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~~alec1951~~ · 02-08-2013, 05:37 PM

What is the unique selling point of DR?

Now that DR's near monopoly of high speed broadband in some areas of South Yorkshire is being steadily eroded by BT. What other USP does DR have, or could it have, to allow it to genuinely compete with BT lead services?

To compete it is going to have to compete on either cost or service or a combination of both. Somewhere in the cost / service equation it has to find a USP. Find the USP, find the reason for growth, find the reason for growth you will find the reason for investment.

If there is no USP then as more and more BT boxes open the DR network is going to become increasingly redundant.

So what USP could DR have?

jody-ASK4 · (This post was last modified: 02-08-2013 06:37 PM by jody-ASK4.)

(02-08-2013 09:26 AM)essenby Wrote: It's easy to keep your head above water if you have a captive consumer base. If you live in the KCOM area, and you want a telephone line, you get it from KCOM. Subscribers there don't even have the option of switching telephone services to another provider because that nearly always requires a BT line, which they can't get. Even though they can get SKY satellite services - they can't get SKY broadband, and that is a very sore point amongst a number of my friends/relatives.

As I said, on the domestic front at least, KCOM have an absolute monopoly.

Slightly amusingly, KCOM have outsourced some (all?) of their network management to BT so they're still getting revenue from that area indirectly.

(28-07-2013 03:01 PM)SpencerUk Wrote: Me and @WillPS have the right idea here

I'd practically beg TalkTalk, EE & Sky along with every small reseller to come over. I'd also launch my own branded ISP too for people who want to try to the bleeding edge stuff with the design to get people onto the fastest connections possible.

I'd hold a quarterly community open forum in regards to the network to keep raising awareness too.

Failing that, I'd sell it to Virgin Media and let them do what they want with it.

You'd probably struggle with starting your own ISP now unless you've already got access to an ISP's resources i.e. IP space - as there's not much IPv4 left in Europe you'd have issues trying to get a serious number of customers connected to the IPv4 Internet (which is still the vast majority of what people want/need to be able to access).

***SpencerUk*** · 07-08-2013, 06:39 PM

@jody-ASK4

Kickstarter perhaps? haha

@alec1951

Re selling point, thats a good question. I can't really think of one at the moment which springs to mind.

jody-ASK4 · 08-08-2013, 08:25 AM

Not sure Kickstarter could help with getting IPv4 space?

***SpencerUk*** · 08-08-2013, 01:05 PM

The kickstarter to take on the debt..one problem at a time Jody..baby steps haha.

Hippojay · 08-08-2013, 01:51 PM

(02-08-2013 05:37 PM)alec1951 Wrote: So what USP could DR have?

That is the big question. They should probably push:

Local pride/local company. Although Plusnet do it, but this is really the only unique point they have at the moment.
Faster Speeds? Could DR push the network a little further and try and provide a really unique selling point and some newspaper inches. BT are far more conservative and risk adverse and therefore would be slower to respond.
Bundled service? This is where DR falls down. A lot of the big providers are now pushing TV/Triple play to make their service sticky. Smaller providers aren't going to be able to match these.
Price - like it or not, broadband is almost (if not already) a commodity and therefore needs to be priced as such. If DR can't match the prices then it makes it more difficult to make the other points relavent. BT charge 26ukp for a 76mbit line, origin 35ukp. I'm afraid the former is going to win in 90 times out of 100.

Nutty34 · 08-08-2013, 01:55 PM

Also DR ISP charge to install, whereas BT do not. They have a lot of work to do to make this a viable proposition in my eyes.

08-08-2013, 02:04 PM

Install cost is a big factor, It almost put me off moving to DR, the lack of a deal did too.

Nutty34 · 08-08-2013, 02:27 PM

I will be moving as soon as my contract is up, if not before unless pricing falls in to line with the competition.

***SpencerUk*** · 08-08-2013, 03:16 PM

Isn't Openreach testing out self installs at the moment for FTTC?.

What this network needs is a major supplier to get onboard which should then bring the prices down, but then as a result, it may break Origin, LittleBigOne/Chess, Ask4's business model.

Sadly, I can't think of any ISP who would actually want this. I mean O2 isn't in the fixed line business, Sky has its own LLU as does TalkTalk..Virgin Media don't really need it