ISP Andrews and Arnold Launch 160Mbps FTTP UK Broadband Plan

Internet provider Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) have complemented their recent trial of a G.fast based ultrafast broadband product today by launching a new 160Mbps (30Mbps upload) capable tier for Openreach (BT) based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, which was previously only available at speeds of up to 80Mbps.

Technically speaking the new tier has actually been available via their ordering system for a couple of weeks (we were listing it prior to the G.fast trial) but the official announcement came today. Monthly prices for their home 160Mbps FTTP tier will start at £50 inc. VAT (plus £100 one-off to install) with a 200GB data allowance.

Obviously 200GB is a bit small for ultrafast broadband and thus you can order more data, albeit with prices rising to £60 a month for 300GB or £65 for 1000GB (1 TeraByte). Sadly there are no unlimited plans with AAISP but the 12 month contract package does include a free ZyXEL VMG3925-B10B router and static IP address (IPv4 and a routed block of IPv6s). Take note that the 80Mbps (20Mbps upload) FTTP tier is £10 cheaper.

Andrews & Arnold Statement

We are pleased to announce that 160M FTTP services are now available to existing and new customers.

Customers with an existing 80M FTTP service can email in to our sales team to request an upgrade. The 160M option costs an extra £10/month. New customers can order via our order/quote form: https://order.aa.net.uk/chaos2broadband.html

A couple of important notes…

1. If you use the availability checker, either use a phone number of a line at the address, or use a postcode and follow the link to do a full address check. Just checking on postcode is not good enough.

2. We are not doing FTTP-on-demand. All the quotes we have done have been crazy (more than a normal fibre Ethernet install in some cases) and as we understand it from other ISPs the lead times and hassle are still untenable.

The usual coverage caveat applies with FTTP, which is that at present Openreach’s network can only cover 560,000 UK premises (i.e. very few can take it) but they do expect to reach 3 million by the end of 2020 and possibly 10 million by around 2025.