Open Letter to Cumbria Customers

Hello Everyone,

You are receiving this email because you are a customer of NextGenUs in Cumbria.

There have been some outrageous and defamatory claims made by Craig Brass (pictured above with Eden District Councillor Joan Raine and local MP Rory "BS" Stewart) as regards the business and I now wish to set the record straight.

Firstly, let me start by apologising for the poor level of service you are currently receiving. Extensive evidence of actions by Brass (namely attempted and actual unauthorised access to computer systems, criminal offences under the Misuse of Computers Act 1990 and as amended) have been reported to Cumbria Police.

NextGenUs and others are happy to assist with any investigations that may arrive.

These actions by Brass in Cumbria are the main reason the network has been shaky to say the least since January getting worse over the last few weeks as Brass grows ever more feral and desperate to undermine the network before it has chance to expand and develop.

As you may be aware, Craig Brass was involved with the NextGenUs project up from October 2010 as a local agent-cum-project manager and latterly Managing Director of NextGenUs Cumbria CIC until this January.

Brass was asked to explain at a meeting in Cumbria with myself and fellow Director Darren Weavers on January 11th 2012 why the minimum 200 customers which Brass had informed the Board of NextGenUs that he had ready for installation before New Year 2012 had only materialised as 28 connected customers.

Brass informed us at this meeting that he was working under the influence of a then suspended employee (and now ex-director) Simon Davison to undermine the business for financial gain.

Brass then freely agreed to call Davison with that conversation to be recorded by my colleague Darren so that evidence of Davison's role and behaviour could be obtained – a copy of relevant parts of that recording is available here which is a blog post that addresses what may be the wider criminal conspiracy attempting to stop the community interest approach to rural broadband pioneered by NextGenUs.

Subsequent to the above meeting Brass was asked to step up to meet his fiduciary responsibilities as a company director – Brass considered his position and quit instead.

In reality, Brass and Davison are two individuals with a very poor understanding of fibre, wireless and core networking technology.

Brass received over £5,000 for travel and telephone and miscellaneous expenses from NextGenUs which are now in the process of being reclaimed from him, as expenses can of course only be claimed for activities undertaken in the interest of the company (whereas it is now crystal clear that Brass had been working all along according to his own deceptive and fraudulent agenda in bad faith), along with significant costs for additional works required by NextGenUs staff and volunteers to put right damages caused by Brass since his departure as a Director on 27 January 2012.

The investment that NextGenUs has made into providing better broadband for Cumbria has already totally nearly £50,000 and the commitment for the fast fibre internet feed from Manchester amounts to over £350,000 over five years.

Whilst Brass, a Walter Mitty character engaged in Munchausens-by-Proxy behaviour at your expense as customers, will doubtless claim the contrary, I would ask you to consider why on Earth NextGenUs, having committed such significant sums into the success of its network in Cumbria would seek to undermine its investment, whereas Brass clearly has a personal financial motivation to attempt to bring the NextGenUs Cumbria network to its knees so that he and his claimed backers can then pick up these assets for pennies in the pound!

To explain what is currently happening. Despite defamatory claims by Brass of the business being insolvent, NextGenUs is continuing to trade normally inspite of Brass best efforts to undermine the network in Cumbria.

The main core router in Manchester that was compromised by Brass was replaced and secured last week and once Brass is prevented from physically accessing the network (particularly at High Murber a farm owned by his grandmother and operated by his uncle, neither of whom NextGenUs believes are knowledgeable or part of Craig Brass's actions).

I must advise though that based on Brass's behaviour to date in compromising the network that unless he is obliged to cease and desist then it may be unavoidable to temporarily suspend service.

I would ask every customer to refuse Brass any access to your premises and to please inform both NextGenUs and Cumbria Police should he attempt to do so.

The network in Cumbria has had several issues develop over the last few weeks causing connectivity to be lost to customers. Despite not being part of the company any more, many of you will know that Brass, completely without authorisation, has been visiting customers to ostensibly resolve issues of his own making and to create the appearance of keeping the network running. This is because his main focus is to gain physical access to hack NextGenUs customer equipment so that he can steal control of the network for his own financial gain and certainly not acting in the interests of you as customers, as Brass falsely claims.

Brass has been making claims of having secured “a wealthy investor” as a presumably unwitting party to his nefarious activities to take over the network by driving the company into administration. In reality NextGenUs is engaged with a number of local parties who are both mortified by the disrepute that Brass's behaviour bring upon the wider Cumbrian community and seeking invest heavily in infrastructure to develop the network as originally intended.

We expect to be able to make a further positive announcement about this development in the next week.

Anybody experiencing problems with their service, please simply reply to this email or phone / text NextGenUs on 01482 242442 and a representative will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you once again for your patience.


Best Regards,

Guy Jarvis & The Real NextGenUs Team

Cumbria Update

Short term bad news and long term good news for Cumbria.

In the short term, two key pieces of equipment have had their admin passwords changed on the Cumbria network in the last 24 hours that has resulted in total loss of service for every customer.

The first device is a windows 7 monitoring and management server located at the farm of an uncle of Craig Brass

The second device is a core IX router located in a data centre with onbound IP transit connections.

It is hoped to restore or replace both devices by the weekend and NextGenUs can only share customer's absolute frustration with these childish antics.

Whilst not accusing Mr Brass of being behind these acts of sabotage, it has been confirmed today by the IX that Mr Brass has attempted to gain unauthorised access and make security modifications to the latter device as recently as a week ago.

In the longer term and hopefully a public announcement can be made in the coming weeks, there is genuine commitment and desire to take forwards the NextGenUs Fi:Wi model across Eden and Cumbria, driven by decent folks who take the long view of community interest vs the get rich quick mentality of some.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Notice to NextGenUs UK CIC Customers in Hull:

NextGenUs are not in control of the FB group called http://www.facebook.com/groups/NextgenusInternetHull/ and anytime someone posts anything positive about the company it's removed and the user is banned....

Someone needs to ask disgraced ex-employee and ex-director Simon davison and his cronies how he intends keeping it in the communities interest when he is not planning on keeping it a CIC?

You've heard the recordings.... http://nextgenus.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/well-has-he-spoken-to-tony.html and in them at any point is the customer or the community mentioned? NO!

Simon was met by our accountant on Friday 9th March and at that point was asked if he (and his backer) were serious. They were not able to put in writing an intention to purchase the business and also were unable to prove required funds.

Guy has spoken to all suppliers (for Hull) and has ensured that we are able to "keep the lights on" until we have explored all options.

Despite repeated attempts to hack and break the network by people with personal customers information (yes, only previously accessible to Mark Dunn, and 3 others and covered by a strict non disclosure agreement) we are keeping it stable and running for as long as possible.

Put another way, the reality is that volunteers and decent folks like Steve Jagger at Quickline and Sean Royce at K-C have been keeping the Hull Network running despite sustained hacking attempts to disrupt service using confidential information only available to ex-employees and ex-directors...

On a more serious note, the public posting today by Justin Stephen Arnold of the private home address of Guy's elderly parents (aged 80 and 92) combined with threats by a tiny minority of idiots to "come around now" is the inevitable result of the dim-witted and deceitful behaviour used by Davison and sidekick Dunn to achieve their ends at any cost, illegal or not.

 

Humberside Police have been informed and an incident number (761) raised so anyone with any silly ideas be warned that threats of this nature are being treated most seriously.

Regards,

The REALNextGenUs team

Well has he spoken to Tony?

As first referenced concerning the Lincolnshire County Councillor Eran nicodemus bauer expose,

Craig Brass (pictured above with Eden District Councillor Joan Raine and local Penrith and Borders MP Rory Stewart) at that time Director of NextGenUs Cumbria CIC, was quite happy to advise Simon Davison, himself at that time also a director of NextGenUs companies, that there were customers aplenty secretly ready to go in Great Asby (via Great Asby Broadband, chairman Miles Mandelson, brother of Lord Peter) for less than £1000 to connect and take all the revenues from 70+ customers and generating more than £1000 PER MONTH...

Strange then how Brass has subsequently claimed he needed massive additional resources to connect more than 28 customers in Cumbria!

 Also noteworthy, beyond Davison's obvious and continuing failure to discharge his duties as a Director in an honest or trustworthy manner, is how this recording reveals the shallow lies of Brass in claiming that the recordings were made without his knowledge, simply listen to how the conversation carries on after the phone call ends...

 

Craig is just 22 years old and it would be preferable to hope that his behaviour has been driven by the gullibility of youth looking for easy money without understanding his fiduciary responsibilities, though that is no excuse in law merely possible mitigation.

There are a dozen further recordings made that day, all with Craig Brass approval, ready for publication to join all the dots together.

A Change for the Better

Whilst we will see what tomorrow brings, there have been some very positive developments today as regards being able to take NextGenUs forwards in a way that benefits everyone concerned.

Stay tuned as they say!

GENERAL NOTICE to CREDITORS and CUSTOMERS

UPDATE Thursday 12th April 2012:

Subject to confirmation by Leeds High Court on Friday 13th April 2012, NextGenUs UK CIC and Fibrestream Limited will go into formal joint administration.

There are operating networks now looking for buyers in Hull and East Yorkshire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and the highest bidder will win in order to maximise value for all creditors concerned.

Shortly details will be published as to who to formal contact if WISPs or local communities wish to put forward a serious offer for any or all of the networks.

There would be nothing to stop you from applying to set up your own community interest company in your area and purchasing the assets of NextGenus UK CIC, but the purchase must be for full market value.

Let the best bidder win!



UPDATE Monday 26th March 2012:

Following another busy week of ongoing discussions with creditors and newly-emerged potential investors the possibility of a business consolidation and restructuring is now looking achievable given good will on all sides.

This has to be good news for customers and whilst there remain many hurdles to overcome, not least childish and ongoing attempts at hacking the networks in Cumbria and elsewhere, it now appears that a formal administration process and the associated costs are now unnecessary.

UPDATE Monday 19th March 2012:

Well they say a week is a long time in politics and it emerges that broadband is no different!

Serious restructuring discussions are now ongoing and it appears a distinct possibility that formal administration is now no longer required to take NextGenUs forwards and continue to provide a lasting community benefit.

More to follow.


As of today, Tuesday 13th March 2012, having exhausted all serious discussions with potential investors and being unable to secure any other viable sources of finance, the Board has concluded that there is no realistic prospect of NextGenUs UK CIC or any other of the NextGenUs Group of businesses "NGU" being able to pay its debt to creditors as they fall due nor for any services provided by creditors going forwards.


In the specific context of the largest network, Hull and East Yorkshire, where some 500 customer premises are affected, NGU is delighted to announce that Quickline Communications Limited has stepped up in the interim on a free of charge basis as regards wholesale internet backhaul to ensure continuity of service of NGU customers and to provide the time and opportunity for people to make choices as regards alternative service providers if they so wish.


NGU would further like to extend its thanks to the very supportive position taken by KCOM PLC in this difficult time.


The Board is of the opinion that this interim measure is consistent with acting in the best interests of the body of creditors as it keeps revenues flowing into the business and thereby maximises the asset value of the network infrastructure currently deployed.


As regards the network in Cumbria it has not been possible to find any serious party interested in taking on the burden of the internet backhaul supply therefore in order to mitigate any further losses to creditors it has been determined by the Board of NextGenUs Cumbria CIC that service must cease forthwith.

Cumbria Update 5PM 13 March 2012 - following an enquiry by a serious potential investor, the Board has taken the view that service continuity can be maintained for Cumbria customers.


As regards the North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire networks, negotiations are ongoing with creditors and potential purchasers.

Customers will be receiving an email in the near future giving more information.

NextGenUs.Net Email Hacked!!!

WARNING

At around 3PM GMT today Monday 12th March 2012 an unauthorised password change was made to the primary email admin account for the nextgenus.net domain.

Please be advised that all messages sent or received up until that time for the past 4 months to the admin account must be considered compromised and are not to be relied upon as official correspondence.

Furthermore messages to ANY nextgenus.net email account may be subject at any time going forwards to the rightful user being denied access and their email subsequently compromised.

In response, all messages to nextgenus.net email accounts were disabled by 7:30PM whilst further investigation takes place.

Freedom to Connect?

After 10+ years of genuinely striving to provide people who have been let down by their existing telecoms provider being unable to offer a service that they want, it is a good time to reflect on both the proven successes of operational Fi:Wi and FTTH networks and the ongoing challenges posed by the forces who wish to resist that change or seek personal benefit over that of the community interest.

The NextGenUs model if nothing else shows that Fi:Wi technology works, that even small communities consisting of 100 homes can have as good and capable a service as anyone else, so long as the team concerned is focused on service delivery not personal enrichment.

In it for the outcome first and the income second in other words.

Following internal investigations that resulted in the dismissal from employment of simon davison for gross misconduct, it remains the view that the damage to the business done by his actions and his apparent collusion in this regard with craig brass and eran bauer are repairable, such that customers continue to receive service as normal.

The reality of the UK telecoms market is that this wonderous technology that we all as users want to take for granted is saddled with artificial toll booths that are both unnecessary and serve only to drive up the costs of people being able to communicate with each other for the benefit of the toll booth operators.

What internet access really costs is a digital lottery that depends of where you live and what choices you have.

The telecoms market emergence of Fi:Wi as an alternative pathway to FTTH for fixed access (retaining Fi:Wi for mobility) is a positive step for Digital Britain and it is heartening to see that independent access providers have already gone ahead with building networks and connecting customers, a trend that is clearly gaining momentum and simply routing around the BDUK digital innovation roadblock.

Simon Davison Gross Misconduct

In the interests of further exploring the events first exposed here,

Simon Davison was suspended from employment on January 10 2012, investigated at a disciplinary hearing on 28 January 2012 and dismissed from company employment on 3 February 2012 for gross misconduct and subsequently resigned his directorships.

The following (complete other than personal address redacted) three documents fully set out the position by company solicitor and director Steve Dixon and show the extent and duration of gross misconduct on the part of Simon Davison in his capacity as company director.



First the notice of suspension on 10 January 2012:



Second the notice of disciplinary hearing on 28 January 2012:



Third the notice of dismissal 3 February 2012: