haha
I've emailed the Operations director of RipWiRE, Steve Sadler for further info..Not really expecting an response until Monday, but I may also give a ring as well.Hi Spencer,
Thanks for the welcome! Its nice to feel wanted :-)
Unfortunately its not our position to comment on the current status of RipWire, but to make sure that any customer worried about their services know that they are not alone!
I know its not much but don't worry.
Origin


I can fully appreciate that what you are saying in relation to RipWire. I'm sure from a professional point of view, its better for RipWire to communicate out to existing customers what the state of affairs is.
Rumour has it from a friend of mine that RipWire isn't a managed service unlike Origin, Ask4, LittleBigOne and Digital Region City and they were getting lots of hounding from users about it and Digital Region. Can you confirm if you are a managed service?
It's easy saying not to worry, but having seen how migrations usually work (as I work at Plusnet), I don't think its going to be a painless one.
On a side note, I wonder what I'm gonna do with this forum now xD

Hay Spence,

I used to work for Lakeside IT, a partner for Digital Region.

As far as I'm aware, Lakeside IT do the managed service for Digital City Region (Though could be wrong). It's intresting to see what will happen with RIPE customers and keep my fingers crossed that its a smoth transition over to one of the remaining few providers for them all and its also intresting to see how things pan out from this point, as it's never a good thing for a company to cease on something so young. Could more follow, who knows, only time will tell really.

The last sentence, is the big one for me. And if i'm honest, I don't see the network lasting long. The fact that Openreach have to take a slice will eat into any money this network makes is an issue.
Example, typical BT line customer would pay the ISP who would pay Openreach.
DR example would be EU pays ISP, ISP pays DR, DR also then pays Openreach.
I don't want to wish any bad luck to any current DR ISP out there, but I bet its on the owners mind (the future of DR) quite often.

[Originb]

Hi,
I think this forum would look nice under a Origin banner :-) but that's just me!
To hit a few questions straight off the bat, Origin Broadband is a managed service, using a mixture of our own and Digital City Regions infrastructure.
In a theoretical migration it would just be a change in end users settings. In our case because we use VLANS rather than PPPOE you would set your router to get IP via Dynamic DHCP or static and your away. So rather painless, but that's just the technical aspect, and purely theoretical of course.
Origin