Very quiet on Digital Region updates

[alexatkin]

I wonder if @Originb would be willing to tell us how many customers they have, as a guideline?

[john22rob]

(18-07-2013 10:00 PM)alexatkin Wrote:  I wonder if @Originb would be willing to tell us how many customers they have, as a guideline?

no, ive asked before. wouldnt tell me how many employees they have either

[Ray_Von]

I wish BT would enable our exchange for FTTC and also Virgin started laying more cables,at least we would have more choice then.Origin are fine but tbh in my area there is very little competition.Attercliffe exchange has over 26000 pulling off it and yet no sign of BT doing anything regarding fibre.

[alexatkin]

I don't understand why BT don't offer services over Digital Region. (unless they aren't allowed)

There is only one reason I can think of, they are hoping Digital Region fails and they can buy it up for cheap.

[SPritchard]

I thought it had been strangely quiet on the DR front. I expected to have heard of the winning bidder long ago, but last new entry I can find is from March when Yorkshire Post branded it as a disaster due to it potentially requiring even more funding.

Some people would strongly disagree with what I'm about to say, but I'd honestly rather see them pitch us over onto BT's network once their fiber is down in all (or most) areas -- assuming they lay their own, than see more money pumped into DR. Even creating an 'alliance' between DR ISP's and BT would be a nice middle ground as you get the stability and line tuning of BT, and the more 'targeted' support of the local ISP's.

(19-07-2013 07:58 PM)alexatkin Wrote:  I don't understand why BT don't offer services over Digital Region. (unless they aren't allowed)

There is only one reason I can think of, they are hoping Digital Region fails and they can buy it up for cheap.

If I recall, they had planned to do something around 2005 (or a few years after) during the last major rollout, but when DRL was announced, they decided not to bother. Right now, they're looking at 'Spring 2014' for most areas currently not enabled for Infinity. My own area has got a more definitive date of 'December 2013' now though, which is rather promising.

Even if they do stick to this date for my area, I'm still gonna be stuck on the alu. wires. Right now, due to the extreme temperatures, my connection has started to destabilize and so trying to utilize it for downloads is throwing it off a little. I'd honestly prefer to get even something like copper laid down to the cabinet, but I figure it's "fiber or nothing" from now on, which means it could be 2016/2017 before we get 'true fiber"/fttp.

Regardless, I figure that BT will be looking to bring their services to the area at some point.

[SpencerUk]

I didn't get a chance to read the article before it went missing but if its true the Digital Region network only has about 3000 customers from a potential 250,000 market, that's embarrassing!

I don't think the cost can be sustained and if this preferred bidder doesn't get it act together, I'd be begging BT to take it on, migrate everyone over to BT kit and just use the Digital Region kit for spare parts.

I seem to recall that Origin has the biggest subscriber base on Digital Region so it's fair to say that's atleast 1500 people followed probably by Ask4.

I'd be very interested to see what would happen if Digital Region did disband. Looking at the ISPs there's only Chess and Ask4 that have portfolios outside Digital Region..cough origin..release BT product

[WillPS]

I've got to say it's looking that way now. If I was on an exchange other than Sheffield or Attercliffe, I wouldn't even be considering Digital Region at this stage; compared to BT-line services (particularly Sky), it's expensive and actually just not as good - not to mention the massive question mark hanging over it going forward.

Essentially, Digital Region (for consumers) is only a cost effective option in areas/roads with no Openreach FTTC availability, and no Virgin Media cable availability. I actually wouldn't be surprised if that 3000 figure has dropped off slightly in recent months as Openreach enable more exchanges (we can see members on here who have left Digital Region).

With hindsight, I'm sure it would have just been easier to just subsidise BT and get Openreach to upgrade all exchanges in South Yorkshire. If and when Openreach finish off those gaps for other reasons, Digital Region is finished.

[Ray_Von]

I can't quite understand why Sheffield Central,Attercliffe and Meadowhall exchanges are not in BT's plans to make them FTTC..
There are thousands of residential and business customers who pull off these exchanges.
I took the matter up with my MP about 18 months ago,who in turn contacted BT,who said they had no immediate plans to upgrade and no other explanation was given

[alexatkin]

It could be that they have a lot of business leased lines in those areas and they are afraid of those customers jumping ship to FTTC once they are able.

The amount of money they would make on residential customers switching to FTTC would pale in comparison to the pots they will be making out of business leased lines.

As for BT doing South Yorkshire, as I have said before the only reason Digital Region got the go ahead as I understood it was because BT were dragging their feet. I am yet to see this evidence that they HAD planned to do us but cancelled due to Digital Region. It seems to me that BT have actually been encouraged to do Digital Region areas for fear of losing customers.

Also, I see nothing "superior" about BTs network, they don't offer the speeds I am getting. One of the big reasons I moved to Be was because Dynamic Line Management played silly buggers with my line, so I have been wary of it ever since. I'm not entirely convinced it would give me as fast as I have right now even if BT DID offer an uncapped 17a profile. I certainly do not know if an ISP comparable to Origin I could use, the good ones are expensive with bandwidth caps.

[Ray_Von]

According to the Samknows website..

Attercliffe exchange serves 23,667 residential premises and
1,731 non-residential premises.

Now if DR has only 3000 sign ups across its entire network,there can't be many out of over 23000 residential customers who come off the Attercliffe exchange.
Saying that parts of the S9 area do have access to Virgin cable as an alternative.
So if BT did take over DR the potential just from the Attercliffe exchange is very good.No doubt many of those 23000 customers will be already with BT on ADSL.