I joked about being able to make a thread about all the things that make RevK angry but he’s also done some cool stuff too
This is his company https://www.aa.net.uk/
Has he made a nice 404? 
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Definitely won’t be using him, probably end our contract and charge me for it if I sent him an email
Pigeons are quicker!
I’ve been a customer of theirs for many years. Can’t fault them at all. The caps won’t be for everyone, but they’re no issue for me. It’s the price you have to pay for completely uncontested access to the internet.
Other ISPs will only resort to limiting you in other ways which only leads to contention, and if they don’t, you get congestion. It’s the only ISP I’ve been truly satisfied with, though IDNET have attractive offerings these days.
How so, out of interest? I’m with an FTTC provider using Openreach infrastructure and speeds are consitent. I believe it’s Virgin Media’s cable network that particularly struggles with congestion. I like the look of A&A but as you say…
…and I’m one of them! Unlimited mobile data is something that, for me, is worth the premium, so limits at home just aren’t even fathomable personally.
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Fair use policies.
It can vary by ISP. Some will throttle your speeds if you’re downloading too much too quickly. Virgin we’re a nightmare for this when I was with them. Paid for 300mbps, download a video game, then I’m stuck at speeds of 50mbps for hours.
Other ISPs deploy traffic management or traffic shaping policies in order to handle loads. If you’ve ever streamed Netflix at 6 pm and noticed deteriorated quality, that’s what’s happening.
Others just won’t do anything at all, and what tends to happen here in some areas is that they oversubscribe, where they end up with more users than bandwidth they have available to serve all of them at full speeds. What can happen here is a bit like what would happen to your water supply if everyone on your street decided to run their taps at exactly the same time.
Others will have hidden caps in their contract or will reserve the right to terminate your service at their discretion for any reason. If you use too much, you can face getting cut off, but they don’t often define how much is too much, and it’s rarely been enforced to my knowledge.
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but Three’s unlimited tariffs used to have a fair use policy of 100GB per month, and there are folks I knew who had their SIM card cut off for going over it.
With AAISP I pay for 2TB of data. That data is mine and only mine. No other broadband subscriber can contest it, so where others will slow when competing with each other (sky customers for example), mine never will.
There are of course still bottlenecks outside of the AA network, such as your local exchange, or your cabinet, but if you’ve ever had to deal with BTOR, then you’ll know what a hassle it is, and you’re lucky if you get beyond the scripted responses designed to make you tear your hair out and go away and put up with it. When you’re with a third party ISP, it’s their job to deal with BT for you. And AAISP excels wonderfully at that, which is the other thing you’re paying for. Their support team aren’t your typical monkeys, most are programmers and engineers themselves.
With that all said, I do like what IDNET are offering lately. They come very close to AAISP in terms of quality and support. They don’t oversubscribe bandwidth yet still secure enough to offer completely unlimited usage with a 1:1 contention ratio, and they’ve recently reduced their pricing and become a B Corp. there’s a lot to like. My only concerns are they aren’t as vocal as AAISP on internet ethical issues like privacy and censorship, and they’re using the new SoGEA service which has no actual line rental, so no dial tone, and OR engineers like to overzealously disconnect lines without a dial tone when cabinets are at capacity and they’re performing a new install.
AAISP also provide really cool CQM tools and data and controls over your line which I personally love too. No one else provides anything like that AFAIK. They’re also one of the few to provide IPV6.
I’ll never move back to one of the traditional big ISPs though for the simple reason that they don’t like you using your own equipment in place of theirs.
This is a really long reply, I’m sorry. I’m passionate about these things a could talk for hours about them! 
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Thanks for all the info - it’s interesting! I can’t say I’ve noticed any issues with this myself…
But maybe my custom DNS mitigates against that? I’ve never used Virgin, mind you, as I don’t like the idea of being stuck in a monopoly (whereas switching between Openreach infrastructure-based operators is super easy when one decides to rip you off).
Again, can’t say I’ve every encountered this, and back when I was with Three there were months when I’d use in excess of 150gb per month!
I’m with Plusnet but switched from their own ‘Hub One’ to a privately-purchased BT Smart Hub due to far superior range and speeds (and since PN are part of the BT Group, the Smart Hub can be successfully configured to work with my PN credentials). I’ve never had the need to upgrade to fully custom equipment so I’d be curious to know how the big ISPs don’t like you using your own? IIRC my Plusnet welcome pack actually came with an entire guide on how to set up third party modems to work with my PN broadband.
This is actually one of the reasons I stay with Plusnet instead of moving my broadband to Vodafone (which is cheaper and also would get me a reduction on my monthly phone contract, since it’s also with them), since I see my ISP a bit like my GP; it’s important to have a good one so that they will refer you to Openreach (or a hospital in the case of a GP in the analogy) when needed without all the faffing about. I don’t doubt though that the A&A support is far more competent, but for the price I’m pretty happy with Plusnet’s.
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Also with AAISP - since 2000, I believe…
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Possibly! Some people pay for a VPN to bypass those things too, as they’re given priority in the networks and circumvent throttling.
Oooft! Dangerous territory there! I think it was only repeat offenders they would boot off the network. It’s quite an old policy, so it’s also likely changed in recent years too.
I believe much of the reasoning behind AAISP capping the service is that, unless you’re a heavy 4K streamer (though I’m hoping they increase allowances again to account for 4K video and game streaming services) 2TB is enough and effectively unlimited for most households. Might be worth seeing if your router collects statistics like that to see how much you’re actually using. Their concern is that if they were to offer unlimited, given their reputation, they would attract the wrong sort of customers that would wind up being too expensive for them or congest their network.
Plusnet are one the better mainstream ISPs! Their network last I checked is free from censorship. I believe they also have their own dedicated network with the BT back haul, so they’re not fighting with other networks who use BT for the back haul either. My only gripe with Plusnet is the take part in the tier system for broadband pricing. The offers and prices you see on TV and on their website are only what you’ll get in the cheap areas. In extremely rural areas like mine, we get the most expensive prices, and few to no special offers. Last I checked, for the 80/20 package that I have with AA, plusnet were only £5 cheaper!
Sky is a good example here. Not using their equipment violates tos I believe. You can still use your own but they make it very difficult and it becomes a hacky setup. They can tell if you do that and will refuse to provide you with support until you reconnect their supplied equipment back up. I don’t think it’s possible to completely avoid using Virgin’s hub since it’s cable not VDSL. BT didn’t like you using your own either when I was with them, and I don’t believe their hub could act as a modem, which meant to do so i’d either end up with double Nat, or a similar hacky setup to sky. ISP equipment just don’t come close to the performance I get from my own.
Edit: just to quickly add on to this, you can find a good break down of the FUPs of some of the mobile networks here:
They’re far more generous than they used to be in the world of 3G!
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Yes, BT hubs have no “modem only” mode, but you can just disconnect the hub and use your own router with built in modem. Obviously if you use FTTC it has to support VDSL, but otherwise it’s fine. If you are lucky enough to have Openreach FTTP, then they do provide a modem for that which is separate anyway.
If asked for credentials to connect to the BT network, you need to use these:
Username: [email protected]
Password: BT
Now, if you have trouble with the line or something, BT’s call centre will probably refuse to engage with you unless you are using the Hub, but that is fine - simply plug it back in while they run their line tests or whatever, then switch straight back to your usual setup. You just need to keep the hub in the back of a cupboard for such situations.
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