Yorkshire's Digital Region broadband scheme hit by spiralling costs

Despite the fact Digital Region "theoretically" is an excellent network, with far more bandwidth to spare than the competition, the general public still know nothing about it. They do not understand contention ratios and are so used to the "up to 24Mbit" packages that really deliver 3Mbit, they do not understand the difference with the new fibre service.

At £50 connection fee then £17.50/month for the basic 24Mbit package on Origin broadband, on paper it does not compare favourably to the competition. Now in reality in my area the cheaper services like TalkTalk will deliver only 3Mbit with Origin easily providing the full 24Mbit, but on paper Origin just seems more expensive for the same thing. Its a losing battle trying to convince people otherwise, they just see that £50 connection fee and look the other way.

There is far too much reliance on power users promoting the network and we can't convince people that a £50 connection fee is a worthwhile investment when the likes of TalkTalk and BT are doing it for free.

It costs money to make money and arguably the biggest mistake Digital Region made was not to factor free connection into the budget to get customers on the network as quickly as possible. They wrongly assumed the ISPs would take that financial hit and now they are suffering the consequences.

I really hope they do recover from this as the service I get from my Origin Broadband connection on Digital Region is far and above more reliable with consistent top speeds when I need them, compared to the likes of BT Infinity or Virgin Media.

However little seems to have improved in the last year when it comes to actually promoting the network, so its no shocker they continue to lose money at an alarming rate.

I agree with the previous comment. We live in rural Penistone, and the fastest we could get with our previous ISP was 6Mbps. We have been with Origin for around 4 months, and consistently get speeds of 23 Mpbs. There is absolutely no contest - I absolutely would go with Digital Broadband every time.

The Councils need to use their marketing powers (regular newsletters, articles in news-hungry local papers) to push the benefits of Digital Boradband and, yes, they should agree to stump up the £50 joining fees. It is a cost in the short term but, in the medium- to long-term, will prove such a great return on investment. Given the parlous position of the scheme at present, what have they got to lose!