Advice for Best Full Fibre (FTTP) product overall on Openreach

ButtersUK

Does anyone have any updated views on Zen and Andrews & Arnold? I'm with Idnet on ADSL and close to going over to FTTP and the three companies mentioned get good reports of dealing with customers. From personal experience Idnet definitely do although they seem to be the dearest of the three if going FTTP and including their UBOSS phone plan (£6 pm with no calls and £9 per month for included calls).

I could stay with Idnet and know what I was getting or go to AAISP (Andrews and Arnold and expect an equivalent service as their reviews and reputaion is beyond reproach ... or go to Zen, which I hear was always great in the past but might have slipped back a bit more recently.

Ta.

HaroldWhistler

ButtersUK said:

Does anyone have any updated views on Zen and Andrews & Arnold? I'm with Idnet on ADSL and close to going over to FTTP and the three companies mentioned get good reports of dealing with customers. From personal experience Idnet definitely do although they seem to be the dearest of the three if going FTTP and including their UBOSS phone plan (£6 pm with no calls and £9 per month for included calls).

I could stay with Idnet and know what I was getting or go to AAISP (Andrews and Arnold and expect an equivalent service as their reviews and reputaion is beyond reproach ... or go to Zen, which I hear was always great in the past but might have slipped back a bit more recently.

Ta.

IDNet is a very very good provider according to reviews and keeps thing simple. It is my understanding the cost goes up after the contract ends. Andrews & Arnold are meant to be top notch and probably the best for a business. They are more expensive though on a like for like basis in terms of speed, though the cost stays static after a contract. Zen is meant to have good customer service, though seems to have dropped down on some rankings after they started managing their own backhaul network. Still rated relatively well though. I'd throughly recommend Aquiss if you were just going for FTTP who like IDNet have an excellent customer service reputation and are a well run family business. Cost stays the same after the contract as well. 

This website ISPreview might be helpful for Customer service reviews and rankings:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php

ButtersUK

I've been with Idnet since 2008 and so, from experience, can say their service is good. For what I, myself, want they're not hugely more expensive than Andrews and Arnold or Zen. But I've ruled Zen out anyway. Aquiss are, again, not much different pricewise for a basic FTTP plan but they don't appear to offer the VOIP/homephone/landline service that Andrews and Arnold do and both the Mrs and I would like to keep our landline number for occasional use and as a bit of a standby and at £1.44 a month the AAISP plan is unbeatable. Aquiss require me to give them my details before they will say if they cover my area. Can't see why when everyone else allow you to type your address in and get the results straight away.

I, too, have seen quite a few reports of Zen not being the impeccable company they were ... but they're only reports and I have no personal experience. Seems a shame but we all know things don't stay the same.

Andrews and Arnold seem the best for me as we speak - I've s[oken to them on the phone and was well impressed.- I just need to summon the courage to make the move.

HaroldWhistler

ButtersUK said:

I've been with Idnet since 2008 and so, from experience, can say their service is good. For what I, myself, want they're not hugely more expensive than Andrews and Arnold or Zen. But I've ruled Zen out anyway. Aquiss are, again, not much different pricewise for a basic FTTP plan but they don't appear to offer the VOIP/homephone/landline service that Andrews and Arnold do and both the Mrs and I would like to keep our landline number for occasional use and as a bit of a standby and at £1.44 a month the AAISP plan is unbeatable. Aquiss require me to give them my details before they will say if they cover my area. Can't see why when everyone else allow you to type your address in and get the results straight away.

I, too, have seen quite a few reports of Zen not being the impeccable company they were ... but they're only reports and I have no personal experience. Seems a shame but we all know things don't stay the same.

Andrews and Arnold seem the best for me as we speak - I've s[oken to them on the phone and was well impressed.- I just need to summon the courage to make the move.

Yes for a VOIP service and FTTP, I'd say IDNet or A&A. Both are highly rated according to the ISPreview rankings. 

ButtersUK

HaroldWhistler said:

ButtersUK said:

I've been with Idnet since 2008 and so, from experience, can say their service is good. For what I, myself, want they're not hugely more expensive than Andrews and Arnold or Zen. But I've ruled Zen out anyway. Aquiss are, again, not much different pricewise for a basic FTTP plan but they don't appear to offer the VOIP/homephone/landline service that Andrews and Arnold do and both the Mrs and I would like to keep our landline number for occasional use and as a bit of a standby and at £1.44 a month the AAISP plan is unbeatable. Aquiss require me to give them my details before they will say if they cover my area. Can't see why when everyone else allow you to type your address in and get the results straight away.

I, too, have seen quite a few reports of Zen not being the impeccable company they were ... but they're only reports and I have no personal experience. Seems a shame but we all know things don't stay the same.

Andrews and Arnold seem the best for me as we speak - I've s[oken to them on the phone and was well impressed.- I just need to summon the courage to make the move.

Yes for a VOIP service and FTTP, I'd say IDNet or A&A. Both are highly rated according to the ISPreview rankings. 

But have you actually looked at the VOIP details for both?  As I've said the service I receive from Idnet is good and pretty personal but their UBOSS basic VOIP offering isn't as comprehensive or as competetively priced as AAISP. A VOIP plan with calls to landlines and mobiles with Idnet is £9 a month.The same but with no included calls is £6. With AAISP it's £1.44 for a plan with no calls and the call costs on a PAYG basis are cheap. Plus their plan offers all sorts of facilities for call handling etc that the Idnet UBOSS doesn't.

Additionally with AAISP if taking their FTTP plan they supply a router with two FXS ports to connect your own analogue phone(s) to ... with Idnet it's not quite the same, you're pointed more towards using an ATA (they supply the £120 Grandstream - ready configured).

I will concede none of the aforegoing detail regarding equipment is set in stone, there are options which, obviously,. include using your own gear. But for a straightforward approach regarding taking your own landline number with you and applying it to a relatively uncomplicated solution I sense that AAISP has got it nailed.

Having said all the above I'm still with Idnet and haven't spent 16 years with Andrews and Arnold as I have with Idnet so am not particularly well qualified to say definitively what's what. ..... but thanks for the info and advice received here.

HaroldWhistler

ButtersUK said:

HaroldWhistler said:

ButtersUK said:

I've been with Idnet since 2008 and so, from experience, can say their service is good. For what I, myself, want they're not hugely more expensive than Andrews and Arnold or Zen. But I've ruled Zen out anyway. Aquiss are, again, not much different pricewise for a basic FTTP plan but they don't appear to offer the VOIP/homephone/landline service that Andrews and Arnold do and both the Mrs and I would like to keep our landline number for occasional use and as a bit of a standby and at £1.44 a month the AAISP plan is unbeatable. Aquiss require me to give them my details before they will say if they cover my area. Can't see why when everyone else allow you to type your address in and get the results straight away.

I, too, have seen quite a few reports of Zen not being the impeccable company they were ... but they're only reports and I have no personal experience. Seems a shame but we all know things don't stay the same.

Andrews and Arnold seem the best for me as we speak - I've s[oken to them on the phone and was well impressed.- I just need to summon the courage to make the move.

Yes for a VOIP service and FTTP, I'd say IDNet or A&A. Both are highly rated according to the ISPreview rankings. 

But have you actually looked at the VOIP details for both?  As I've said the service I receive from Idnet is good and pretty personal but their UBOSS basic VOIP offering isn't as comprehensive or as competetively priced as AAISP. A VOIP plan with calls to landlines and mobiles with Idnet is £9 a month.The same but with no included calls is £6. With AAISP it's £1.44 for a plan with no calls and the call costs on a PAYG basis are cheap. Plus their plan offers all sorts of facilities for call handling etc that the Idnet UBOSS doesn't.

Additionally with AAISP if taking their FTTP plan they supply a router with two FXS ports to connect your own analogue phone(s) to ... with Idnet it's not quite the same, you're pointed more towards using an ATA (they supply the £120 Grandstream - ready configured).

I will concede none of the aforegoing detail regarding equipment is set in stone, there are options which, obviously,. include using your own gear. But for a straightforward approach regarding taking your own landline number with you and applying it to a relatively uncomplicated solution I sense that AAISP has got it nailed.

Having said all the above I'm still with Idnet and haven't spent 16 years with Andrews and Arnold as I have with Idnet so am not particularly well qualified to say definitively what's what. ..... but thanks for the info and advice received here.

By the looks of it yes A&A looks like it might be superior from a VOIP technical perspective (and provide equipment making it more seamless) albeit with generally speaking higher priced FTTP broadband. Their customer service is excellent from what I have heard. They have consistently been one of the highest rated providers overall.  

ButtersUK

I'll be the first to admit I'm not infallible and certainly no expert or voice of authority ... but you did say above that AAISP had " higher priced FTTP broadband ".

For basic FTTP with a speed of 115Mb AAISP charge £37 a month (and have done for ages).

For their 160Mb (the nearest comparable offering available) Idnet charge £39 (their prices have crept up a bit ... they used to offer one free month if you paid annually but this year they withdrew that).

Not a lot of difference - but definitely not more expensive.  In fact, cheaper.  However all sorts of further comparisons could be drawn if we looked at installation fees and whether a router was, or wasn't, supplied with the initial fee.  All of which I've done my best to consider and I honestly don't think AAISP charge MORE for their FTTP.

HaroldWhistler

ButtersUK said:

I'll be the first to admit I'm not infallible and certainly no expert or voice of authority ... but you did say above that AAISP had " higher priced FTTP broadband ".

For basic FTTP with a speed of 115Mb AAISP charge £37 a month (and have done for ages).

For their 160Mb (the nearest comparable offering available) Idnet charge £39 (their prices have crept up a bit ... they used to offer one free month if you paid annually but this year they withdrew that).

Not a lot of difference - but definitely not more expensive.  In fact, cheaper.  However all sorts of further comparisons could be drawn if we looked at installation fees and whether a router was, or wasn't, supplied with the initial fee.  All of which I've done my best to consider and I honestly don't think AAISP charge MORE for their FTTP.

Ah I was looking at the 900Mbps/Gigabit package price. True, for 115Mbps, they do actually turn out cheaper. Both are really good ISPs.

onomatopoeia99

ButtersUK said:

Does anyone have any updated views on Zen and Andrews & Arnold? I'm with Idnet on ADSL and close to going over to FTTP and the three companies mentioned get good reports of dealing with customers. From personal experience Idnet definitely do although they seem to be the dearest of the three if going FTTP and including their UBOSS phone plan (£6 pm with no calls and £9 per month for included calls).

I could stay with Idnet and know what I was getting or go to AAISP (Andrews and Arnold and expect an equivalent service as their reviews and reputaion is beyond reproach ... or go to Zen, which I hear was always great in the past but might have slipped back a bit more recently.

Ta.

I've been with A&A for 21 years now and see no reason to change.  Internet only, I no longer have a traditional landline phone service (I used to get that from BT so my line was SMPF as I was paying two different providers for services on the same physical line).

They do everything I want at a technical level and on the very rare occasions I've needed to contact support they have been excellent. 

ButtersUK

Thank you for the various advice posts here. I will be going to AAISP although wilstr i remain on ADSL with Idnet there's not much fiscal advantage by going over but comparing FTTP with FTTP I'd be better off changing. I just need the courage to fill that online form in.