Digital Region Offers FREE Broadband Connections to South Yorkshire UK Firms

The publicly owned and cash strapped Digital Region network, which delivers superfast broadband services to 80% of homes and businesses in South Yorkshire, has confirmed that its ISPs (e.g. ASK4, Origin Broadband, Fluidata etc.) can now offer a free connection to new business customers in the area.

The network, which could soon have a new owner, hopes to boost the region’s economy and its own financial viability by encouraging more business customers to join the service. Indeed one of Digital Regions biggest problems has been attracting enough subscribers to make the network economically self-sustainable.

Only yesterday one of the network’s ISPs, Origin Broadband, also began offering free installation and three months half price service to help attract more customers. It remains to be seen how successful such promotions will be.

David Cowell, CEO of Digital Region Ltd, said:

“The network is world-class, bringing internet speeds that can give local businesses a huge competitive advantage, both nationally and internationally. We hope to encourage businesses to connect to superfast broadband, years before many areas across the country will be able to.

Today’s fast connections are tomorrow’s slow. With average speeds of 37Mbps and potentially up to 100Mbps available now, companies in this region can get ahead, by accessing technology that is only possible through these superfast speeds.

This has the potential to act as a catalyst to help the region’s companies out of the economic downturn. Without it, businesses risk getting left behind.”

It’s worth pointing out that the recent introduction of the new Service Exchange Platform (SEP) means that local homes and businesses should technically now have a choice of over 50 ISPs, including several big name providers.

But Digital Region’s latest offer still only applies to its own ISPs and indeed their website provides no clear information on how people can use the SEP to get a service via anybody else.