I need around 200gb data usage per month, with A&A it will come to double what I pay for zen FTTC. I wouldnt mind paying £10 extra for ipv6 not £25

In reply to a post by din100:

I need around 200gb data usage per month, with A&A it will come to double what I pay for zen FTTC. I wouldnt mind paying £10 extra for ipv6 not £25

I make it £45 for A&A (Home::1 40/10 FTTC, 200 Gb/month option) versus £32.40 for Zen (Unlimited Fibre 1, broadband only). Breaking the 200Gb barrier would be a pain though.

My A&A contract runs until November, so I might well jump if anyone has a decent offering by that point. Maybe port my landline number to VoIP (which would cease the BT line, then I'd reinstate it on a fresh number as data-only).

This is what I have (unfortunately) had to do. I would have stayed with A&A, but they just couldn't deliver on price.

I was on their unit based tariff, averaging 3 units a month, but slipping beyond this. 3 units a month, with their line rental, came in at £45.90 per month for a 40/10 FTTC service. Averaging between 100-200Gb per month, their Home::1 package would not have helped me either - £47.00 per month for 100Gb/month, again on a 40/10 service including line rental, rising to £57.00 per month for 200Gb/month.

With Zen, it's £45.44 per month (including line rental) for an unlimited 80/20 service (I get 60/20). Only downside is no native IPv6, but I can live with that. So far, speeds seem consistent and I can't complain.

Have to hand it to A&A though. I slipped past 6 units into the red just before migrating to Zen, and was expecting to be charged for this, along with the short line rental period that the line remained with them past my 30 day notice period, before being moved to Zen. Due to "my good custom", they wrote this off after the migration to Zen completed and issued no further invoices. So I am glad to have left on good terms with A&A; I would return to them if they could match Zen on product and price.

let us know your experience with the Zen service after a few months. I am with SKY and for now its about the same service & costs but no static IP. For me it ok for now and not worth the bother to change..

It's yet to be a few months, but I can already see subtle differences in service between A&A and Zen.

Just before I left A&A (on a 40/10 service), speed tests were no longer maxing out on my connection. A&A BQM graphs (one second monitoring) showed, pretty much, no packet loss, even with the drop on speed tests. I suspect this was due to an influx of new customers joining A&A, and capacity issues their side, as Adrian posted a blog comment discussing the current issues they were having with BT in ordering another gateway (more bandwidth).

Now on Zen (60/20 service), the BQM graphs (see my signature) are showing subtle specs of red at the top indicating extremely minor packet loss from time to time. I did not see this at all with A&A.

This packet loss is not sufficient to be bothersome, but I guess it demonstrates the difference between how both ISPs manage their links. In order to offer an unlimited service, Zen simple contend the connection down to a minimum speed (in my case, around 40Mbps on a 60Mbps sync) during peak times. That's how they can offer an unlimited service. However, with A&A, they aim to never be the bottle neck, thus probably the reason I very rarely saw packet loss (Adrian Kennard is highly against any kind of packet loss, per his blog post). Of course, that is why A&A offer a metered service (which may not suit everyone) and charge accordingly. Use more, pay more. They can guarantee you a packet loss-less service because of this. But it seems Zen can't (not 100% completely anyway).

So that's my take on it. I'm still happy with Zen, and I had my reasons for moving here. But it still comes down to a clear case of you get what you pay for. I'm not prepared to pay anything more than what Zen charge for my broadband+line, so that's why I joined them - this packet loss doesn't bother me, others may not feel the same way. I'm pretty sure on Zen's Fibre Office product (double the price of Fibre 2, with a minimum speed of 60Mbps), packet loss would be pretty much non-existent.

Hope this helps with your decision on your next ISP.

I'm in need of a new ISP and now that Zen have reasonably priced fibre offerings i'm planning to rejoin the fold. But i've got to say that i am disappointed there's still been no progress on providing native IPv6 (exactly) 8 years after i originally asked.

I'll probably still be joining Zen because i need decent basic connectivity, and i know Zen's good for that. I'll continue using my HE tunnel and re-assess the situation in a year.

In reply to a post by mixt:

In order to offer an unlimited service, Zen simple contend the connection down to a minimum speed (in my case, around 40Mbps on a 60Mbps sync) during peak times. That's how they can offer an unlimited service.

Is this correct?

Is this correct?

Source: http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.asp...

EDIT: I'm presuming they use contention, as they do not traffic shape. If you can suggest yet another alternative method they may use, I'm all ears.

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Jul-14 15:45:04)

In reply to a post by mixt:

Is this correct?

Source: http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.asp...

EDIT: I'm presuming they use contention, as they do not traffic shape. If you can suggest yet another alternative method they may use, I'm all ears.

That is actually what BT wholesale (their supplier) gaurantee. Any isp who uses them for backhaul will be the same. I'm unsure if BT Openreach have something similar for GEA.

As for contention, everything is contended on the Internet. What you care about is congestion. See here for the difference. http://aa.net.uk/kb-broadband-contention.html

As far as I'm aware Zen don't congest any of their links on purpose. That would definitely be noticeable to everyone.

Thanks for clearing that up then.

It would appear then that Zen have some congested links because since joining them, I have seen minor packet loss on my connection (see my BQM graph). When they have bounced the connection (and I connect to a different gateway), it seems to alleviate the problem but the issue does return after a while.

I never saw this issue with A&A.