Night Time Tariff

I see from AAISP's Status page that to avoid confusion they have removed the night-time usage from the tariff pages and calculator.

However I see that all reference to night time usage has also been removed from my control panel usage section.

Is this ominous?

http://aaisp.blogspot.com/2010/01/info-night-time-ta...

The URL you have given is for the status page I reffered to and where I first read AAISP's announcement.

What concerns me is that my control panel is now not recording any night time usage. Everything which is not peak is being counted as off-peak at 100GB per unit, there is no sign of any 1TB per unit usage anymore.

In reply to a post by dethadol:

What concerns me is that my control panel is now not recording any night time usage. Everything which is not peak is being counted as off-peak at 100GB per unit, there is no sign of any 1TB per unit usage anymore.

Full details are shown on the 'details' page linked to from the Billing table.

Not for me.

They were there earlier in the month, but have now disappeared

> They were there earlier in the month, but have now disappeared

Hi dethadol, from the discussion on IRC last night I understand that usage will appear only if you consume more than 0.01 units of night-time data.

If not, e-mail support.

Am I better off?

We believe everyone will be better off. The catch is that rounding means that the new tariff will be within a few pence of the old tariff. The other catch is that night time (2am to 6am) does now count a very small part towards the usage tariff whereas before it did not count at all - though at 1000GB per unit we don't expect anyone to be worse off. Please do bear in mind the change in VAT will mean what you pay is higher anyway and would have been even if we had not changed the tariffs.

Then becomes

"We currently have a special bonus aimed at people doing backups and file transfers over night. Instead of the normal 100GB/unit off peak tariff, between 2am and 6am usage is metered at 1000GB/unit."

We may review the way we offer this night time usage in the future.

Not liking the sound of this tbh.

Thanks for that.

I had downloaded a couple of 4GB iso's which showed up on my usage then suddenly disappeared. That worried me, especially in view of AAISP's comment that "We may review the way we offer this night time usage in the future."

However your'e explanation has allayed my concerns, for the time being at least.

In reply to a post by dethadol:

for the time being at least.

I'd appreciate it, if they do intend to do away with the night time tariff, they would just say so. I make a point of scheduling everything for late night, it'll make a difference to the number of units I use. For me, if they do remove it, with the unit price, it may not be worth staying.

Edited by fornowagain (Sat 16-Jan-10 02:58:40)

The usage stats only show the night time usage if it is affecting the total, i.e. is 0.01 units or more.
When it shows a foot note is added to explain it.

Again, this is to avoid confusion. Having not mentioned it in the main tariffs people would be confused by it appearing on the usage page even as 0.00 units.

It is still 2am to 6am night usage, and as previously advised uses units at 1TB/unit.

Do not think we are out to get you - you should know better than that by now
If we consider any changes to the actual tariff we'll post details, honest.

We are considering possible changes, but nothing definite and no definite time frame, so interested in any comments.

Possible ideas at present are making it an opt-in tariff where you pick a 4 hour slot. This could avoid the huge spike at 2am by spreading it out. A bit like the old "economy 7" electricity tariff.

I have also considered making it a slot that is (as used to be) un-metered, but a paid-for extra to have it, like the old "midnight line" (for those that remember such things). However, this would probably be with a caveat of the existing users getting it free.

These are just ideas at present. For now nothing has changed.

As a new joiner to AAISP im a little concerned by this, however i can understand the reasoning behind this.

Im assuming that its down to the huge ammount of bandwidth that people are using during the 2am-6am period which i guess in some cases would costs as much to move over the BT network as AAISP are charging.

I would suggest the best way would be to alter the limit to around the 200gb mark so that the ammount is still large but doesnt put off people like myself who joined to utilise the large off peak usage.

Night time is low, the issue is the spike all at one time (2am). By staggering it we reduce the risk that we reach daytime levels. We are not reaching them yet, I should stress, but (unlike some telcos) we try to watch trends and catch issues before they cause congestion of extra cost.

Ah i see in which case if the 500gb/1tb (not sure why thats changed) is sustainable then staggering has to be the best option for moving forward for existing customers.

With new customers asked to buy a unit to cover and then allocated a set time that the night time allowance takes place.

Someone else said the night time had doubled?
Where did you get the 500GB from.

It used to be un-metered and is now 1TB/unit.

If everyone downloaded at night it would not work, obviously. The trick is to set a price that means some people use it and some do not and the overall level is such that it is not becoming the dominant factor in our costs (largely costs to BT).

I have no reason to think night time usage overall would ever be the dominant bandwidth even if completely un-metered. But there is a risk of everyone setting cron jobs for 2am making 2am an issue, hence the idea.

Thought it was 500gb a unit apologies if ive got this wrong.

I like the idea of spreading the load so to speak no problem there whatsoever!

In reply to a post by barker04:

Thought it was 500gb a unit apologies if ive got this wrong.

On 20CN lines

Night:- I TB = 1 unit

Off Peak:- 100 GB = 1 unit

Peak:- 1 GB = 1 unit

Thanks for that!

Still an awesome offering tbh

Just curious when the off peak hits or unmetered does everything slow for a while or does the speed keep up, my offpeak starts at midnight currently and everything really slows down for a couple of hours

I've never seen AAISP slow down like that (indeed they've stated in the past that they aim never to be the bottleneck on a connection).

BT have had a number of congestion issues recently affecting all (non-LLU) ISPs but thanks to AAISPs detailed monitoring (and a lot of work on their part getting BT to listen) this is being solved.

Thats looking good then, I'm waiting to migrate only a month to go so doing my research, could move now but don't see the point of paying a charge with less than a month to go