The Sheffield company is one of three finalists for the University Business Partner of the Year Award in the inaugural CUBO Uliving awards, recognising the great practices, support and innovation that make for an excellent student experience.

Ask4 provides superfast fibreoptic broadband and associated services such as IPTV, gaming and backup to students at universities across the UK at speeds in excess of 100Mb/s.

The award winners will be announced by former British and Irish Lions and Scotland rugby captain Gavin Hastings at the CUBO Summer Conference gala dinner, to be held in the grand setting of the Playfair Library at Edinburgh University on Wednesday, June 20.

Oliver Riddle, Business Development Director at Ask4, commented: “it’s hugely satisfying to be see Ask4 on a shortlist of three for this award.

“We are a rapidly growing business and to be recognised in this way is testament to the guys in Support and Customer Service. We look forward to the awards in June.”

CUBO (College and University Business Officers) is the professional association for senior managers in higher education whose responsibilities include the strategic planning, management, administration and development of residential portfolios, catering and retail operations and commercial income generation from business and leisure tourism, including the management of year-round conference and training centres.

Ask4 will be exhibiting at CUBO ’12 at Edinburgh University, from June 20 to 22.

For the second year running, the Sheffield company is a finalist in the Internet Services Providers’ Association awards.

ASK4 has been nominated in the prestigious Customer Choice category of the ISPA Awards – and now the company is depending on its customers to propel it to victory!

As one of 14 entrants in the hotly contended Customer Choice section, ASK4 needs its many users throughout the country to tell the ISPA why they think ASK4 is the nation’s finest when it comes to supporting its customers.

Voting is quick and easy – simply log on and go to http://ispa.thinkbroadband.com/vote/

And by taking part in the vote there’s even a chance to win two tickets to the glittering black tie awards ceremony at London’s Sheraton Park Lane Hotel on July 3.

ASK4 chairman Jonathan Hudson commented: “I am delighted that ASK4 have been nominated for the ISPA’s for the 2nd year in a row. By delivering customer benefits such as average hold times of under 10 seconds for our UK based support centre and offering instant connections in our fibre connected buildings, I believe that we are again leading the way for ISP’s in the UK, as we did over a decade ago by pioneering fibre to the premises.”

Simon brings with him a wealth of experience in internet services with an impressive background in the ISP industry, starting with UUNET and continuing with PlusNet and most recently with Griffin Internet.

Ask4 have brought in Simon to give the appropriate focus and continue to improve upon the level of support Ask4 is renowned for in the increasingly demanding student accommodation arena.

Simon says “It’s great to join a company with such a fantastic reputation as Ask4 and I’m looking forward to being able to help the business continue to grow and to champion the customer within the organisation”.

As a consequence of the challenging economic environment and the well-­‐publicised issues with the Digital Region network, the management of RiPWiRE made the decision to close the business at the end of last week. Ask4’s management have worked with RiPWiRE over the weekend to reach agreement on a deal that sees all of RiPWiRE’s Digital Region customers transferred to Ask4 without interruption to service. Ask4 are currently arranging to transition RiPWiRE’s former customers to the Ask4 network and will be making contact with them over the coming days.

Ask4’s Managing Director, Jonathan Burrows, confirmed Ask4’s commitment to Digital Region and to ensuring a smooth transition for customers: ‘We have been involved with the Digital Region project since its inception and will continue to work with the Digital Region management team and other stakeholders to develop the service. We believe in offering fantastic service and fanatical support to our customers and are working hard to move RiPWiRE’s customers with as little disruption as possible. It is our goal to move customers to our network with absolutely minimal down-­‐time, and our support staff will be contacting customers directly to make arrangements.’

Notes for Editors
Ask4 was formed in 2000 to provide cutting-­‐edge ISP services to multiple-­‐tenanted buildings using fibre optic connections. Ask4 now provides services to over seventy thousand users across the country over a national network with points of presence in twenty cities.

Ask4’s business services subsidiary, Ask4Business, provides services to over 250 businesses in the South Yorkshire region and operates Sheffield’s only Tier-­‐2 data centre.

For more information please contact Ross Bray:
ross.bray@ask4.com
0844 555 50 50

ASK4 is the leading provider of managed telecommunications services to student accommodation in the UK. After continued growth, the company is moving from its former offices on Milton Street to the offices formerly occupied by Capita Symons, in Sheffield’s prestigious WestOne development. The move was prompted by the need for additional space to accommodate the growing workforce both now and in the future and is accompanied by the opening of ASK4’s new commercial data center in the Don Valley area later this year. ASK4 are a tier-2 ISP and operate their own core network from private data centers in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Sheffield and connect buildings across the UK from Dundee to Exeter including every major city inbetween.

Although the majority of ASK4’s business is centered around delivering service to student halls of residence, ASK4 have, at the request of a number of businesses who were aware of ASK4’s excellent reputation, applied the same technology and dedication to service to business customers as well. This market has its own specialist team within ASK4.

Jonathan Hudson, Chairman of ASK4 commented “We are delighted with our new office space in Sheffield City Centre. At ASK4 we are proud of our association with Sheffield and are delighted to be a part of making Sheffield an internationally recognized leader in technology based industries. We started off as a small business and have enjoyed excellent growth year on year, even in tough economic times. We continually reinvest in technology and people so that we can remain at the forefront of the industry and continue to bring prosperity and employment to the region.”