New A&A Usage Charges From January 2010

Just wondering if A&A customers have seen this yet and what they think? -

http://aaisp.blogspot.com/2009/10/info-new-billing-s...

http://aaisp.net.uk/broadband-prices-ubc.html

Me? I think it's bonkers! Now I don't know who thought this new scheme up but talk about confusion for the customer. Yes, it's easy peasy to work out the peak unit and the off peak unit ratio for sure if you are taking exact whole figures worth of bandwidth usage into account but the new charging for the 2-6 AM ratio of 1000GB per unit really throws a spanner into the works for a customer trying to work out how much of their quota that they've used.

I mean would a member of A&A staff like to explain for example what my bill will be if on a 20CN line I used in my month say:-

1.672 GB - Peak

45.842 GB - Off Peak

47.104 GB - 2-6 AM


If it's still £20 then fine as I really can't be bothered to get out my old slide rule, but the maths side of carrying over and percentages used of "type of unit" seem to be totally against the customer working things out easily and just throwing confusion and uncertainty into the mix for them. I understand how there is now a need to differentiate between 20CN & 21CN & Be exchange customers but surely there must have been a clearer, easier way than this? Surely just introducing separate packages for each type of customer would have been far better and more likely to have been approved by the "Plain English" Campaign? - http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

I'm currently in the process of migrating to AAISP right now.
Woke up this morning and thought i'd just check progress in the control panel and saw this.

After reading it i just wanted to go back to bed. I was like WTF does it mean.
I had to read it a couple more times and i think i got the gist of it but i'm still not sure.
I sent an email off to them just to make sure i understood it right but haven't had a reply yet.

It just seems incredibly complicated, but then i could just be stupid.

I don't the current explainations are that good but I do think it's not that bad once you understand it.

What's needed is a webpage where you enter your kind of line (BT 20CN, BT 21CN or Wholesale Be) and your typical useage for the 3 different time periods (peak, off-peak and overnight) then it then shows how many units you need to buy to cover that useage.

At the moment I use about 3.5Gb of Peak useage, 20Gb or Off-Peak and 10 Gb of Overnighty usage on a BT 20CN line.

3.5 Gb of Peak Usage = 3.5 Units (1Gb of Peak Data on 20CN costs 1 Unit)
20Gb of Off-Peak = 0.2 Units (1Gb of Off-Peak data cost 0.01 Unit)
10Gb of Overnight = 0.01 Units (1Gb of Overnight of data costs 0.001 unit)

So the total estimated useage comes in at 3.71 units so buying 4 a month would sound about right with a little left over for emergencies.

If I was 21CN 3.5Gb of Peak Useage would equal 2.33 units (1Gb of Peak data on 21CN costs 0.67 Units) costs
and on Be it would be 0.44 Units (1Gb of Peak data on Be costs 0.125 units)

So an a 21CN line I'd need 2.33 + 0.2 +0.1 = 2.54 Units
and on a Be line I'd need 0.44 + 0.2 +0.1 = 0.65 Units

(The Off-Peak and Overnight costs don't change depending on the line type)

Add on the line rental for the relavent type of line (and the Premium service if higher upload is required on a 20CN line) and that's the total cost.

The ideas behind the pricing aren't that complicated really but a calculator and/or some sensible worked examples on the page would really help.

-- Edit --

To use the examples from the first post for a 20CN Line

1.672 GB Peak = 1.67 Units
45.842 GB Off Peak = 0.46 units
47.104 GB Overnight = 0.048 unit

That adds up to 2.18 Units.

3 Units @ £2.55 = £7.65
20CN Line rental = £10.17
Pre VAT Total = £17.82
Total inc 15% VAT = £20.49
Total inc 17.5% VAT = £20.94

Edited by deleted (Fri 09-Oct-09 15:34:22)

I know what you are saying, but what chance has some frail 75 year old silver surfer got of being able to understand it? It should be simple, crystal clear and understandable by all.

One shouldn't need to reach for a calculator every time they go online just to make sure they are within their usage - it should be simple and straightforward - with *GB* usage it was so why change a good thing? Surely if the package pricing i.e. :- 20CN, 21CN, Be according to what type of exchange you were on had been changed that would have been far more simple and clear than this new method no?

I'm not accusing A&A of being under handed with these new "unit based" plans or trying to confuse customers deliberately for one minute here, I've found the total opposite to be the case with them and a major reason for me joining them. But surely there could have been a better and clearer way than this?

The problem is that end user bandwidth cost different ammounts depending on what kind of lime A&A use and their price structure needs to reflect that and it's going to end up confusing some people no matter what is done.

I think the pricing that A&A are proposing to adopt is as good and fair as can reasonably be expected but there needs to be tools put in place to help users understand it and plan for their needs.

OK, I'll try and make it clearer.

Basically, for anyone that is an existing customer or looking at the existing tariffs, the new ones are "better". I.e. more for the same money. That is not too hard is it

For most people it is still pretty simple. Its when you get multiple lines on a login and mixes of 20CN, 21CN, and BE lines, and so on.

New pricing looks good, but its not easy to explain to the non-mathermatical.

Is there any future plans for BE lines with a lower monthly cost?

Since its currently only really suitable for heavy users or those willing to pay significantly more for resliance?

I'm not keen on the minimum contract terms for BE lines, but might be interested if the monthly cost was lower, since it would get rid of BT's stupid "features" of BRAS rates, DLM, and 21cn latency issues.

I don't have a problem with the new pricing model. If i understand it correctly i think it's much better. My only problem is i'm not 100% sure that i am understanding it correctly.

just waiting to see what the new Xilo deals are especially now

e=mb
or is it

2+2=5 yes gorrit now

or for light users who value not having regular 21CN related faults?

I think the BE pricing is more traditional and the way to go, a higher base line cost where very light users add subsidy.

you get what you pay for at the end of the day, BE's service is of higher quality than BTw hence the base price tag.