AAISP UK Launch New Broadband ISP Router and Contract Options
Internet provider Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) has complemented their existing 6 month contract terms by adding 1 and 12 month options, as well as free setup. On top of that the highly rated broadband ISP has also introduced a new router and you get this free on their 12 month term.
Customers who take out a 1 month term will still need to pay a £50 one-off setup fee, although this becomes free on both their 6 and 12 month terms. Anybody who needs a new copper pair installed (e.g. when moving into a new house) will still have to pay the usual £60 one-off install charge; assuming you’re buying broadband and line rental together.
Meanwhile the router now being supplied to new subscribers is the ZyXEL VMG3925-B10B, which is a welcome improvement on the old VMG1312-B10D that was previously being offered to customers. By comparison the VMG3925 adds four Gigabit Ethernet (LAN) ports and dual-band 802.11ac spec WiFi, among other things.
ZyXEL VMG3925-B10B Simplified Specification Summary
* Integrated ADSL2+/VDSL2 Modem (1 x DSL Port)
* 802.11ac 5GHz WiFi (max 1.3Gbps data rate)
* 802.11n 2.4GHz WiFi (300Mbps)
* 4 x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
* 1 x WAN Port
* 1 x USB 2.0 Port (Storage, 3G/4G Dongle support)
* Buttons – Reset, WPS/WLAN on/off
* Quality of Service (QoS)
* IPv6
* VLAN
* Firewall
* Generic packet filter
* DOS attack prevention
* Parental controls
We should point out that the WiFi at 2.4GHz features two 2dBi internal antennas, while at 5GHz it uses three 2dBi internal antennas. The router itself weights 256g and is sized as follows: 183 x 150 x 25 mm (7.2″ x 5.9″ x 0.98″).
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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How do we get it
The usual way, join AAISP as a new customer. Not sure if existing subscribers can get it but such things usually attract an extra cost.
Existing customers should be able to get it. I ordered a second SoHo::1 VDSL2 (200GB) service over a week ago I believe which is a 1 month term, to bond with my current first line which is SoHo::1 VDSL2 (2TB).
They also offer IPv4 block of /29 or /30 for Home::1 (announced yesterday on aastatus). I plan to downgrade after my first line is out of contract in a few months as that was the only reason I went for SoHo::1.
Off topic: how good is the tp-link archer vr900 as a replacement for the hg635 of talk talk? Thanks
VR900 is a pretty good modem/router, most TP Link kit is quite good.
Thank you, was thinking to replace it for something better and Curries have it at £100
What’s the point in these companies? All they do is offer the exact same top speeds as everyone else, using the exact same infrastructure and are all similarly priced.
Why are there so many of these? What’s the point
AA is different, they only have monthly download cap in their offer 😀
@Norbert S. Klanu
Yeah I read that! 200GB a month… How are they still in business? Their website looks like it hasn’t changed since 2008 as well.
The access circuit might be the same across most ISPs but the core networks, transit, peering, customer service, support etc certainly isn’t.
There can be a significant difference between ISPs
AA is clearly run by enthusiasts. Their website might look old-fashioned but it actually provides useful technical info, which is quite unusual for ISPs. They also offer SIP trunks with lots of info and a published tariff. Again very rare for a UK provider.
“exact same infrastructure” – yeah, not quite. They make their own LNSs, SIP servers and routers and they have innovative features like being able to fail over to wireless WAN and keep the same public IPs. I don’t know of any other ISP that offers this. This stuff doesn’t come cheap of course, so if you don’t care enough to know the difference then you’re free to save your money by using a lower-spec ISP.
@Ethel Prunehat
Wow. IPs and wireless WAN. Truly game changing top of the line Innovations right there…
Then the data cap. Man that’s some amazing features. What was I thinking?! Silly me.
I remember Adrian once said it’s not unlimited in part because they can’t afford it if they have a bunch of users maxing it out, unlike larger ISPs. And the general cost of bandwidth.
Personally I was extremely surprised to find out how small the company is, to the point where my employer which started roughly around the same time is vastly larger.
To me, it seems that the company has to at least some degree been poorly run as it seems relatively stagnant. There are definitely plenty of people who would rather pay a bit more than deal with some of the bigger players out there. Growing bigger doesn’t mean you have to start providing awful service.
Given that it’s been mentioned that it didn’t appear there were plans any time soon to start selling higher bandwidth offerings such as FTTP/G.fast as it would eat up backhaul & interconnect capacity, I’m dubious if they have any major presence selling EAD. Which as I’m sure anyone in the telecomms industry knows costs far more than DSL and has a much higher profit.
No 24/7 NOC either, which backs up a lack of EAD. Because when our customer’s 10Gbps link fails at 2AM, yes they want that fixed now, not 12 noon because staff have only come in at 8AM.
A&A may be a decent ISP overall, but they have this “we can’t do this because we’re small” mindset. And they seem to remain small in part because they’re apparently content with remaining small. If they don’t up their game, I suspect they will become even worse off as higher bandwidth products start to dominate.
@FerroceneCloud From what I can see they know their target market and are focusing on that. They also don’t seem to be short of money either, they continually invest in their network and capacity, what more could you ask for as a business user?
As for out of hours support, they provide a number for emergencies, which I’m guessing covers leased line issues too.
Don’t forget the old saying, slow and steady wins the race.
Crap doesn’t offer unlimited
Not strictly true, you just pay for what you use, which seems fair really. If i had enough spare cash I would use them, as they are a premium service offering many bespoke things. However you will have to have deep pockets..
Why do you take days to catch up? We were talking about this last week on TBB! lol
“We were talking about this last week”
I suspect that was a first for this year. I glance at ISP headlines on NewsNow and see headlines from ISPr much more often than from TBB.
I see 2x or 3x as many news items on ISPr than on TBB so tend not to even seek out the news on TBB nowadays. Rarely use the forum so less reason to visit.
Sounds like a decent company but for a monthly download limit been at 1TB is way to low, Dont forget we got things like 4K netflix and streaming services like(BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, NOWTV etc, how buys DVDs theses days from a rental store?