Which FTTP ISP?

I am considering moving from FTTC to FTTP and making a decision has proved much less easy than I had originally envisaged!

I want to stay away from the mass market ISPs because I am happy to pay extra for good customer service should I need it and I don't want mid contract price rises and a big jump in price at the end of the initial contract.

As well as IDNet, I have spoken to AAISP, Giganet & Uno to date.

At the moment we are only served by Openreach for FTTP and I did want to stay away from Zen backhaul as there is very much an ongoing concern about Zen wholesale performance on both this forum and on Kitz and I did have some issues with single thread speeds on my IDNet FTTC connection when it was with Zen backhaul.

IDNet & Giganet are advising me that I would be on Zen backhaul if I went with them, so inclined to rule them out.

AAISP would be using BTw backhaul, but I still have some reservations about cost at the higher connection speeds (although only initially looking at 80/20 or 150/30 options at the moment)

Uno are much more competitive with their Fibre Direct Pro offering on the Vodafone network, but I have no real awareness about how good or bad Voda wholesale is. Any feedback on this would be most welcome.

Is there anyone else I should be considering from the less established names? I have seen a few new ISPs crash and burn in the past so would be looking for someone with some solid industry pedigree.

Any thoughts?

Most providers, even the smaller ones will have mid contract price rises and will increase the price after the contract have ended, there is very little you can do about that. You say you don't mind paying more for good customer service, I can go with that, but how often do people need customer service these days?

I always thought Giganet was an Alt network, but they are not, looking at what they offer, their prices are not bad, Is Zen's backhaul that bad?

Maybe you should look at the larger providers, you more or less pushed out all the smaller ones.
I am with plusnet and to be honest they have been very good to me, even customer service, but I have heard it is not as good as it was, but I have had no problem with the few times I had to call them. The only problem I see in the future is if BT decides to get rid of it and merge them with EE. The other problem is if you want to keep your home phone number is that they don't offer a phone service on FTTP.

Possibly add Aquiss to your list?

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

Possibly add Aquiss to your list?

Thanks. I did consider Aquiss but it isn't really an option for me at the moment.

Ah, I hadn't clocked the username

I have eventually plumped for staying with IDNet on their Zen wholesale connection. It's only a one month contract so I thought it worth trying.

If I'm not happy then, AAISP are likely to be my next port of call.

If I end up going to AAISP, it still saves me £25 on install costs compared with going with them in the first place.

Installation due on 20th Feb, so will see how the land lies afterwards.

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

Possibly add Aquiss to your list?

I would second the advice above. I moved from AAISP FTTC to Aquiss FTTP about a year ago and connection hasn't missed beat.

You need to take into account set up charges and discounts.

In reply to a post by lexden16:

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

Possibly add Aquiss to your list?

I would second the advice above. I moved from AAISP FTTC to Aquiss FTTP about a year ago and connection hasn't missed beat.

You need to take into account set up charges and discounts.

Aquiss was by far the cheapest option for the first 12 months taking into account their discounts and lack of install fee, but it really isn't an option for me for reasons I don't want to explain here. I have now placed an order with IDNet anyway, but thanks for your advice.