AAISP to Launch 80Mbps Home Broadband with a 1 TeraByte Data Cap

UK ISP Andrews and Arnold (AAISP) has furnished us with the first details of their new ‘up to’ 80Mbps FTTC (VDSL2) based Home::1T broadband package, which gives subscribers a soft monthly data allowance of 1 TeraByte (1000 GigaBytes) and also includes line rental into a single price.

At present AAISP’s primary home-focused ADSL (up to 20Mbps) broadband package is Home::1, which by default costs £25 per month and includes a 100GB allowance (or 200GB for £35). However the price of this service soon rises if you optionally choose to add line rental (+£10), an 80Mbps FTTC profile (+£15) and need to top-up the usage allowance (£10 for every 50GB)

Naturally you tend to pay more for higher quality smaller ISPs, especially those that employ IT / network engineers to handle their UK-based technical support, although some heavy usage customers have been crying out for AAISP to offer a service that’s more affordable. This is especially important with 4K video streaming and 40-50GB video game downloads becoming increasingly common.

The solution is a new package called Home::1T (it’s been in development for a long time) and this should be ready to order by the end of January 2016, although the first hard details have now been published.

At present the service is very specific and designed to be a top-end package (e.g. 80Mbps FTTC profile), albeit with some key restrictions (they hope to be able to remove some of these in the coming months). It’s also important to stress that the cost of line rental (PSTN with no voice service) is included in the final price and is not a separate charge, which makes it close to being a pure “Naked DSL” (standalone broadband) package.

Home::1T Package Details
* VDSL speeds capped to 80Mb/s download and 20Mb/s upload
* 1TB (1000GB) monthly download allowance (speeds drop to 3Mbps after exceeding 1TB)
* Data usage on uploads is not metered
* Line rental included
* Includes a BTOpenreach engineer installed VDSL modem
* Includes 1 WAN IPv4 address and a block of IPv6 addresses
* 12 month contract

PRICE: £60 inc. VAT per month

Crucially Home::1T is currently provided as a new service provision and not via a migration, which means that if you have any existing services then they will be subject to any minimum term / cease charges (even if provided by AAISP). Also you can optionally line bond two Home::1T packages, albeit at twice the cost and hence twice the allowance.

The VDSL/FTTC one-off install price is £100, plus £60 one-off for a new phone install if required. You can also purchase a modem/router from AAISP for £25, assuming you don’t have one already (this will be used with the BTOR VDSL Modem).

It’s important to point out that customers who use more than 1TB of data in a single month will NOT be charged extra and instead your top download speed will be reduced to just 3Mbps. Crucially this does not apply to uploads, so you can continue to upload at the full speed of your line.

Overall £60 per month might seem expensive, but even Sky Broadband charge £30 per month for their comparable 80Mbps FTTC Sky Fibre Pro package (others adopt a similar or cheaper price point) and most ISPs often also require you to pay nearly £18 per month for phone / line rental on top.

Meanwhile AAISP are busy upgrading their core network in London with a new 40Gb/s ring and extra transit, peering and carrier links in order to support the new service. On top of that they will similarly be offering a business focused SoHo::1T variant for £100 +vat per month, which includes 2TB of usage (6Mbps thereafter), and an Office::1T (+backup line) package for £300 +vat per month (10TB usage and 30Mbps thereafter).

Under the current plan AAISP hopes to have the new Home::1T ordering systems in place, including ordering a cease of existing service and installation, by end of January 2016. Some existing customers (i.e. those that frequent AAISP’s IRC chat channel) may also be given the option to buy the service by around mid-January 2016.

Never the less this package clearly isn’t for everybody, particularly if you can’t get anywhere near the top FTTC speed. Sadly there’s no 40Mbps option because it wouldn’t have had much of an impact upon the price and they wanted to keep it simple, although we’d still like the option even if it only saves a little bit of money.