RM Internet Price Increase

[Wave9_Lee]

I am looking to move from RM. I have had countless quotes that come in cheaper compared to what we are paying now.

 

For me, the main thing that has made me want to change is the lack of support. Sometimes I have to wait multiple days for a firewall change, or even just an IP reservation.

 

Forgive the biased response, but 100% agree with this - I understand the price pressures schools are under, but it's so important when considering (any) services to look at response times for simple changes as well as issues etc. Regular comms/updates about the issue, and increasingly visibility about what is actually happening on your network. To meet the price needs of school customers, some suppliers race to the bottom, but then can't invest in infrastrcuture, people, processes to provide the service that should be expected. No supplier is perfect, but if customers only focus on price, your supplier may end up less perfect than most!

[Olliedawg]

NS Optimum have had a terrible reputation for a long time….

 

I've used them for supply+fitment of IWB's for the past few years, never had an issue.. However can't report on any of their other services

[EssentialRug]

I am looking to move from RM. I have had countless quotes that come in cheaper compared to what we are paying now.

 

For me, the main thing that has made me want to change is the lack of support. Sometimes I have to wait multiple days for a firewall change, or even just an IP reservation.

 

You should be able to make firewall changes yourself through the SafetyNet portal.

 

I agree though, support and replies from our account manager are very hard to come by of late which is really disappointing.

[Guest Guest]

NS Optimum have had a terrible reputation for a long time….

 

We’ve just ordered a pair of servers through them and are in the process of getting some new fibre ran. Been very good so far

[Adam_Exa]

We left RM broadband two years ago. Their renewal price for our 300mb/1gb leased line was more expensive than two new 1gb/1gb lines (with active/passive failover) with Exa networks.

 

To be fair, RM's price included their filtering which we weren't using as we're a Smoothwall school. I asked for a quote without RM filtering and they refused. They have a history of inflexibility and not listening to their customers.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with Exa's services, here to help anyone who wishes to find out more about Exa's products/services.

 

Kind Regards.

 

Adam

[APMerry]

I agree though, support and replies from our account manager are very hard to come by of late which is really disappointing.

 

I had an email last week from who I thought was my account manager, telling me they no longer have account managers at RM.

[Giblets2]

Sounds like bye bye RM - I personally won't miss you one iota!

[ITGuyNW]

I'm surprised RM are still a thing. I remember them sponsoring my high schools first computers in the mid 90s!

[mavhc]

I'm surprised RM are still a thing. I remember them sponsoring my high schools first computers in the mid 90s!

 

They've got a fancy new building

 

[MartinT]

What is it that RM still do? Their hardware was pants and their CC4 was the worst thing you could ever inflict on a network.

[Zoom7000]

What is it that RM still do? Their hardware was pants and their CC4 was the worst thing you could ever inflict on a network.

 

They don't do hardware anymore. They closed that down in 2014. They still install and support CC4 for schools that want it (or don't!) and provide managed service to schools. Two of the secondaries we've taken on at our recently merged trust currently use RM for full SLA and have CC4 networks going back to BSF in 2009.

 

Resistance and fear of change is the loose thread that is keeping them going. Not sure how long that will last though...

[mavhc]

Which begs the question: Why do they need a massive building? They do seem to resell hardware still

[Edu-IT]

Which begs the question: Why do they need a massive building? They do seem to resell hardware still

Is that building a warehouse too for their other businesses like TTS?

[TheHyperTechie]

Has anyone using RM as your internet provider had a weird email about price increase? We've had one but still waiting for more information about the increase. We've already paid for a years contract, so not sure how they think they can just increase the price 6 months into a 1 year contract.

 

Just had an invoice from RM for £80 which is noted as a price increase for broadband at one of my schools. Didn't receive anything previous to this, nice of them to let me know beforehand

[mavhc]

Is that building a warehouse too for their other businesses like TTS?

 

It's apparently Office + distribution centre, there's a lot of doors for lorries at the back.

 

And TTS is there too.

[kennysarmy]

I had an email last week from who I thought was my account manager, telling me they no longer have account managers at RM.

 

Chased for our account managers name to be told that..."this is an unmanaged account."

[PotNoodleTech]

Chased for our account managers name to be told that..."this is an unmanaged account."

 

Lol

 

"this is an ex-customer then"

[Chclark]

They don't do hardware anymore. They closed that down in 2014. They still install and support CC4 for schools that want it (or don't!) and provide managed service to schools. Two of the secondaries we've taken on at our recently merged trust currently use RM for full SLA and have CC4 networks going back to BSF in 2009.

 

Resistance and fear of change is the loose thread that is keeping them going. Not sure how long that will last though...

 

Not much not the company I use to work for, for 11 years. CC4 is end of life now from what I'm hearing they are trying to charge 10k to de-cc4 a network now.

[EssentialRug]

Chased for our account managers name to be told that..."this is an unmanaged account."

 

We were told the same.

 

'Sometimes we have unmanaged accounts for our smaller customers'.

 

We are a group of 7 schools paying a fortune for their services...

[networkmangler]

I was told that RM have no plans for CC4 to support Windows 11. So effectively it's end of life will be 14th October 2025

 

I was told the 2 options are Vanilla or fully cloud. The Vanilla quote I got from them was eye watering and I'm currently talking to 2 other companies

[psydii]

Having participated in migration from RMNET3 ->RM Lan Manager->Connect 1 ->Connect 2, we went vanilla for the roll out of Windows 2000.

 

We also used their RM IfL service from almost day one (prior to that, my first email address was a bit of a kludge via the RM BBS!) I think it was only a decade or so ago that the dns records from our dialup connection were purged. IfL was one of the biggest ISPs in the world, and was at the cutting edge of proxy/filtering fin the nineties.

 

I was very surprised they didn't become one of the global leaders in that space.

 

That said, I've not used them since 2002.

[APMerry]

I was told that RM have no plans for CC4 to support Windows 11. So effectively it's end of life will be 14th October 2025

 

I was told the 2 options are Vanilla or fully cloud. The Vanilla quote I got from them was eye watering and I'm currently talking to 2 other companies

 

Would you mind sharing who else you're talking to? I'm in the same boat and RM vanilla network quote was ridiculous.

[networkmangler]

Would you mind sharing who else you're talking to? I'm in the same boat and RM vanilla network quote was ridiculous.

The quote we got from RM felt like the kind of quote you would give if you didn't want the work i.e that extortionate that no one would except it

 

I don't mind sharing the name of one of the companies, this is based on a recommendation Medhurst Welcome - Medhurst (medhurst-it.com)

 

The other company was recommended by our MAT and I think already support other schools in the MAT, so they will most likely get the job. I don't know much about them yet but when I do I will pass on the details

[foofighterjim]

At my previous employer we made the jump from CC4 to Vanilla with the assistance of https://cse-net.co.uk/

 

Really couldn't fault them, I ended up in hospital during the migration and they drafted in additional resource to help my technician who was suddenly left running the show.

[simpsonj]

I used Softegg to switch from CC3 to Vanilla way back when.