Todays Yorkshire Post Re Digital Region

[SpencerUk]

Now we all know how negative Yorkshire Post has been with Digital Region (typical West Yorkshire vs South Yorkshire crap), but they got in pretty quick.

Don't say I've never given you anything..just saved you 70p haha.

   

   

   

[FlipFamous]

Typical newspaper for you.

[SpencerUk]

Interesting quote there of;

"I am led to believe there are other providers ready to take that on" and thats in relation to cabling. That to me indicates that people on Digital Region connections (incl my backup line and parents line) will still be on FTTC probably when this is all over.

[FlipFamous]

That is an interesting quote!

And I saved 70p.

Best deal of the day I would say.

[alexatkin]

(16-08-2013 10:53 AM)FlipFamous Wrote:  Typical newspaper for you.

I don't see anything inherently wrong with the reporting. At least they are quoting Steve Houghton who points out that actually Digital Region HAS accomplished its original purpose, even if not in the way intended and certainly a lot more costly.

Its easy to complain about the cost of Digital Region, because there is no way to measure the amount of money the project has brought to the region. We can't be sure BT would have left us behind, many will argue they wouldn't (despite previous evidence to the contrary).

Although its funny that he talks as if we don't KNOW why Digital Region failed, I mean it can't have been the fact nobody knew it existed - right? Or that most people do not understand that they NEED faster broadband in the first place? No, can't be that. The whole "it depended on big ISPs selling the service" should have been obvious, you get those sorts of deal in place BEFORE spending the money. Had they gotten the likes of Talk Talk on board BEFORE laying the fibre, all of this could have been avoided. It seems instead they counted on selling the service at a premium, which should have been obvious that would be a foolish approach if you want high adoption as quickly as possible.

Quote:quickly eclipsed by rival schemes

It may have been eclipsed in user numbers by rivals but it sure as hell hasn't been by scope of coverage in South Yorkshire.

I wouldn't be surprised if Infinity has less than 3000 customers in South Yorkshire. The difference being that is by a huge company who can afford to take the hit in the short term as more people slowly come over. That and people WILL come over eventually, because they actually bloody advertise.

How can we possibly expect the management of the project to be held accountable for their actions though? Its not like the bankers have been held accountable for the financial crisis, they are carrying on as before. No big businessman is ever held accountable, least of all MPs and bankers, the very people would should be MOST accountable.

If anything you could argue that the government should never have allowed the project to go ahead in the first place when the whole thing depended on 25% uptake per cabinet with no advertising budget.

I do still believe the knock on effect of Digital Region is overall a good one and that it pushed BT to take action, but its impossible to prove either way and if it was worth the cost in tax payer money is another argument entirely. Hopefully somebody will buy off the network for peanuts so that it doesn't all go to waste.

[Nutty34]

For me the only viable option moving forward would be for BT wholesale to purchase the DR fibre. This would in turn open up the network to all of the larger ISP. I can only guess that BT saw the £27 m loan from the EU as non negotiable and BYES were prepared to negotiate, hense the reason BYES were chosen over BT as a preferred bidder in the first place.

[alexatkin]

I assume that the whole network doesn't have to go to a single company, which could be interesting.

Not much point in BT buying cabinets right next to its own, unless they are expecting to run out of capacity in their own some time soon. So I wonder if Ask4 or maybe even Origin might pick up a few surplus?

[FlipFamous]

I meant typical newspaper 'got in pretty quick'

Either way, its early days.. I'm not worrying yet.

Origin seem pretty confident in their statements and they haven't screwed me over yet, they've always been spot on with customer service so I'll give them the benefit and wait for more news.

I would imagine nothing is going to change in the short term. It takes quite a bit of organising and planning when there trying to shut a network down.

[alexatkin]

Indeed. I think the suggestion that it could take up to a year is quite plausible.

However, Origin specifically need to get their plan across sooner than the rest. As they are ONLY supplying service on Digital Region they need a way to get new subscribers during this period and discourage current ones from jumping ship in the meantime. So I think we may know something about what is happening there fairly soon.

That said, their latest tweet is interesting:

Quote:Hi All, If your service is delivered by Digital Region please find our press release at: https://portal.origin-broadband.co.uk/press

So they have customers NOT delivered by Digital Region? First thing I heard about it.

I can only assume this is people getting ADSL2+ from Origin, but until now I had thought that it too was supplied via Digital Region kit in the exchange, as nobody had said otherwise.

[FlipFamous]

I did read someone on this forum wanting adsl2 but I never gave it a thought as to how it was provided.

The combination of me not wanting to jump to conclusions and Origin seeming pretty confident has me relaxed...and the fact that a in a little over a week im on holiday relaxing may help haha!