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[jaydub]

Apologies for this reposting of a thread I started on TBB, but I thought it worthwhile posting here as not everyone will use TBB.

I am considering moving from FTTC to FTTP and making a decision has proved much less easy than I had originally envisaged!

I want to stay away from the mass market ISPs because I am happy to pay extra for good customer service should I need it and I don't want mid contract price rises and a big jump in price at the end of the initial contract.

As well as IDNet, I have spoken to AAISP, Giganet & Uno to date.  I also need to rule Aquiss out of consideration.

At the moment we are only served by Openreach for FTTP and I did want to stay away from Zen backhaul as there is very much an ongoing concern about Zen wholesale performance on both this forum and on Kitz and I did have some issues with single thread speeds on my IDNet FTTC connection when it was with Zen backhaul.

IDNet & Giganet are advising me that I would be on Zen backhaul if I went with them, so inclined to rule them out.

AAISP would be using BTw backhaul, but I still have some reservations about cost at the higher connection speeds (although only initially looking at 80/20 or 150/30 options at the moment)

Uno are much more competitive with their Fibre Direct Pro offering on the Vodafone network, but I have no real awareness about how good or bad Voda wholesale is. Any feedback on this would be most welcome.

Is there anyone else I should be considering from the less established names? I have seen a few new ISPs crash and burn in the past so would be looking for someone with some solid industry pedigree.

Any thoughts?

[meritez]

Okay so either 115/20 or 160/30, are you looking for residential or business, 1 year or more term?

[jaydub]

Okay so either 115/20 or 160/30, are you looking for residential or business, 1 year or more term?

Hi Meritez,

It is residential and an 80/20, 155/20 or 160/30 connection - still to be decided.  I have a preference for no more than 12 month and will to pay a slight premium in price if necessary to keep it to 12 months.

There are a couple of one month contract options:  IDNet is a one month contract as standard and there is a one month contract option on Uno as well, although with Uno I would probably want to convert to a longer package once I knew I was happy with it.

[dee.jay]

I’d go AAISP, even with FTTP, and will be going 1Gbps when possible.

About to go bonded FTTC with them for the time being so 1Gbps works out cheaper. I’ve run dual circuits for over 4 years so used to the cost.

If you want to stay away from the mass market ISPs then AAISP is about the best, imo.

[Weaver]

What dee.jay said. 12 years with AA.

[jaydub]

I have eventually plumped for staying with IDNet on their Zen wholesale connection.  It's only a one month contract so I thought it worth trying.

If I'm not happy then, AAISP are likely to be my next port of call.

If I end up going to AAISP, it still saves me £25 on install costs compared with going with them in the first place.

Installation due on 20th Feb, so will see how the land lies afterwards.

[Alex Atkin UK]

FTTP over Zen Wholesale, this should be entertaining......

Seriously though, while a few have had a problems, it can't possibly be their whole network at fault surely - its just isolated cases.  Just sucks if you end up being one.

[j0hn]

FTTP over Zen Wholesale, this should be entertaining......

Should hopefully be alright on the speed tier he was looking at.

All of the issues I've seen with Zen (over their own GEA backhaul) recently have been 500Mb+ throughput issues.

They are the number 1 ISP I would recommend avoiding for 550Mb or 1000Mb FTTP tiers. Never thought I would say that about Zen.

[jaydub]

Should hopefully be alright on the speed tier he was looking at.

All of the issues I've seen with Zen (over their own GEA backhaul) recently have been 500Mb+ throughput issues.

They are the number 1 ISP I would recommend avoiding for 550Mb or 1000Mb FTTP tiers. Never thought I would say that about Zen.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

And I do have a back out option if it all goes belly up.

[XGS_Is_On]

FTTP over Zen Wholesale, this should be entertaining......

My backup connection has been on Zen Wholesale for over a year. 550/75. Can't say I've tested it but it seems okay when it's called into action.

[Alex Atkin UK]

To be perfectly honest, its not like I'm getting full speeds on Zen BTW single-threaded, ever since I gained 10Mbit on multi-threaded I think (not shown in the test as I have about 20-30Mbit background traffic right now).


Steam downloads are also all over the place, but its not like I can firmly put the blame on Zen for that as it generally depends on how specific games are being downloaded/updated.  A lot of updates are patched in so it becomes an IO and CPU bottleneck.

I'm reasonably happy so long as I can reach peak under multi-threaded, given its a lot more usable if you don't max it out on a single client.

[XGS_Is_On]

Steam downloads are also all over the place, but its not like I can firmly put the blame on Zen for that as it generally depends on how specific games are being downloaded/updated.  A lot of updates are patched in so it becomes an IO and CPU bottleneck.

Steam has become weird. They seem to be going out of their way to reduce the amount of data downloaded via extensive use of compression and patching files rather than replacing them. I've noted a fair amount of CPU utilisation when either downloading a new game or updating an existing one.

[Derpy]

Steam has become weird. They seem to be going out of their way to reduce the amount of data downloaded via extensive use of compression and patching files rather than replacing them. I've noted a fair amount of CPU utilisation when either downloading a new game or updating an existing one.

Certain games have been quicker to reinstall than patch as it took so long onto a spin disk but I guess its good for those with poor interest as less data and smarter patching steam wont tax things too much but they need a high speed mode.

[bogof]

I suppose if you're the low end of the speeds Zen are probably quite a good option.  I had a rubbish time with them trying to get my performance sorted at 900/115 and they were frankly bordering on incompetent, with a service that seemed stuck together with silly putty.
I'm with AAISP now and very impressed.
I do wish I'd tried out Cuckoo (who resell TTB network) as they looked pretty promising, good value and month contract option.  But I was a bit fed up of the whole thing so decided on what was probably a safer option.  If I was going into it again and already had an FTTC hat was serviceable, I'd probably get the new FTTP provision with Cuckoo, see what it's like, and if it works well then job's a good 'un, cease the FTTC.

[skyeci]

Zen non-GEA fttp. I can't complain lately. If anything its improved recently...


https://www.speedtest.net/result/14366795159