Digital Region 'May' Be Sold Off

In reference to www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/exclusive_tro...:

Published on Sat Sep 17 06:00:00 BST 2011

AN embattled £100m taxpayer-funded scheme to offer next- generation internet access to much of South Yorkshire could be sold off to the private sector when Yorkshire Forward is wound up next year.

Phil Coppard, chief executive of Barnsley Council and one of the driving forces behind the South Yorkshire Digital Region project, has told the Yorkshire Post it �may be no bad thing� if the 50 per cent shareholding in the scheme currently owned by the regional development agency is sold off to a private telecoms firm.

No surprises there then!

Not sure if it'll be a good or bad thing, I presume even with a fire sale of RDA assets.. the local councils will still own 50% of the network?

My guess is though if there's a party interested in buying the network as a whole even at knock down prices they'll be looking to offload their 'share' too..

Not sure where that'll leave Thales contractually...

I'd be really happy if telefonica/o2/be group snapped the network up then I wouldn't need to switch ISP's. I'm happy with the peering on o2's network, just want a boost in my speeds.

Just enabled their 1000th cabinet, but no news on customer numbers. We have seen a few post, and others looking into it.

Alas it overlaps Openreach FTTC and VM Cable in some areas.

I hope this isn't another sign of what seems to have become an endemic problem with state investment in this country over the last decade, namely the absence of a robust business plan. (And it's not a fossil, but a living thing!). Roll-out, especially when funded by grants or a sugar-daddy investor, is the easy bit; it's standing on your own two feet afterwards that's hard.

The broadband business, more than most, is a changing world and you have to look further and faster than the competition to survive. BT, despite all its faults, looks ahead. The "what if?" (it doesn't happen as we think) is always the acid test Too many companies (small and large, in all fields) in my view think you can run a business by trashing others or that customers owe them a living. You can't and they don't.

(That PRINCE2 methodology, much beloved of the civil service I believe, followed to the letter with its grandiose titles and convoluted proformas like a medieval alchemy, remains in my view the worst means of getting anything done!).

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Sep-11 15:56:32)

Theres several reasons why they're not doing well, advertising is a large part of it. They should have partnered with a top tier ISP from the very start.

I commented over on ispreview about the fact in nearly 2 years we had tried a number of times to make contact with the scheme to see if we could partner up or buy wholesale access into the network. We never had 1 call or email back in return.

It was interesting that within a few hours of my openly honest comments we had a call into our offices, asking for myself, from a very eager, slightly blunt (maybe a tad rude thinking about it) fella, calling from Digital Region, that claimed the sell off being a load of rubbish.

Not really sure what to believe at this point. There must be some foundation if various media outlets are picking up news, yet claims of denial from people within.

Not sure myself to be honest, I've been told the Councillor concerned was basically quoted out of context.. and reading the article for myself, the headline is a bit of a 'spin' on what was actually said as far as I can tell...

The journo (and paper) concerned has had a bit of history reporting nothing but negative stories regarding the project..

I think DR are right, for now! But the point is that the present Government intends to disband the Regional Development Agencies, and that's been the form of recent political history - initiatives come and go in a very short timescale. Govenment bodies aren't long-term investors (and really I don't think they can be - it ties up their resources). Something perhaps to remember for those that cry out for government-owned infrastructure!

Think this will go the way of the Rediffusion network.

Nobody will buy a network with no customers which is half owned by the council.

Virgin have a network. Openreach have a network. All the big players will be able to reach this area without the need for massive investment and the council as your business partner.

The drains will be coming up on this massive waste of taxpayers money sooner or later.

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-Sep-11 21:01:32)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Just enabled their 1000th cabinet, but no news on customer numbers. We have seen a few post, and others looking into it.

Alas it overlaps Openreach FTTC and VM Cable in some areas.

I live on an estate in the western edge of Sheffield and it seems that I shall have a long wait for FTTC because our pcp cabinet is located much nearer to the exchange than it is to us.
I was very surprised to see that the nearby suburb of Crookes now has a BT FTTC cabinet at one side of each pcp cabinet and a DR FTTC cabinet at the other. Do Digital Region really think that they can find customers in an area already served by BT when their ISP prices are more expensive than BT?
Daft I call it
towdgeezer.

The intersting thing here to note is that the DR came about with european money, Not government or tax payers money.
As such there will be in place articles regarding what will happen when YF is wound up.

Yes, its assets will vest in the sponsoring government department for Business Skill & Innovation. So it'll be another thing for the Deputy PM to threaten to break the coalition over . . .

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-Sep-11 10:39:03)

The intersting thing here to note is that the DR came about with european money, Not government or tax payers money.

so where does "European money" come from - orchards in the south of Italy ?

Wikipedia says :-

£44 million grant funding from Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund.
£40 million loan funding from Yorkshire Forward and the 4 local authorities.
£10 million loan funding from the project technology partner, Thales Group.

By taking some EU funding though projects tend to have to abide by certain sets of rules, exactly how they apply in the rumoured situation I don't know.

With BDUK so close to doing the same thing i.e. projects like this that are bound to end up with overlaps to pure commercial projects, it is a worry.

As I said in the news last week, some other countries have let firms build it, and the worry about wholesale has been tackled later.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

some other countries have let firms build it, and the worry about wholesale has been tackled later.

How sensible for a new born service. You learn to walk by taking one step at a time before you run.