Английская Википедия:Digital Region
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use dmy datesШаблон:Use British English Шаблон:Infobox project Digital Region, also stylised digital region, was a project in South Yorkshire set up to establish a high-speed next-generation 'Superfast Broadband' network in the specific region of northern England, first seeded in Шаблон:Start date and age,[1] with 97% population coverage expected by the end of 2012.[2] It was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom (UK). The project was co-ordinated by Digital Region Limited (DRL), owned by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) (having taken over the role from the now defunct Yorkshire Forward), and the four local authorities that encompass South Yorkshire; these being Sheffield City Council,[2] Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.[3] Thales Transport and Security was chosen to design, build and operate the project on behalf of Digital Region Limited (who will manage the project),[2] registered in England no: 5586340, registered office: Electric Works, Sheffield Digital Campus, Sheffield, S1 2BJ.
On 15 August 2013, it was announced that the project would close, due to the ongoing financial issues it has been facing.[4][5]
Funding
The hope of the project was that it would eventually become self-financing, however loans and grants of over £90 million[3] were used to enable the project to start. The project received:
- £44 million grant funding from Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF);[2]
- £40 million loan funding from Yorkshire Forward and the four local authorities;[2]
- £10 million loan funding from the project technology partner, Thales Transport and Security.[2]
Due to low take-up,[1] the project suffered a very significant operating loss; not even taking into account the substantial interest payments due on loans for capital construction.
Coverage
The project area covered the city, towns and villages of Sheffield,[2] Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham. It was expected to serve around 1.3 million people, 546,000 homes, and 40,000 businesses.[6]
Closure
Whilst the build of the project was substantially completed, it had a low take-up. None of the six major consumer ISPs were signed up to resell services on the network, and after a number of significant startups on the Digital Region network enjoyed success with Superfast Fibre in South Yorkshire, the incumbent telephone operator British Telecom (BT), deployed its own fibre-based broadband services, attracting many more users due to an existing user base upgrading, and the wide variety of ISPs available (PlusNet, Sky, TalkTalk, and BT).[7]
The Digital Region network closed finally on 15 August 2014,[8] with many of its resellers closing at that point. Origin Broadband acquired many of the customers who were on the Digital Region network,[9] and succeeded the defunct network with their own bespoke ADSL2+ network,[10] while other ISPs went on to be resellers for other network operators.
References
External links
- Digital Region — official website
Шаблон:South Yorkshire Шаблон:Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom Шаблон:Authority control
