Colonsay: Islanders are going through a confusing and frustrating time at moment due to problems with their Zetnet ISP and the status of the exchange changing. The island got broadband in August of 2004, through the original exchange activate scheme run by the now defunct Hi-Wide. This involved the community in the choice of ISP and they duly chose Zetnet to be the sole provider for the three year duration of the scheme. Back then the company was based in Shetland but has since relocated to Manchester were its computers are, citing financial difficulties and logistics as the reason for the move. The move didn't solve the money problems because in October of last year the company went into administration and re-emerged as Zetnet Ltd. which provides an identical service.
Back in the summer Zetnet found that they had to upgrade the amount of network bandwidth they needed in order to maintain a service to all their customers and because they could not afford the massive hike in costs this would entail, they decided to rent bandwidth from another supplier. For technical reasons this in turn meant they could no longer keep up the EA contract and so they handed it back to BT. Their listing on the availability checker is an error on BTs part.
The new company ceased taking payments from Colonsay customers in October, when financial difficulties forced it into administration and the assets were passed to a new company, Zetnet Ltd (rather than Zetnet Internet Services). The new company resumed taking payments from at least one customer in the new year.
There hasn't been any interuption in the service apart from the occassional outage that all ISPs suffer from. There is a problem with email at the moment, described as "ongoing" by their service status page, due to the company they outsource the service to not having any engineers available over the holiday period.
BT has since installed extra equipment so more islanders can connect to broadband but the exchange is still EA, the only difference between it and the other 147 EA exchanges is that Scotnet is not listed as a supplier. I think this means that it is still not part of the main Scottish Exec. scheme and that BT is the lead and as yet sole EA supplier to it. Any new customers will have to join them.
Existing Zetnet customers considering changing to BT may difficulty doing so because Zetnet is not issueing the necessary MACs number automatically (which makes changing very straight forward) because they don't think BT will allow it to be implemented. (more on MACs here).
Also, like the rest of us, they can't understand why they can't sign up with whoever they like, even though many ISPs appear willing to provide a service but that's just the way it is with EAs.
I also ask myself this; Zetnet's status as sole supplier would have run out in just under two years, at which point the islanders could have signed up with anyone I presume, so, when will the choice of ISP open up for them and the rest of 147 EA exchanges?
Back in the summer Zetnet found that they had to upgrade the amount of network bandwidth they needed in order to maintain a service to all their customers and because they could not afford the massive hike in costs this would entail, they decided to rent bandwidth from another supplier. For technical reasons this in turn meant they could no longer keep up the EA contract and so they handed it back to BT. Their listing on the availability checker is an error on BTs part.
The new company ceased taking payments from Colonsay customers in October, when financial difficulties forced it into administration and the assets were passed to a new company, Zetnet Ltd (rather than Zetnet Internet Services). The new company resumed taking payments from at least one customer in the new year.
There hasn't been any interuption in the service apart from the occassional outage that all ISPs suffer from. There is a problem with email at the moment, described as "ongoing" by their service status page, due to the company they outsource the service to not having any engineers available over the holiday period.
BT has since installed extra equipment so more islanders can connect to broadband but the exchange is still EA, the only difference between it and the other 147 EA exchanges is that Scotnet is not listed as a supplier. I think this means that it is still not part of the main Scottish Exec. scheme and that BT is the lead and as yet sole EA supplier to it. Any new customers will have to join them.
Existing Zetnet customers considering changing to BT may difficulty doing so because Zetnet is not issueing the necessary MACs number automatically (which makes changing very straight forward) because they don't think BT will allow it to be implemented. (more on MACs here).
Also, like the rest of us, they can't understand why they can't sign up with whoever they like, even though many ISPs appear willing to provide a service but that's just the way it is with EAs.
I also ask myself this; Zetnet's status as sole supplier would have run out in just under two years, at which point the islanders could have signed up with anyone I presume, so, when will the choice of ISP open up for them and the rest of 147 EA exchanges?
