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Author Topic: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs  (Read 3173 times)

Weaver

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Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« on: September 03, 2016, 03:15:38 AM »

Unfortunately for database maintenance, A & A have many more different deals than the original “traditional”, “units-based” tariff that I use.

The info on the site seems to be referring only to the units-based tariff, which I suspect few new domestic users will be going for, especially as it isn't promoted as much as the new deals Home::1, Office::1, Home::1TB, the business 10 TB and business truly unlimited flat-rate.

Unfortunately, the description as it stands, which only covers the traditional, units-based tariff needs some correction. Usage outside office hours, evenings and at weekends is not unmetered, it's just metered at a far lower rate. There is an unmetered period on this tariff which is 02:00-06:00. These time-based differing charging rates do not apply to the other new deals mentioned earlier, nor is there any unmetered period.

In the traditional tariff, basically you buy a certain number of units in advance, but you are not restricted to this amount, so there is no cap. If you use more than you have pre-paid for, then the overusage is either taken over to be subtracted from the next month’s total, or the excess is charged to you at a slightly higher price per unit than if you had pre-purchased it.

The new tariffs have a fixed price pre-paid download usage allowance, charging is unrelated to  time of day, and you have various choices for download totals. There are various restrictions on the availability of some of the newer deals. I can't remember what happens when such a user uses up all of their download total. It is definitely worth describing the Home::1, Office::1 charging schemes first as these are now going to be the most common and are designed for clarity of understanding and easy budgeting.

AA offer IP: ADSL, FTTP and FTTC; also Ethernet too which I haven't mentioned, IPv4-over-3G data-only, which I use; L2TP access to their network over the Internet, and VoIP. No POTS voice services at all.

Bit of a nuisance.
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jelv

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Re: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2016, 08:39:51 AM »

What do these comments relate to? http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/isp_information.php?isp=aaisp only has the recent packages and not the unit based ones.
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Broadband and Line rental: Zen Unlimited Fibre 2, Mobile: Vodaphone
Router: Fritz!Box 7530

Weaver

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Re: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2016, 04:04:06 PM »

@jelv good point.

found it
        http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/caps.htm

It's a lot of work maintaining all of this. We're grateful for all that our leader and her team put in. Happy to offer any practical help, if I'm able. Don't want to just be whinging.

And I'm aware that some of the material needs to be concise. I wasn't aware of the other page you linked to, I just accidentally came across the one page above, which had a couple of  errors in it. I'm not wishing to imply that the page above should try and become War and Peace, and it could quickly be fixed by simply reducing the detail or linking direct to the AA website. That's a decision best left to others.

Referring to jelv's detailed info page there are other important deals including some introduced  this year, the Office::1 deals, the Home::1T 1TB deal. The business user deals include a 10 TB deal and, uniquely for AA, their only truly unlimited deal, available as there is a mathematical upper bound on how much you can possibly download in a month and the new 1 TB / 10 TB and unlimited deals are made feasible by huge bandwidth bulk purchases by AA from TalkTalk wholesale, iirc. I read that this has been accompanied by expensive and radical internal network upgrades in London and the acquisition of new staff with the relevant experience.

Unfortunately, some of that stuff is rather buried in the AA website, which doesn't make it easy for kitizens to maintain stuff, nor for potential customers to find a concise summary easily.

 I do hope I remembered it correctly, please do excuse me if I have misreported some material due to confusion.
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kitz

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Re: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2016, 09:53:46 PM »

Ah.. you appear to be referencing an old page marked Page last updated Jul 2009.
As Jelv said latest info is on the AAISP page.
This can be accessed via the ISP tab > ISP Detailed Info > AAISP

However, I admit that it isnt clear that the caps page was only maintained when caps/FUP and ISP performance was a real issue 10 years ago and until 21CN started to make a real difference.
What I have done is just update the caps page with an introductory few paragraphs.
I'll also do similar for the adsl wholesale cost page which related to the same period and when bandwidth was a big issue for ISPs.

I dont really want to delete those pages, as looking back now they form a huge part in the history of DSL in the UK.    In some ways it shows how much we have progressed...  yet its also sad to see how many ISPs have died and/or merged along the way as they tried to compete in a market where there wasn't much profit.    It's quite clear to see that the reduction in pricing has had an effect on customer service though as the big boys have taken over.  :(
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kitz

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Re: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2016, 10:15:28 PM »

Quote
there are other important deals including some introduced  this year, the Office::1 deals,

I don't do Business/Office deals and primarily aim content at the home user.    Its a mammoth task trying to keep up with residential pricing etc.. and its not something I get any deal of reward from.   I think some people may use the info then go to the cash back sites from which I cant compete.  I do seem to get referrals and then the vast majority get clawed back, indicating they've started here, then used another site after :(

Telephone costs also play an important factor these days, so a while ago I started to rewrite the back-end so include line rental costs. 
The new database is in use, and this can be seen on the individual ISP pages, but it has temporary broken the price search page, which as you will see I pulled last week until I get time to write a new one which incorporates the line rental costs.

Quote
We're grateful for all that our leader and her team put in.

Thank you. :)  Unfortunately I have to be a jack of all trades and I don't think a lot of people see what goes on behind the scenes and that most of my time is taken up with that.   For eg the whole day on Tues was taken up by sorting something on the server's drive content to keep the server running.    You guys shouldn't have noticed anything other than perhaps a few odd periods of slight slowness as I was moving things around. 
I actually showed b*cat a screen grab of part of the back end system for ISP alone which is all custom written and I think he would be easily able to confirm that it is actually very large - hundreds of pages of thousands of lines of code. 

 
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How to get your router line stats :: ADSL Exchange Checker

Weaver

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Re: Update on AAISP deals and tariffs
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2016, 02:47:43 AM »

Many thanks for all you do. This thread was not intended in any way to be whinge, just an info update, to be one of your spies out on the street. Indeed you could as I said easily just delete some text or link to AA. Much love and peas etc etc
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