Benefits - Digital Region Broadband runs a newly built network designed for high-performance, even at busy times. Many companies offer 'high-speed' broadband although historically, the speed of your connection has always been dictated by the distance of your premises from your local BT exchange. Digital Region broadband infrastructure is very different, as the broadband is delivered from a Digital Region hub which in most cases should be no more than 1/2 a mile from your location. For our heavy business users, this means the network performs consistently throughout the day.

You will be supported out of our Sheffield-based, multi-skilled service desk. There is no outsourcing of support to off-shore call centres. we provide regular investment in staff training to ensure skills remain up to date accross the team. Furthermore, multi-skilled support means a single point of contact. No more being passed from one department to another or having to try and work out for yourself who to speak to. Our agents are trained to handle a variety of issues themselves there and then, both technical and commerical.

Choose a quality connection today, from the business broadband experts.

Broadband Speeds FAQ

Q: What is the speed of the Digital Region service?

A: The advertised speed of Digital Region services is "upto 40Mbps" but what does this actually mean? Our network topology is based on FTTC (Fibre-to-the-cabinet) services, which means your business broadband is driven from a local hub which should never be more than 500 metres from your premises. This translates to estimated service of 25Mbps actual download rate, you could receive 40Mbps, but the actual figure cannot be confirmed until your service is installed.

Q: Why is the advertised speed not always what you get?

A: All broadband companies use the same BT copper lines to deliver service, most technologies used today are known as rate-adaptive: meaning, rather than offering a fixed bandwidth or speed, within the first week of service they will settle on the highest stable rate your line can support.. The rate that your line settles on will be affected by factors such as the length odistance between your premises and the Digital Region Broadband node, the quality of the copper, and the amount of local electromagnetic interference, which usually don't change from one broadband provider to another. Usually this means that the speed of your local line will be very likely to remain the same from one provider to another regardless of the speed advertised, although our products will be dramatically faster as they are not served from the exchange (expalined above)

It should also be noted that with rate-adaptive broadband this speed can change: for example, an increase in local interference can sometimes mean that a line drops down in speed, although it should also eventually return to the previous speed if the interference returns to previous levels.

Digital Region has conducted successful trials of VDSL2+ technology and continues to roll it out as a the standard option. VDSL 2+ will guarantee increase of a customer's speed.

Q: How does the fibre-optic technology in FTTC help?

A: Fibre-optics offers much less signal degradation over distance, as well as being less sensitive to interference, your business traffic will pass over fibre optic cables from your local Digital Region node directly to the core of our network. We do not contend traffic on our core. 

Q: Your service is advertised in Megabits - What is the difference between bits and bytes?

A: Computers talk natively in binary code – a stream of ones and zeros (eg : 0011100011). A ‘bit’ is a single one or zero, and line speeds tend to be measured in terms of how many of these bits can be transmitted in a second (so 8 megabits is 8 million ones or zeros each second). File sizes and disk capacities however, tend to be measured in ‘bytes’, which are simply blocks of eight (8) bits. So if you want to go from bytes to bits you must multiply by eight, and if you want to go from bits to bytes you must divide by eight. Your line speed is advertised in mega (or millions of) bits per second, but your usage limit is measured in Giga (or billions of) bytes per second. However, this is only approximate, as broadband networks add overhead so only very crude calculations of expected download time can be made using these basic numbers.

Location: South Yorkshire permalink

The newly built South Yorkshire Digital Region network uses fibre optic technology to deliver downloads speeds up to 40Mbps to Sheffield businesses, guaranteed at at minimum speed of 15Mbps. This figure beats the average in Oxford which is 14.5Mbps.

Click here for further info

Location: Sheffield permalink

Over 200 voters in Sheffield were turned away from polling stations in Ranmoor last night.

Returning officer John Mothersole apologised to voters who were turned away, saying: "We got this wrong."

He said the turnout had been "phenomenal... probably the highest turnout in 30 years".

Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites have had an unprecedented impact on the UK general election and this is an indicator of things to come. Facebook have heavily promoted the election and this has generated record levels of voting in the student community, crystallised in Sheffield last night. Ranmoor has a high student population due to the Sheffield University halls of residence.

Next generation networks such as Digital Region could help prevent situations such as this occurring by delivering technologies to enable online voting. Currently you can only register to vote online, the actual voting process still has to be undertaken by post or by attending a local polling station.

On-line voting has been implemented in European countries and the USA since 2003.
On-line voting would deliver the following benefits:
• Accessibility. Casting on-line votes would prevent voters being turned away in situations such as the events which occurred in Sheffield last night.
• Convenience. People are increasingly using theinternet for transactions, and through its UK Online project, the Government aims to deliver all its services to citizens online to ensure "Digital Britain" becomes a reality.
• It may particularly appeal to younger voters (among whom voter turnout has tended to be particularly low). Last nights election has demonstrated  the impact the internet can have.
• Online voting systems can identify if voters attempt to vote for the wrong number of candidates and notify them accordingly (this was a problem with punch cards in the 2000 elections in the USA).
• Online voting could allow more information to be available about candidates and their policies. .
• On-line voting could reduce the expense involved in setting up and staffing poll sites.

The Digital Region Network delivers the quality and integrity required to guarantee critical information transfer, such as on-line voting.

To take advantage of the network built by your local authorities in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield please call us on 0114 299 7260 or click here to email us.

Location: South Yorkshire permalink