AAISP Confirms 50GB Usage Allowance Boost for Home Broadband Users
Customers of UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), specifically home (Home::1) and small business (SoHo::1) broadband subscribers, have been given a 50GB boost to their monthly usage allowance at no extra cost. The exception being their 1000GB (TeraByte) package that remains unchanged.
The move means that somebody who might have previously taken their £35 per month (inc. line rental) entry-level ADSL broadband package (£45 for FTTC / VDSL2 “fibre“) will now receive a monthly allowance of 200GB instead of the previous 150GB allowance.
Andrews & Arnold Statement
We have changed the monthly quota allowances on Home::1 and SoHo::1 today, increasing all of the sub terabyte rates by 50GB per month, without changing prices.
I.e. you now get 200GB for the previous price of 150GB, and 300GB for the previous price of 250GB.
Existing customers have had this additional amount added to their September quota.
The provider has also been consulting on the possibility of other future changes (here) and we may learn more about the outcome from that in the future.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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50gb boost….whoopie doo
Should go for UNLIMITED usage instead. Many isp’s are now unlimited.
It might be worth a little explanation :
One of the things that allows us to deliver the quality of service that we do deliver (as backed up by the evidence of reports such as this : https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/7811-uk-broadband-speed-test-results-for-august-2017) is that we do not generally market “unlimited” services.
This enables us to more carefully plan network capacity. One of the reasons we don’t have ‘evening slowdowns’ and similar is this simple fact. Have a look at the quality metrics and various averages for absolute speeds in the above URL. You will see that we are the fastest for our type of technology.
There are unlimited ISPs out there, but (with like-for-like technology) they are all slower than us. We have a niche at the moment that we’d lose if we joined the mass market, I think. Our larger quota packages (1TB, 2TB, 5TB etc.) really are effectively unlimited for most users anyway.
We do have lots of customers who are prepared to pay for this level of service (and are unconcerned that it isn’t “Unlimited”. I do accept it isn’t for everyone however.
Cheers!
Alex @ AAISP
Latest comments on the directors blog also indicate they have an issue with customers using their full allowance, if you’ve paid for 1TB etc the ISP should factor that usage in and expect the customer to use the 1TB each and every month – if you can’t do it then don’t offer it!
There are unlimited ISPs out there, but (with like-for-like technology) they are all slower than us.
Really? if your L2TP is anything to go by – 74mbps on my ISP vs 71mbps on you
then you are blowing smoke up your arse.
@jack
That’s not what he said. Try going back and reading it again, including the follow-up comments and posts in which he gives further explanation and clarification. I’m beginning to think that some are wilfully misreading the intent behind his comment. Or perhaps it’s just that they’re unaware of how the industry works and how it does its network planning.
Regardless of what you think should be the case, what is the case is that if everyone suddenly decided to use every bit of bandwidth to which they are notionally entitled, the services that provide access to the Internet would grind to a halt. The Internet access business has always been this way (remember those 50:1 contention ratios?). The network planning is done on the assumption that not everyone will demand their bandwidth ‘entitlement’ at the same time.
Perhaps fractional reserve banking is a reasonable analogy? If several people bang their fists on the counter at the local bank, each demanding to withdraw a thousand pounds in cash, it’s probably not going to be a problem. If a hundred customers do it, the bank probably won’t be able to meet the demand, even though on paper (no pun) the customers have every right* to demand their cash. (*At least this was traditionally the case, I’m not sure it’s true today)
This is the reason, I suspect, that Adrian Kennard expressed dismay at the idea that customers would deliberately attempt to exhaust their bandwidth allowance each month. In theory everyone has the right to do this, in practice, the planning and provision doesn’t allow all customers to do it simultaneously. And as far as I’m aware, this is the same at BT, TalkTalk, Zen, AAISP, and all the others.
@Simon
You can disagree and present your evidence without being rude. Having also read your comment below, why are you so angry? No one’s forced to use Andrews & Arnold. The great thing about the relationship between the staff and customers at AAISP and the atmosphere on the #a&a channel, is the degree of respect, helpfulness and good humour that prevails. It’s a big part of their secret sauce and one reason why they are successful despite having a tariff structure that you personally don’t care for.
L2TP = extra overheads = slower throughput. Not rocket science and nothing to do with the provider of the L2TP tunnel.
£35 a month for entry level ADSL? What a total rip-off.
… And yet we have lots of customers who appreciate the quality of the service; both technical and what might be termed ‘social’, and are prepared to pay that bit more for what they get. UK based callcentre only, staff who are experts rather than following scripts, and a network that enables people to maximally use their line all the time. The fact we are the highest rated ISP on this very site really ought to indicate this. http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php
It’s not for everyone. But it is for lots of people.
Alex @ AAISP
“and a network that enables people to maximally use their line all the time.”
Rather begrudgingly, as your Director recently stated – People who do that are “dicks” and he does not want people to be “dicks”
SO again, read above
@Simon Do you have a link for that? Pretty bad if he said that.
Simon,
I am really not sure why you’re out to prove a point, to be honest. There isn’t a point to prove.
But… Our director’s blog is his personal opinion. And I sympathise with it, even if I’d not have quite phrased it as he did. His blog is called “RevK’s rants” and it is meant to be humorous and informative.
Essentially the point he was trying to make was that if you go to an “all you can eat buffet” and fill your pockets, then deliberately waste the food (flush it down the loo), then that is not “decent behaviour”.
This would be akin to someone downloading right up to their quota, and piping it to /dev/null, literally to run it out. It’s not really reasonable to do that. Internet is a shared resource, just as the all-you-can-eat buffet is a shared resource. I agree with him entirely on this. And I think most/all moral, reasonable people would too.
Obviously A&A has no issue with people who use their full quotas, for whatever they want; Linux ISOs, video, streaming etc. And I think in truth the number of customers we have who “burn” their quotas is nil or close to nil.
I hope this makes it clear.