AAISP 1 month contracts now here (or almost here)? :)

Thought it might interest some to hear that it looks like AAISP are either now offering or about to offer 1 month contracts for ADSL and VDSL2 (FTTC) packages. See https://www.aaisp.net.uk/broadband-soho1.html for example, it now lists 12 months for FTTP only and 6 months or 1 month term choices for ADSL and VDSL2 (FTTC) packages.

Adrian Kennard did mention on his blog about some further tariff changes and also an issue with a carrier currently which has held a bit of progress on this back.

In reference to www.revk.uk/2018/03/frustrating-year-so-far-for-me.html:

The new A&A tariff work we started last year, I expected to be doing more. And one of our carriers, who I have promised my own staff not to tear a large piece out of on my blog just yet, are causing some crazy issues for us. Things that should have been done and dusted over 6 months ago are not, and so more work on tariffs is a tad stalled. Even so, we hope to plough ahead with some improvements this month, albeit more risk for us doing so. The existing changes, with more lines able to get Terabyte packages, and better usage roll over and higher entry level allowances, have clearly helped, but we expected to have done more by now. More will be coming I am sure.

But let's be positive - the changes we made late last year are good, and things are happening this month too.

Unless I'm mistaken in how I'm interpreting the new choices of contract term and setup costs, this is good news . I don't think G.fast is coming to my area anytime soon so in the next month or two I might consider using my second line on a 200GB tariff which should quota balance with my current 2TB tariff I hope as well as offer some resilience, VDSL2 of course, for bonding. Hopefully should achieve at least 140+ megabits down and 35+ megabits up . The big question is whether I can figure out how to do bonding on the EdgeRouter Pro 8 or whether I'll be forced to use a FireBrick instead.

Edited by Ixel (Fri 16-Mar-18 12:59:05)

I can confirm if you run a residential order it shows 1 month term at £50 setup and then the standard £60 a month with a all in package

Proof https://s14.postimg.org/abhhvpggh/Screen_Shot_2018-0...

Even 6 months is worth the punt now - and free setup

Nice one AAISP

Indeed. I've ordered a second service this morning for my second line (SoHo::1 VDSL2 200GB) on a 1 month contract which should quota balance with my existing 2TB. My hope is that I'll achieve a total throughput speed of at least 140 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up . Due to be activated on the 26th. The only thing I need to figure out is if and how to get the EdgeRouter Pro 8 to handle bonding as I don't want to also invest in a Firebrick if I can help it (due to their cost). It needs to do ECMP which the Ubiquiti claims it does. Also the other advantage is if one line develops a fault then the other line has a chance of still working fine in the meantime.

Edited by Ixel (Sat 17-Mar-18 13:59:49)

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Interesting, well if I do figure it out I'll post here about it. I can't imagine why the EdgeRouter isn't capable of this.

Unfortunately the activation date is now April 3rd so I need to wait a bit longer, but in the meantime I can do more research and hopefully someone on the Ubiquiti forum might be able to offer some insight (I've posted there). All I know is that RevK mentioned on the IRC about ECMP which the EdgeRouter claims to do.

EDIT: Just removed a bit of the post as I realised I may his misread/misunderstood something.

Edited by Ixel (Sat 17-Mar-18 15:48:31)

In reply to a post by Ixel:

Indeed. I've ordered a second service this morning for my second line (SoHo::1 VDSL2 200GB) on a 1 month contract which should quota balance with my existing 2TB. My hope is that I'll achieve a total throughput speed of at least 140 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up . Due to be activated on the 26th. The only thing I need to figure out is if and how to get the EdgeRouter Pro 8 to handle bonding as I don't want to also invest in a Firebrick if I can help it (due to their cost). It needs to do ECMP which the Ubiquiti claims it does. Also the other advantage is if one line develops a fault then the other line has a chance of still working fine in the meantime.

I can tell you how great that speed - the rest is well over my head fella, sorry!

In reply to a post by Ixel:

The big question is whether I can figure out how to do bonding on the EdgeRouter Pro 8 or whether I'll be forced to use a FireBrick instead.

Regardless of hardware requirement at your end, isn't there also an extra charge for the bonding at the AAISP end as that would require specific config and support not part of standard second line install.

I'm aware there's a charge if I need their assistance in setting up bonding on the router, e.g. a Firebrick, but I'm not aware of an additional monthly charge for the bonding aspect of the service. I believe I should be able to route the same IP's down both lines on clueless once it's live, it's just up to me to configure this my end. I'll ask them when all staff are back in on Monday again, if there is an additional monthly charge just for the bonding aspect too then I might scrap the idea depending how much that would be.

I believe that true bonding does require support, probably with charge, at the ISP end.

A possibly viable alternative is load balancing, where your router supports multiple WAN connections and shares the outgoing load between them. This can work quite well for load balancing or fallback. You may need to make connections "sticky" so that once established, all connections to the same address go out the same way.

I used to load balance a pfSense firewall between my own VDSL line and my employer supplied ADSL line. I do not know if a Firebrick can do this.

I couldnt see a price for bonding on AAISP website. It would be interesting if they offered facility to bond without charge but I'd be surprised if that was the case given the niche market and price others charge for bonding. Be good to hear how you get on with it.