Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) Reviews

Never before have I had a honest frank and pleasant chat with an ISP - Until I called A&A!

They are brilliant at what they do - the control panel is amazing as is the IRC chat and the other customers. I have a copper pair line and it's nice to have it as I don't use the phone at all.

The ONLY reason I am migrating away is that, for me, the usage is restrictive (but I knew what they charged for what usage before I joined) The day they offer unlimited ADSL i will be back in a heart beat.

I love A&A's " no bullshit" attitude - We provide a service - you pay your bill. NO special customer offers here we all pay the same and that's fantastic.

If you can live within their usage limits I would highly recommend this ISP as they really are the mutts nuts.

Initially chose them some years ago because of their website - full of technical info, no fluff!

The few times I have had to contact their technical people you get the impression you are dealing with people who really know their job rather than some anonymous call centre person going through a script.

Have just converted to FTTC, changeover went smoothly.

Well worth it!

I've had AAISP FTTC on two sites for 18 months now, and love everything about it. The lack of any fuss makes it well worth the extra money.

The service quality is amazing: if Openreach screw up, AAISP is always on your side and gets things sorted out fast.

In customer support you get to speak to knowledgable humans giving you solutions in minutes when you'd still be navigating the press-1-to-continue menu at other ISPs.

And the director's blog is well worth a read!

I have been with Andrews & Arnold ISP (AAISP) for some years now, starting with "pure ADSL and then moved to FTTC.
A few weeks ago I moved from central London (E1) to Croydon (CR0). This involved a (BT) phone number and line change too. No problem - I shot off an email to AAISP asking how to best arrange this and got an answer a few hours later.
I don't think I've ever had so much guidance and email-tracking on any online service :) so jolly well done to Michael B. and the support guys for making this as smooth as could be.
By linking the BT order's SIM reference (used to be the FORN) AAISP got my circuit live a minute or so after the BT Openworld chap set it up.
It's been said before, this ISP is not the cheapest BUT their technical service provision and A1 support is what sets them apart from the rest. If you want an ISP which speaks technical, can provide technical services and can be contacted via phone, email or IRC to help the technical user then you can't IMHO go wrong with AAISP.

Not the cheapest ISP, but if reliability, performance and service matter to you, you definitely get what you pay for.

Great engineering staff you can actually talk to if you have a problem, not hidden behind layers of call centre drones. When you really depend on your network connection, this is invaluable. Having said that, I've only had two problems in ten years that I called them about, and one of those was BT's fault. AA got it fixed rapidly.

Network performs really well - generally doesn't slow down at peak periods, just when you need it.

I love the control pages. If you know what you're doing, these are just great! I use A&A's SIP-based VoIP service, and have traffic shaping enabled. Gives me low-latency service all the time, no matter what download is happening, for a slight reduction in throughput. No-one else seems to understand that low latency is more crucial than that last 5% of bandwidth. Being able to see traffic graphs is great for diagnosing that something on my LAN is misbehaving.

I just upgraded from ADSL to FTTC. BT Wholesale screwed up the upgrade, but A&A were great at holding them to account on my behalf and getting things sorted out. Currently getting a solid app-level throughput of 36Mb/s down and 9Mb/s up.

And I have static IPv4 addresses and IPv6.

So, not the cheapest, but definitely good value for the service you get.

Really pleased with AAISP so far.

We live in a rural community in Cheshire - only 25 mins from central Manchester and 35 mins from central Liverpool so not exactly dark side of the moon. However there are only 400 subscribers on our exchange and BT have effectively point blank refused to upgrade the exchange despite being offered money to do it.

Have tried BT broadband (lucky to get 0.5 to 1 Mbps when it worked, and spent hours wasting my time on phone to BT helpline when it didn't), satellite broadband with Bentley Walker (works ok from time to time but not much good when x,000 people try to use the same satellite in the evening) and 4G with EE (again could get 20Mbps from time to time, but would frequently drop connection and would have to log back in).

A friend recommended AAISP. I was sceptical, but what was to lose? Registered on their Home 1 service and instantly got email acknowledging the order as well as text (presumably from BT Openreach) letting me know they were activating broadband. The router arrived in the post within a few days and then got text to let me know broadband active on the line.

I was planning to set some time aside to get system working but had 30 mins free one evening and gave it a go. Plugged it in and within 5 mins all the lights had gone green and it seemed we were good to go. To be honest - amazed.

Got 2Mbps right away and ran a speed check with AA's own checked a week later and getting about 5 to 6 Mbps - despite BT saying the max I could get on the line was about 3.

I am well impressed. If speed is maintained then I am going to reactive my other BT line, get BB on that and bet AA to bond together.

Well done Andrews and Arnold

Moved house, with no problems - helped by the fact that the staff at Andrews and Arnold know what they're doing and understand how BT Openreach work (so they knew they needed a Simultaneous Provide code from my phone line provider to move the phone and Internet service at the same time).

I switched to AAISP after being messed about by EE. Despite some EE-derived difficulties at the start (ceasing my line along with my broadband when I requested a MAC for example) I got things set up quickly and easily.

Everyone I've been in contact with at A&A has been helpful and knowledgeable. Having an IRC channel where you can contact sales and tech staff is a stroke of genius, and unlike any other ISP they actually answer the phone and let you talk to real people who know what they're doing - if you need to. The control panel is clear and comprehensive, and the billing system is just as straightforward and logical.

A&A are not the cheapest ISP you will find, but they are excellent value for money. I'd rather pay a little more and get reliable service from skillful, professional small company that has genuine community spirit.

We moved away from a poor provider (PostOffice) and we are VERY pleased with the service so far.

We got Home::1 a couple of weeks ago.

They provide constant monitoring, so you can see when you hit your bandwith limit, your usage and detect "rouge" devices (I discovered that Chromecast was constatnly dowloading pictures when on even if not streaming).

The UPLOAD speed is considerably better (my parents keep on telling me how clean and smooth we look on Skype!) and the downloading is reliable (no more buffering when playing iPlayer)

It is a "technical" ISP, which means you get proper answer to your questions, but going trough the website could be a bit intimidating as there are plenty of technical info and little reassuring marketing crap.

It is roughly twice as expensive, but the overall experience is much more than twice as nice.

We have a monthly 100GB cap of dowload trafic. I am more than happy with caps as long as it is very fast when I need it. I understand there is no unlimited bandwith for everybody all the time.

From first estimates, we probably use 20-25 GB/month

Openreach delayed my install and A&A passed on my feedback to Openreach as well as keeping me in the loop.

They escalate the issue as I had no internet for a month (Openreach's fault) and even sent me copies of their communication with Openreach when I asked for it during my ranting.

They stayed calm and never had an attitude and always responded to every email and tweet efficiently.