Customers of South Yorkshire ISP RiPWiRE, which suddenly ceased trading on 1st February 2012 after experiencing a host of "commercial and technical issues" with the financially troubled Digital Region network (original news), have been acquired by Sheffield-based Ask4 (one of the other Digital Region ISPs).

In a press release, Ask4 confirms that its management had been working with RiPWiRE over last weekend to reach agreement on a deal that will now see all of RiPWiRE's Digital Region customers transferred to Ask4 without interruption to service.

Ask4 also confirmed that they are currently arranging to transition RiPWiRE’s former customers to the new network and will be making contact with them over the coming days.


Customers will no doubt want to know what kind of package they can expect from Ask4 and whether or not they'll be forced to pay a higher price or possibly even a lower one. We hope to have some answers on this soon. Ask4 has been operating since 2000 and now claims to provide services to more than 70,000 users around the UK.

Meanwhile onlookers will be keeping a close eye on the Digital Region project, which is already under serious financial strain. RiPWiRE might not be the first retail end ISP to suffer.

UPDATE 09:25am

Ask4 has informed ISPreview.co.uk that the service, speed, contract terms etc. are all maintained as they were previously. For example, if you have 6 months left on your current contract, then the same applies. An Ask4 spokesperson clarified, "the simple message here is that nothing changes".

UPDATE 2:13pm

A useful Ask4 Migration FAQ has now been setup by SpencerUk.