2016-01-07

Terabyte service milestones

Just to keep people up to date on this - the new A&A terabyte services, which start with Home::1 terabyte at £60/month including the copper pair for 80/20 capped FTTC.

The first milestone was many months ago when I first mentioned this, and was sorting the contract and pricing with Talk Talk wholesale to be able to launch the new service. Sadly the paperwork took forever.

The second milestone was just before Christmas when we were able to place orders for this (manually) on two test staff lines.

Yesterday we got to our third milestone, which is two lines working! One was a new install of a copper pair and FTTC, which worked (i.e. all happened at once). The other was a take over of an existing phone line and install of FTTC.

The takeover is cheaper, but it seems that there is a slight snag. BT pulled the plug at around 1am, and it tool until 6pm for the new service to be working.

But no, we are not ordering lines for customers just yet - we have a couple of bits to do over the next few days to sort our back-end ordering systems. These will be tested on some more internal lines. Then we can start taking some early adopter orders. I expect this to be Monday.

However, the big job is a totally new front end ordering system for customers, and this will allow people to order new lines, and re-grade existing services. This will take a few days to get working, and we are hoping to actually have our new XML ordering system with an on-boarding platform and so on as part of this. So watch this space.

P.S. the actual service i described http://aa.net.uk/news-2016-terabyte.html

Update: This is quite an old post - we now have Terabyte services using ADSL or VDSL, and the copper pair / phone line can be added or use existing line as normal now.

36 comments:

  1. Nice work! Given this is a home service, may I assume £60/month includes VAT at the current rate?

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  2. Hi Kevin, so if I have an existing 80/20 fttc account with you (but line is provided by someone else as I still need land calls) will it just be a question of asking for an upgrade to the terabyte service or doesn't it work like that?

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    Replies
    1. "Kevin"? Worth checking the web site for the full details. It is a new install. Adrian

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    2. My understanding is, that at present, you'll have to pay the setup fee again. Which sucks - I'm going to wait till proper migrations are possible without having to pay and have a service interruption.

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    3. Sorry, it was the K that threw me...

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    4. Note Home::1T does not provide any phone service on the line, so you'll lose your phone Paul. This is why I've just ordered the standard FTTC service from A&A now my cabinet has been upgraded to FTTC, I need the phone as well.

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    5. But nothing to stop me ordering a second line with the Home::1T service (apart from, as ever, cost)?

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    6. Quite - a lot of people do not use landline for phone now, either using mobile or VoIp or both.

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    7. Well I'm already paying £60 a month currently for the 200GB service and a A&A line without calls!

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  3. Where does the 'Terabyte' come into the service?
    Is it the monthly data allowance?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, on the Home one. A SoHo one is 2TB

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    2. Would be nice if you did a SoHo 1TB too. I'd conciser that if if was closer in price to the home package.

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  4. As a new customer in waiting with a need for service to a new house around the end of Jan this is really exciting news! I shall be keeping a close eye out for formal availablity and placing an order as soon as I am able.

    Really glad to see this kind of development of services and open discussion of their deployment - really re-affirms that A&A are the right choice for me :)

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    Replies
    1. Remember we can always do VoIP for a normal phone number.

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    2. I've just finished ordering that very thing :)

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  5. So now you have a couple of lines active, what audio is on them to deter Kelly engineers stealing pairs? Dial tone? Audio announcement? Or (and this is my guess) nothing at all.

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    Replies
    1. Dial tone - we are looking at options though, like we do on WLR3

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    2. Considering TT have no LLU kit in my exchange providing a dial tone might prove challenging (if all lines are MPF). FTTC GEA services are coming from a bigger neighbouring exchange. The AAISP checker says yes for TT back haul, no for LLU.

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    3. When you dial 17070 you get a totally different message back from the system as to the BT supplied message giving you the line number. That should clue the engineer in!

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  6. I left A&A for BT a few months, ago was hoping you would be able to do something about the allownaces.

    Quick question will this be like the units system where any unused bandwidth rolls over to the next month, so in an extreme example the internet is unused for a month you have 2 terabytes available the next?

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    Replies
    1. No, but as it explains on the web site, over usage will mean cap at 3Mb/s used from the next month.

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  7. So it's not immediately clear, does that mean no incoming/outgoing freephone calls either? Not particularly bothered just curious how it differs from AA's existing broadband only phone lines.

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    1. We are not 100% sure yet, and as soon as we can get these with SMPF, we'll have them the same as other services (e.g. with our blocked lines or with another provider PSTN line).

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    2. "as soon as we can get these with SMPF, we'll have them the same as other services (e.g. with our blocked lines or with another provider PSTN line)."

      I like the sound of that. What's it connected to now - a TalkTalk LLU PSTN port with calls disabled, or something special-purpose? Any idea what the timescale might be for a regular SMPF option so I could use another PSTN provider?

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    3. Spot on. They said maybe February but I won't hold my breath.

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  8. As i live in one of the area's that BT is offering their SOGEA trial , is this also something that you will be able to offer? Also regarding SOGEA how can a line be migrated to it? From what i have read about it ,They only talk about new lines, and there's info regarding a new design of NTE 5, being installed for SOGEA , why a different NTE 5 would be needed i don't know

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    Replies
    1. I think the actual trial is next January but we have asked to be involved in it.

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    2. No, it's available now, In my area,(In trial area) it shows it on the BTW's ADSL checker

      Here is some info about this new NTE https://thecomputerperson.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/new-bt-master-socket-faceplate-nte5c-2/

      http://www.sinet.bt.com/sinet/sins/pdf/STIN517v1p0.pdf

      IMO BTOR installing this new design of NTE isn't going to be of any real benefit, as FTTC would work without it, surely all is required is the removal of the E'side pair(unless that is required for remote testing) ? this new NTE-c seems to be no more than another way for BTOR to generate revenue,Can you see any benefit /improvement to the end user,? i can't only further costs, due to engineering charges to install SOGEA,

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    3. That new NTE5 looks as ugly as hell in those pictures. It would look completely out of place in most houses I know. Fortunately I had a new current style NTE5 fitted last year, so I should be good for a while.

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    4. Does anyone know anything about the 'cam lock' terminals in this new NTE? (e.g. who makes them) I'd be interested in an alternative to Krone.

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  9. Any further info on this would be gratefully received , thanks

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  10. http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/12/bt-confirm-uk-trial-locations-for-standalone-fttc-fibre-broadband.html

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    Replies
    1. Oh, I'm in the technical trial area. Not sure I want to delay getting the broadband in my new home delayed any further though.

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