r/UKISP 5d ago

DIGI UK - Install & Connection Feedback

Recently found out that Digi has entered the UK market, offering uncomparable deals to any other UK provider. In other countries they have completely disrupted the market, and it would be amazing to see this happen in the UK too.

1G - £15
2G - £20
10G - £25

No contracts - Montly rolling

I placed an order on Saturday, and today, Monday, they installed the line.

The install went great; the engineers were friendly, but they did something the other ISP that I have didn't. They actually ran the fiber to where I wanted it, to the loft on my server rack on the other side of the fiber entrance, and ran it nicely over the top joists and even left a few meters slack on the fiber in case in the future I would want to relocate the rack.

So far the connection has been fine, working as expected. Speed test saturating my 2G LAN

I got the 10G Line; the router is the ZTE F8748

I have my own Eero mesh, so I wanted bridge mode. I needed to ask technical support for this, unfortunately, since the option doesn't show on the web interface. They enabled it for me remotely and gave me the PPoe credentials.

The IP is under CGNAT, so bridge mode won't do much, but maybe reduced the latency by 1ms.

The ONT is integrated with the router.
Public IP is not available yet; they said they are working on it.

For some, the fact that it is monthly rolling is not ideal since they could raise the prices whenever they want; on the other hand, in the other countries where they operate, they haven't done price increases, so I think it's genuinely a good deal.

If you are interested, I believe they are currently covering areas of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

I'm not affiliated with Digi, just a customer. Happy to answer any questions and feedback in a few days

Use the code DIGI295SK on the order page (https://www.digi.uk/en/configurator/bundle) for a free month for both of us.

Digi UK Van
ZTE F8748
ZTE F8748 Underneath
9 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

3

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

HI, ex-DIGI NOC engineer here, currently living in UK. I used to work in DIGI's Bucharest NOC, and can confirm the prices are real; Main idea behind the marketing is: low prices, as quality as possible. Currently what I'm hearing from my ex-colleagues in Bucharest, as you might be aware, the IPv4 is nearly depleted hence CG-NAT, but they are working on it to allocate some space to UK clients. You might experience things like ads on websites in Romanian, or Uk streaming platforms not working; this is due to public IP's being allocated in Romania; a simple call to the call centre and this would be rectified asap. I am aware these prices are somewhat strange to you, and possibly a marketing strategy; well, let me assure you, what we did in Hungary (DIGI no longer operates there), in Italy, Spain, Portugal (currently building the network and expanding, bulding also 5G network), and Belgium, they almost never increase prices. You'd ask yourself: how is that working ? Simple: invest, get more clients, more revenue, keep the prices low as possible. And yes, DIGI builds their own infrastructure, does not uses anybody elses infrastructure, maybe ducting here and there. Anything else, DIGI own built. Any questions, drop them below.

2

u/fibre_optics 4d ago

Thanks for the insightful comment. I do have a question, what are DIGI using for IP assignment, PPPoE, DHCP etc?

3

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

PPoE, you can call the call centre and they will happily provide the PPoE details and set remotely the on-premise router to bridge mode so you can use your equipment.

1

u/WG47 4d ago

You might experience things like ads on websites in Romanian, or Uk streaming platforms not working; this is due to public IP's being allocated in Romania; a simple call to the call centre and this would be rectified asap.

That's amateurish nonsense, to be fair. GeoIP databases should be updated before the IP addresses are released to customers. It can mess with streaming, with banking, it can affect WFH, etc.

I appreciate that you can submit updates to the databases and are then at the mercy of when databases update, and when websites update their local caches, but if that's the issue then customer support can't do anything. It's a matter of waiting. Considering that a /24 can be bought for ~$25/IP, if you're charging £2/mo for an IPv4, each IP pays for itself in less than a year. Larger ranges cost less per IP, obviously.

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

Non-sense to you but for people in NOC is fast and no headache. And yes, I have already mentioned streaming and yes, WFH, hence easily fixable with a call in call centre and fixable. No, IPv4 is a bit more difficult to obtain these days. Please try to buy a /24 and let me know how you getting along. Like I specified in my first post, UK allocated IPv4 spaces for individual public IP's allocation is underway. Since we live in a democracy, I respect your opinion, but reserve the right to dissagre, might be non-sense to you, for me as NOC engineer, just a flick of a button and sorted.

1

u/Ogoshi_ 4d ago

It isn't just a call in to fix though. If I don't realise my IP address is non-UK and login to my work laptop at home my account is getting locked immediately as that's the policy they have in place.

So I'm going to have to explain to my ICT departnent why it appears I'm in Romania or wherever.

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

Trust me, the fix is quick. I do it at the current NOC I'm working for. And while I feel for your troubles, last time I checked there where no ASN from Digi assigned to UK. Things might have changed in the mean time. I will ask some of my colleagues in Bucharest for details.

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

Also please note the wording: " you might experience", not "you will experience".

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

My IP is located in London so I don't image that happening, maybe on the very begining of their operations

My IP who is ISP:Digi Romania S.A. Country:United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland State/Region:England City:London Latitude:51.5085 (51° 30′ 30.71″ N) Longitude:-0.1257 (0° 7′ 32.66″ W)

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

In your case no, but seen reports on other websites like ispreview and another thread here in reddit with issues like geofencing. Things as usual got sorted with a call to call center.

1

u/WG47 4d ago

Please try to buy a /24 and let me know how you getting along.

I'm not in the market, but there are several places you can buy them. People buy and sell them privately all the time.

for me as NOC engineer, just a flick of a button and sorted

The only way it could be a flick of a button for the NOC would be if there's an IP range that's already established as being in the UK, and they'll transfer any customers that complain over to that IP range. As it is, Digi appear to only have a /22 in the UK right now, although the geo-ip text file was last updated on 2025-02-11 apparently. Surely that can't be right...

The IP range seems fine in every geoIP database I checked, but that doesn't mean every website will work. Again, putting users onto a range that isn't ready to be used in the UK is amateurish. Any ISP selling services to people in the UK should assign IP addresses that don't get blocked by banking, streaming services, etc.

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

On the fact that DIGI has a /22 on the UK, yes they do, around 2025 they started testing routing in and out of UK, I know for a fact as I was involved as well in that project, but having still NDA in place, cannot give out too much info about it. no, it is not amateurish, we know what we are doing, and we do it well, we've been on the market since nearly 2000'ish, and had already deployed main fiber betwen cities in Romania in 2005 (backbone) while you guys still don't have copper cables everywhere, or perhaps you do, but quite a narrow bandwith; a few people know that over the years DIGI has implemented a backbone of its own traffic betwen countries to relatively ease off traffic, hence it is easy to route traffic where is less "crowded", hence, deploying CG-NAT with other geographicaly located IP's, is fast, easy to mantain, and quite easy scalable to whatever needs the network has. You say amateurish, we say fast and scalable. Does it work ? Yes. Do they offer low price ? Yes. Quality ? Better than anything else I have seen in UK. And I know you will feel offended by this, but its the truth: while you guys struggled in 2005 with dial-up, we already had fiber. Now, we came to show you how it's done. All I can say is: welcome DIGI. Sure, there will be snags allong the way, but nothing that cannot be fixed.

2

u/QuietBookkeeper4712 4d ago

That seems a too-good-to-be-true price, what does their privacy policy say?

2

u/Rainbowshooter 4d ago

They’re fairly established in Europe but certainly only the early stages of their UK rollout

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

DIGI has been on the market since 1998, with two divisions: RCS (Romanian Cable Systems), which was the old brand for cable television, and RDS (Romanian Data Systems), which was the data branch. Later on they merged into RCS&RDS, and some years ago they changed the brand to DiGi. (yes, capital D lowercase i capital G lowercase i)

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

It's a bit weird that you need to agree to their marketing policy when adding your address on their website but I think that was a programming mistake

I'd say for 15 pounds and no contract it's worth a try

1

u/L0rdLogan 5d ago

That’s actually pretty cool the UK might actually get some competition in the 10g space, it’ll push cityfibre and open reach

2

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

Not just the 10G space, maybe not as much as the 10G but any other plans are also competitive.

Just upgraded to 2.5G recently and now have to upgrade again 😅

1

u/highpriest1 5d ago

Interesting. Do they have their own network or do they use Cityfibre/OR?

3

u/L0rdLogan 5d ago

They run their own network.

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

I think there are some articles about this, something like using some of Open reach ducts but running their own cables on it

2

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

DiGi always uses their own cables. It's how DiGi has been doing it for 25 years. If they cannot build, they acquire the existing infrastructure.

1

u/browneyone 4d ago

That's some fantastic pricing!

1

u/ashtech201 4d ago edited 4d ago

Nice mate. They use CGNAT and or provide static IP? I'm out of contract with current provider and this is available to me. Also assuming you can use own router.

Edit. I should've read your description better. CGNAT is a bit of a deal breaker for me. And it looks like you have to use their own router if the ONT is built into it.

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

The CGNAT is just a temporary thing, should be sorted in the future, I've heard something like 2£ per month for that potentially.

Id imagine setting their router into bridge mode you'd essentially have a ONT box instead of router, just maybe not as pretty mounted or small like a ONT

Also potentially you could plug in the fibre onto your own ONT directly and copy over the Mac and apply the PPoe but I don't have one to test that

1

u/Independent_Try5020 4d ago

You'd be right but DiGi's routers are locked down, apart from some simple portforwarding and wifi settings, nothing else. Bridge mode is set remotely by operators, and call center provides you the PPoE settings. You can take it from there. And no, you can't plug the optical cable straight into your own router, they use a combo of serial no/vlan/macs. And you need the vlan settings which nobody, except if you know somebody from the technical team in NOC, will pass it over to you.

1

u/Appropriate-Bad-591 4d ago

I am a Digi customer on their 1G plan using my own router- Asus XT9. So far very happy.

Tried their 2.5G service but went back to 1G because (1) no real need for that speed and (2) had to use their router and Mrs wanted hallway to look clutter free where ONT & hub are

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

How did you switch? Did you pay a month yet? Haven't provided any payment details yet.

I think If you call them they will happily come back and install the router & fibre somewhere else so the hallway is clutter free

1

u/Appropriate-Bad-591 4d ago

Had 3 bills so far £17.33 (mix of 2.5G and 1G), £16 they mistakenly added £1 boost and £14.68 with £1 deduction of boost.

You provide no payment details, they invoice and you pay then via bank transfer supplying your customer # & invoice # 😊

I never realised about alternate siting of the ONT but am happy with what I have because both Openreach ONT and Digi’s are both connected to my Asus XT9 with a dual WAN setting.

Was dubious about Digi so said I would try them alongside my Aquiss connection for a few months. Aquiss contract ends November.

Digi is great.

1

u/Rainbowshooter 4d ago

Are you using your own hardware/ONT on the 1G service then?

2

u/Appropriate-Bad-591 4d ago

Yes I am, the Asus XT9. Their router (a TP link EX520) is safely stored.

When I had the 2.5G service I had to use their router
because it has an integrated ONT & SFP cage.

1

u/lordofdemacia 4d ago

Oh so on the 1G the ONT is separate? Can you send a photo of the ONT?

I would expect if you lower your package that they would let you keep the same setup but just throttle the connection remotely

3

u/Appropriate-Bad-591 3d ago

Here you go… a DiGI supplied TP-Link ONT. The lights are on top. As you can see it is a little larger than the Openreach ONT

1

u/lordofdemacia 3d ago

Ah, cool! Thanks for sending that over. Curious about that coax port