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[bogof]

Following on from a torrid few months with Zen migrating me to their GEA network and killing my performance https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,27091.0.html , I'm officially in the "looking for another provider to complain about" business now - Zen have just agreed to release me from contract.

Seems to be quite hard to get good data on just how well the various providers are doing with the top FTTP packages

Given BTW from here to Zen seemed performant, I'm tempted by BT Business as an option.

Also considering AAISP, though price and the recent arrival nature of their offering make me hesitant.

Intrigued by Cuckoo, particularly as they had no contract.  BTW / TTalkTalkBusiness there though.  I've not seem much info about performance, and did see a post or two about lacklustre single thread performance on TTB.

Any thoughts on alternatives appreciated.

Particularly interested in good single threaded performance, given I VPN between home and office.

[dee.jay]

AAISP are expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Ironically at £85, 900Mbps AAISP is cheaper than my current setup (2xFTTCs), so it’d be a no brainier for me to have that - but not available for me yet.

However, having said that, it’s a lot when you consider other providers are a fair whack cheaper and a lot of the argument for AAISP goes away when the inherent reliability of FTTP is mostly far higher than that of FTTC.

There are plenty other good reasons though. Having a static IPv4 address comes as standard, unlike with most AltNets.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Indeed, especially when going from Zen at £59.99 and Talk Talk are £49.

It is frustrating that ISPs don't have to advertise single-thread performance.

[bogof]

I think BT business at the cheapest option with Static IP is something like £56.50 Inc VAT after cashback, or £60 including the Halo backup connection stuff.  The halo thing would be hard to use I think without the BT router being involved though, so not sure about that (keeping it on the shelf unplugged until some disaster happens is always an option though).

I'm sure you get what you pay for with the AAISP connection, though being on new gateway HW which is in development still is a little "exciting".  I would have to go to the £85 connection level with 10TB, as the base 1TB isn't enough.  The 10TB would be more than enough unless some disaster happens - we only use about 2.5TB in a month in this house. 

I wonder if there is any way to mine the TBB speed test results to try and get a feel for single thread speeds people get?

[Chrysalis]

Also they let you carry over unused bandwidth up to (I think) double of normal capacity so you will effectively get a point where can burst to 20TB in a month without any reduction of service.

Plenty for those who dont need to download the entire internet.

[bogof]

Also they let you carry over unused bandwidth up to (I think) double of normal capacity so you will effectively get a point where can burst to 20TB in a month without any reduction of service.

Plenty for those who dont need to download the entire internet.

You get to carry half of what you didn't use   I did the math and I think the most it ever grows to is  just under 2*(monthly quota - monthly usage).   So you can only get close to 20TB if you basically don't use it at all...

It's not a concern for me though, I'd have to have some kind of bandwidth leak accident to even get above 2TB.  I think in my case I could cover my usage with 2 months on 10TB followed by 2 months on 1TB, assuming they let you carry still when you change quota level.

[XGS_Is_On]

It is frustrating that ISPs don't have to advertise single-thread performance.

It would go over many people's heads, could only be tested reliably from the ISP's own CPE to somewhere on the ISP's own network and realistically would require too many caveats to be worthwhile.

[bogof]

It would go over many people's heads, could only be tested reliably from the ISP's own CPE to somewhere on the ISP's own network and realistically would require too many caveats to be worthwhile.

Indeed, I mean look at Zen.  Depending on how I connect and what gateway I end up on it can be anything from 200Mbps to 900+Mbps to the exact same servers over the same Openreach cable.   But maybe they could do similar to what Samknows are doing to facilitate the average speed results that are used for the purpose of the VCoP.

The Samknows box I had for a while was collecting lots of data and it was enlightening to see how the results changed when moving from Zen GEA to BTW backhaul.  It's a shame Samknows don't allow more access to the data they collect

[Alex Atkin UK]

The "guaranteed minimum speeds" a lot of ISPs are advertising these days are just as problematic though, as guaranteed when doing what and how often?

You once hit that speed since getting the service, you hit that speed every month, every week, single-threaded, multi-threaded?  There is no getting around it being complicated.

[Weaver]

Ask about single threaded performance. AA would track down any such problems that arise within their carriers. And their kit won’t be guilty, as they understand the issue and will have the sense not to make such design mistakes, so I would suggest based on experience.

By the way, about static IPv4 addresses. You can easily get more than just a single one. Ask for as many as you want, provided you can give the justification for it and that will be without a lot of the Spanish Inquisition about it. When I needed more addresses, I just asked.

[gt94sss2]

The "guaranteed minimum speeds" a lot of ISPs are advertising these days are just as problematic though, as guaranteed when doing what and how often?

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) sets rules about how companies advertise broadband speeds. They must show the average speed that at least 50% of their customers receive at the network’s busiest time (8-10pm).

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/major-change-to-broadband-speed-claims-in-ads.html

https://www.asa.org.uk/static/uploaded/c7caeaeb-24e0-40d4-a49455747eb51bde.pdf

[Alex Atkin UK]

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) sets rules about how companies advertise broadband speeds. They must show the average speed that at least 50% of their customers receive at the network’s busiest time (8-10pm).

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/major-change-to-broadband-speed-claims-in-ads.html

https://www.asa.org.uk/static/uploaded/c7caeaeb-24e0-40d4-a49455747eb51bde.pdf

That's not the guarantee though, its the main advertised speed.  The guarantee presumably is what they expect the other 50% to not fall below and if they consistent do gives you an out in your contract.

[XGS_Is_On]

The "guaranteed minimum speeds" a lot of ISPs are advertising these days are just as problematic though, as guaranteed when doing what and how often?

You once hit that speed since getting the service, you hit that speed every month, every week, single-threaded, multi-threaded?  There is no getting around it being complicated.

There is.

https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/what-is-bt-s-stay-fast-guarantee-

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/sky-fibre-speed-guarantee

Isn't too complicated. Their speed test from their supplied router to their network. That's standard for minimum guarantees. That's how you get around it being complex - to try and guarantee a minimum for every use case with no controls would be absurd. Even private lines don't do that.

[XGS_Is_On]

Ask about single threaded performance. AA would track down any such problems that arise within their carriers. And their kit won’t be guilty, as they understand the issue and will have the sense not to make such design mistakes, so I would suggest based on experience.

This is true. A&A's network is an order of magnitude less complex than many which is part of why they like PPPoE so much. The carriers do all the heavy network lifting aggregating traffic and deliver them PPP sessions into London. They terminate them on Firebricks and then a small routed network until they're in the hands of third parties.

A&A's network carries a pretty small amount of traffic in the grand scheme so no need to worry about massive scaling either.

[Weaver]

Do some of the big ISPs also have complexity because of the differing systems they may still have from ISPs that they gobbled up and assimilated ? We are Borg.