Where is this Office option?

As far as I can see, they have left VAT/Ltd registered homeworkers out again.

On the link provided. Specifically:

As normal with our normal Home::1 service, Home::1T is only available to non VAT registered home users, and comes with one WAN IPv4 address and a block of IPv6 addresses.

So if you're a business, your options are SoHo::1T or Office::1T only (well, if you are a VAT registered business, you can probably still get Home::1T but they will not place the account in the name of your business, only your "legal person" - and they won't issue VAT invoices either, so you wouldn't be able to claim the VAT back).

Edited by mixt (Tue 29-Dec-15 15:19:51)

Yes I know. gmoorc said there was an office package for £100, and I was asking where that was. There isn't as far as I can see.

Office 1T is overkill for a very small business as I am. Most of my clients are small business, and where I used to always advise them to go for AAISP, for the last few years I tell them to go with Zen. And what do small businesses do when they grow up? Use more data, and spend more with their ISPs. This is very short sighted.

It's on the blue pricing table about halfway down the page.
Three packages, home, Soho and office.

Oh, "SoHo". got you. thanks. I thought it was a home package.

This is still pricey, but it is a respectable offering from A&A, taking into account who they are

What do AAISP offer that other ISPs dont? Lots of smaller ISPs offer truely unlimited, no trottling or slowdown and great customer service. I dont get what they can offer more considering they're about 2 or 3 times more expensive than other smaller ISPs that have a good reputation

Edited by bobble_bob (Tue 29-Dec-15 20:10:36)

Well said Sir. I cannot see who would need such usage apart from a small percentage of very heavy downloaders, but as you say, totally unlimited and unrestricted beats it at half the price. Then there is the strange condition of no calls allowed, so the expense does not seem to end despite the service appearing to include line rental.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 29-Dec-15 21:31:08)

You guys crack me up, presenting the same argument each time on posts such as this. It is such a broken record.

A&A are not an "average" ISP, and their service(s) is/are not average either (much above average, from what I have experienced). So it is of no surprise they do not attract the "average" customer. Even with this fact, they evidently do still have customers (or they wouldn't even be in business) and there must be some kind of demand for the *::1T products from both existing customers and potentials looking to move.

For me, yes, I can't justify the cost. I pay £43.99 a month to Zen for unlimited 40/10 (inc line rental). I would be paying £60 a month if I switched (for effectively, still an unlimited service, at least for the first 1TB per month) - right now, this month, my usage has hit half a TB.

But there are people out there willing to pay this. Maybe they don't want to use the BT back-haul for their FTTC connection (some kind of redundancy requirement if they run a dual line setup), maybe they also want 4 hour business grade response to line faults (a A&A default by the way, on all lines they provision, even for home users) and maybe they just want to go via a back-haul which has less contention and better capacity than BT's, so potentially a faster, more fluid experience for both downloading and general internet usage along with a vast improvement on jitter/latency (if they're a gamer), with lower standard deviation with that (fewer latency spikes during peak times etc).

Like I said in one of my other recent posts, I have noticed performance drops on my Zen connection since October, but it is extremely minor (most people wouldn't notice it). I have noticed much higher latency and jitter with it since switching to them from A&A over a year ago, but the service still works as I need, so no complaints.

Either way, stick to your budget ISPs if that's what works for you. But budget ISPs don't work for everyone, and that is why alternatives like A&A exist.

Edited by mixt (Wed 30-Dec-15 12:42:41)

Not with a "Budget ISP", but get unlimited unthrottled 80/20, which comes with included line rental and good customer service, with no contract tie-in for barely what you pay for 40/10. It's resold TalkTalk Business, whiuch has a very good reputation itself and the same supplier as the high priced AAISP product.

I think the point Bobble & Professor were trying to make was that AAISP isn't really for the average residential punter mainly due to their eye watering prices.....no matter how good they are. Thanks to the Tories shafting every punter left, right & centre not everyone can afford to pay 60 quid a month on broadband alone

IMHO there are 3 classes of ISPs in UK:

1) Bargain basement ISPs such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk Residential, Plusnet et al. They're cheap for a reason, usually poor overseas phone support and/or long waiting times on the phone. However many people also have no need to call support so you could argue you can save a few bob by going to one of these ISPs if you have a problem-free line.

2) Niche ISPs such as Zen, IDnet, Xilo, Pulse8, TalkTalk Business, Netplan et al who are reasonably priced. These ISPs aren't the cheapest but they all offer top class UK based support and will usually resolve any issues over the phone with the minimum of fuss.

3) High end niche ISPs such as AAISP, BT Business et al. Charge an arm & a leg but will give you a top, top class service such as line repairs within 24hrs, line monitoring 24/7 etc. Quite often businesses will plump for them.

So its really horses for courses