AAISP Newbie - Question on Packages

I have been with AAISP for a month on a 6 month/200GB package. AAISP�s website states that packages can be changed at anytime. How does this work within the minimum term? For example, can I switch to 2TB service for a month; bank 50% of the unused allowance and then change back to the 200GB package a month later? I am just thinking ahead to Christmas when the wider family descends on us for 10 days - along with their many connected devices.

Normally during a minimum term period you can upgrade but not downgrade. This often triggers the minimum term to restart.

I can't imagine they would allow you to bank quota across packages like this.
Everyone would be able to take 1 month of the highest quota package, bank the excess then downgrade.

I'm sure someone from AAISP will be along shortly to answer your question fully but my guess would be...

You can upgrade during the minimum term, term starts again, you can't bank the quota when downgrading.

I suspected that would be the case. My only criticism of AAISP is that they have not understood the principle of 'less is more'. The plethora of information on their website can, at times, be very confusing.

In reply to a post by lexden16:

I have been with AAISP for a month on a 6 month/200GB package. AAISP�s website states that packages can be changed at anytime. How does this work within the minimum term? For example, can I switch to 2TB service for a month; bank 50% of the unused allowance and then change back to the 200GB package a month later? I am just thinking ahead to Christmas when the wider family descends on us for 10 days - along with their many connected devices.

If you can do this I might join you as I do have peaks and troughs in my usage and having 2TB -> 1TB -> 500GB -> 250GB 'headroom' over 3 months, for one month of increased cost would be cool. I suspect however that if you decrease from 2TB to 200GB, your carry forward may be capped. Comment @AASIP?

Why should that be the case/ The data carried over has been paid for the month previous - all that should happen is the allowance is set to whatever you need and the rolled over data on top until used.

I think what some may be missing is that if your chosen package change involves a move either way between BT Wholesale and TTB then the full installation charge is payable . (At least that�s how I read the relevant part of either the T &Cs or Legal yesterday when checking if one could do this).

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think what some may be missing is that if your chosen package change involves a move either way between BT Wholesale and TTB then the full installation charge is payable . (At least that�s how I read the relevant part of either the T &Cs or Legal yesterday when checking if one could do this).

I think that used to the case but my new 200GB product is on TTB backhaul rather than BTW.

Ah, mine is on BTW because I migrated from BTW.

That'a fair enough I just assumed it was a simple package change - clearly it's not always!

The key is that you only carry over *half* the unused quota - so you can't just buy a block of 2 Tb in January and use it up over the course of the year: even with 0 usage, switching to 200 Gb for February gets you 1.2 Tb not 2.2, then you'll go into March with 800 Gb, April with 600, etc until the original 2 Tb has just evaporated.

The packages are more flexible now - it used to be the case that the Tb packages were TalkTalk backhaul only and the others were BT only, but now you can switch between levels month by month online.

I had a big batch of data to transfer (restoring some online backups, including a few Windows virtual machine images), so switched to the 1 Tb package (as it was at the time) for that month, then back down to 200 Gb after it was finished. I'm away travelling most of next month, so I'll stay on 200 Gb - maybe back to Tb for November when I have someone staying and might want to use Netflix/Amazon/iPlayer a bit.

"Unlimited" would be simpler, of course, but more expensive to get the performance we do with AAISP, so I'm happy to fiddle with settings a bit rather than pay even more or see performance drop.

JamesS88 has pretty much answered this (thanks!)

You can upgrade before December starts to have the 2TB for December, then downgrade the tariff in the new year - that way you'll have the 2TB for just the two months. (Or downgrade during December and the new tariff will start from January 1st)

What happens to the carry-over from the 2TB if not all used though please Andrew? And am I right in thinking what you say only applies to switching within TTB backhaul? Not if switching from/to BTW where the install cost applies? Though I expect once someone moves to TTB they won't switch back.

If your normal usage is between 200GB and 800GB you can use this to save money!

Month 1 2TB package:
Use 800GB which means you carry over 600GB (half the unused 1.2TB)

Month 2 200GB package:
Starting allowance is 800GB and all is used

Month 3 back to 2TB and keep repeating.

The interesting thing is that it renders the 300GB package totally redundant. Doing as I suggest costs an extra £15 every other month (average £7.50 per month). The 300GB package costs an extra £10 per month!

Sorry - to clarify - the 'Quota Bonus' is 'half of the unused quota from the previous month' - eg:

You're currently on the 2TB tariff...
Duting the month you change to the 200GB tariff (which will start from the start of next month)...
By the end of the month you happen to have 1TB remaining...

The Quota bonus will be 500G.

Andrew, could you confirm my conclusion that anyone using between 201GB and 800GB per month can save money by each month swapping between the 200Gb and 2TB package?

I'd have expected some sort of cap to stop this nonsense, e.g. the maximum quota bonus that can be added to any package at the start of the month is the maximum that can be accrued on the package (e.g. on the 200GB package the maximum bonus is 200GB even if downgrading from 300GB or 2TB).

I had no idea we could swap on a monthly basis - interesting!

In reply to a post by jelv:

If your normal usage is between 200GB and 800GB you can use this to save money!

Month 1 2TB package:
Use 800GB which means you carry over 600GB (half the unused 1.2TB)

Month 2 200GB package:
Starting allowance is 800GB and all is used

Month 3 back to 2TB and keep repeating.

The interesting thing is that it renders the 300GB package totally redundant. Doing as I suggest costs an extra £15 every other month (average £7.50 per month). The 300GB package costs an extra £10 per month!

Your maths work for me. Having moved from an Unlimited package (Zen) to a quota based package (AAISP) with an average monthly consumption of c.175GBs, there must come a point where customers switching packages each month must become a cost driver. That said, I accept that AAISP's flexible package policy and quota rollover does provide a measure of cost-based user constraint. I can happily live with that.

It didn't answer the OP's minimum term questions.

In reply to a post by jelv:

If your normal usage is between 200GB and 800GB you can use this to save money!

Month 1 2TB package:
Use 800GB which means you carry over 600GB (half the unused 1.2TB)

Month 2 200GB package:
Starting allowance is 800GB and all is used

Month 3 back to 2TB and keep repeating.

The interesting thing is that it renders the 300GB package totally redundant. Doing as I suggest costs an extra £15 every other month (average £7.50 per month). The 300GB package costs an extra £10 per month!

You could do that if you wanted

Customer can change their quote tariff whilst in-term - that's OK. either up or down. Contact our sales team for more info...

In reply to a post by andrewhearn:

Customer can change their quote tariff whilst in-term - that's OK. either up or down. Contact our sales team for more info...

Thanks.

In reply to a post by lexden16:

In reply to a post by andrewhearn:

Customer can change their quote tariff whilst in-term - that's OK. either up or down. Contact our sales team for more info...

Thanks.

You can also do a change of package/regrade of service/cancellation or addition of a service via Chaos.

This isn't fair . I shall have to hugely increase my usage and costs to benefit from it! My 200GB allowance already restarts each month at over 350GB.


_{Joking of course about the unfairness, but the figures on my allowance are true. I'm also about to sign up for the Netflix free month trial.}

April I went absolutely mad, some big updates (thanks M$) downloaded a lot for IPlayer etc. Total download was heading towards double what I'd ever used in a previous month - 112GB!