Leaving AAISP?

The fact that there are so few posts in this forum is an indication of how good an ISP AAISP is - so why I am mulling over the possibility of leaving?

In the past 2 weeks, we have had a swarm of OR vans in our small town checking that the fibre installed late last year is as it should be; surveying individual homes for telephone wire access points etc plus frequent short breaks in our broadband. The ‘man in the van’ suggests that FTTP will go live shortly.

The possibility that I may soon be in ordering mode again has left me with the usual problem of speed; data; CS support and price. I have no idea whether I would benefit from 330Mbps compared to 160 but the simple fact is that other reputable ISPs can offer me unlimited data at a speed twice that of AAISP’s offer for about 2/3 of the price. After 4 years of exceptional service, my heart tells me to stay with AAISP but unless I stick with a 160Mbps package my head suggests otherwise.

If I decide to move from AAISP then I would be be looking at Idnet; Zen or Aquiss.

Any thoughts?

AAISP have lately announced their new core routers, which permit them to offer FTTP at higher than 160mbit.

This means they've announced the current "rough" pricing for the higher speeds, if that helps you with your decision?
https://www.aa.net.uk/etc/news/new-core-routers-and-...

I suppose that migration between FTTP ISPs isn't too difficult to accomplish, especially if you choose a 1 month contract with the alternative, so depending on your sentiment when you've reviewed those prices, you might initially sign up for a 1 month term to keep your options open, and then later consider locking in a longer term if you're satisfied & want to lower the costs.

AAISPs pricing shows the true cost of broadband, but £75 or £85 a month shows how hard it is to offer these speeds in todays competitive market.

Quotas on a gigabit FTTP connection in 2022....really?

I'm not minded to agree; AAISP offer a premium service, but built into those prices are things like the R&D for their custom Firebrick routers, their constant line monitoring, their fanatical support (Who will no doubt spend many hours to get each customer's line 'just right' where other ISPs will throw in the towel). That's all got to come at a cost, which if not charged directly to the customer will therefore be spread evenly across all customers.

Given the mainstream ISPs seem to not be grinding to a halt in the evening peaks, and that (as mentioned by the original poster) other premium ISPs such as Zen and IDNet can provide greater speeds and more usage allowance for less, I'm not so sure that AAISP's prices are necessarily the benchmark for the minimum cost to provide a given service.

With FTTP there is less reason to need to pay for tech support that go the extra mile. There is no DLM randomness in play on FTTP and you get the connection speed as advertised without having to nurse old copper cable, walk around with AM radios looking for sources of interference, or finding a corded phone to plug in and listen for crackle's.

It is possible if you have some strange fault on FTTP to pay for special service from Openreach, what you save over a few months with a more typical ISP even if you pay for a special Openreach engineer out of your own pocket because of a fault you are still probably better off money wise, and that's only if the fault is found to be your side after the ONT.

That doesn't mean you will not have faults, perhaps further into the network, but most smaller ISPs with their own kit are pretty hot on getting stuff fixed, I've found this with Uno, IDNet and Cerberus in that you do end up talking to a network engineer quite quickly. I would avoid resellers, these are ISPs that simply admin and bill for broadband and don't have their own kit or network. For example they just resell Zen, CityFibre or BT Wholesale, it's just a rebranding exercise. I quick way to check is see if the ISP has any peering arrangements in their own name which shows they have their own gateways and kit, I use peeringdb.com, if they don't appear on there they are likely just a reseller.

Edited by E300 (Fri 25-Mar-22 13:14:14)

I have been with AAISP for quite a few years now however know a friend who recently left as he couldn't justify the price anymore in comparison to a BT FTTP package.

In my opinion I think AAISP should offer a contended cheaper package. For example I'd be happy on a gigabit FTTP package which slows down to 200Mbps during peak times etc. I know that goes against the company ethos however times have changed and these things aren't really that important anymore.

I guess the question is how come AAISP have to charge so much compared to other providers? Is it because other providers are getting better wholesale costs? Or is it because they have to fund all the R&D into their own networking equipment. I don't know the answer.. It could be that offering a contended service wouldn't allow enough cost savings for AAISP to pass onto the customer.

In any case, some sort of cheaper package would be a welcome offering at the moment.

All very good points. Simple maths shows that I could save £270 on a 12 month 300/50 contract if I went for Aquiss rather than sticking with AAISP. That’s a lot of money to pay when my broadband connection sits more in the ‘nice to have’ category rather than essential.

Cerberus is also worth shortlisting. Their sweet spot is 300/50: £48 per month, £48 setup, bring your own router.

However, Aquiss at £49 per month for the same speed has no setup fee and is half-price for first 4 months. It will be 146 months before you get your money back with Cerberus

Both give you a static IPv4 address and a static /56 IPv6 block, and have a 12 month contract which rolls over at the end without price rise.

AAISP is a no ******* ISP, and that is not just their approach to faults but also on their packages and costs.

No retention deals, no new customer deals, everyone pays the same. I have also never had a price increase since I joined the ISP, but in fact the other way round with package upgrades. I know I sound like an advert, but this is refreshing that it exists in the current market so felt I had to say it.

I was able to sign up to VDSL on a 1 month commitment, and all of their FTTP are 12 months instead of 2+ years.

Sadly I may be in the same boat as yourself, the problem of lack of full gigabit FTTP and also lack of cityfibre, however AAISP have solved the first issue with their firebrick upgrades, and it was mentioned on IRC some time ago there is talks ongoing with cityfibre.

So if you can get Openreach FTTP, you can get all the speed you want on AAISP now.

As to leaving I dont know who to recommend. For the minimal changes from Zen in terms of access to IP space, would be Zen probably.

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 12-Apr-22 00:45:39)