Rotherham internet provider folds

A ROTHERHAM-based internet service provider with around 250 clients has stopped trading

Customers of RiPWIRE, which was based at Fusion@Magna, will have their broadband connections maintained by the Sheffield-based firm Ask4.

The company ceased trading on February 1 and on Sunday a short letter to customers was posted on the internet, explaining the current situation.

Both RiPWIRE and Ask4 use the network set up by the £90 million Digital Region project—with funding from the four South Yorkshire local authorities as well as Yorkshire Forward and the European Union—which created the first superfast broadband network covering the whole of a UK region.

Ask4 managing director Jonathan Burrows said: “We are in the process of contacting RiPWIRE’s customers by telephone and email—their internet service has not been closed—and we will become legally responsible for all contracts and will become the broadband provider.

“We aim to keep disruption to an absolute minimum.”

RiPWIRE could not be contacted for a comment, but it is thought that the company had faced a number of challenges over the availability of services and failed to attract enough customers to be viable.

Ask4 will take over RiPWIRE’s Digital Region client base but not its other operations, which included wireless and mobile telephone services, as well as some broadband services which were not connected to Digital Region.

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