Training Example: A&A (Andrews & Arnold Ltd) – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

For home, for business, or for your home office, for over 29 years A&A has been delivering high quality Internet connectivity. We aim to provide a brilliant service by both technical and social means. Our network capacity and monitoring ensure low latency and no 'evening slowdown' that is often seen on other providers, and our staff are UK-based enthusiastic experts in the field, not following support scripts.

[H2] Our core services

[H2] Broadband

[H2] Broadband
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[H2] VoIP & Mobile

[H2] VoIP & Mobile
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[H2] Ethernet

[H2] Ethernet
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[H2] Our Reviews & Why we're diferent

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(Source: ispreview.co.uk December 2024)

For more information about why we're different from other providers, visit: Why choose A&A.Don't just take our word for it, hear what other customers say... We have nearly 500 reviews on ISPreview and over 500 on TrustPilot.

[H2] Broadband ordering

New system: We have a new system for placing broadband orders -this is much improved for some complex types of order. Please do use it and let sales know any issues....Order now

Non-authorised switching? If you have been told that your existing broadband service is being switched to us but you did not authorise it, we have a system to cancel that here, or contact the sales team.

[H2] More from A&A

[H3] FireBrick Routers

Not only are A&A an Internet and VoIP service provider but we also design and manufacture our own range of SoHo and ISP-grade routers under the FireBrick brand.

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[H2] Featured products & services

[H2] FireBrick Devices

[H2] FireBrick Devices
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[H2] Moving to VoIP

[H2] Moving to VoIP
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[H2] Circuit board shop

[H2] Circuit board shop
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A&A is not like other broadband providers. Our staff are experts based in the UK and do not follow support scripts. We don't overload our network, so there is no "evening slowdown". In short, we are not mass market and we do not aim to be. If you feel you've been badly treated by another ISP, and want something better, you've come to the right place.

New!We've removed the monthly usage cap on the higher-rate tariffs. This applies to existing and new customers. See our news page for more information.We now have 1 month minimum term options on Openreach FTTP services.

[H2] A&A Broadband Packages

[H3] Home::1

Specifically aimed at home usersStarts with ADSL and 1TB/month download for £35.00Faster VDSL, G.FAST and FTTP/CityFibre services up to 2.5Gb/s where coverage is availableIdeal for any family, whether you are into games or just Facebook and streaming.Fixed IPv4 addressesLike all of our services Home::1 includes IPv6 and uncensored Internet as standard.

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[H3] SoHo::1

Aimed at small business users.Starts with ADSL and 2TB/month download for £35.00 +VATFaster VDSL, G.FAST and FTTP/CityFibre services up to 2.5Gb/s where coverage is availableIncludes an option to use our VIP line monitoring, alerting staff if your line goes downAdditional IPv4 address blocks as needed.

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[H3] Multi-line bonding

We can provide multiple lines and the hardware to bond them together.Ideal for areas with slower ADSL or VDSL (SoADSL / SoGEA)Increased upload and download speedsImproved resilience in case on one line having a problemA configured FireBrick FB2900 available as the router (Providing speeds up to 750Mb/s)Get in touch with us for more information

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[H2] Some of our recent reviews:

10th Dec: I'm glad I switched to A&A18th Oct: Excellent capability and service

16th Oct: A proper internet connection23rd Aug: As it should be

3rd Oct: Customer service; stress free house move1st Aug: Absolutely fantastic

[H2] Stand-out features
Here are some of the key features of all our broadband packages.

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[H3] Real IP addresses
All packages have IPv4 and IPv6 as standard, no extra costs. No CGNAT here! Or you can bring your own IPs.
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Home::1 lines get assigned a fixed IPv4 WAN address and can request a block of 14 or 30 usable addresses (a /28 or a /29).Each line is assigned a /64 block of IPv6, and additional blocks or even the whole /48 can be routed if required.You can bring your own IP addresses to us too, see our ByoIP page.

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[H3] UK-based support team
Support is on hand. Our UK-based support team are here to help you, either by telephone, email, sms, livechat, irc etc. (We don't really wear bow ties!)

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[H3] Constant Quality Monitoring
We monitor every line every second.
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Our monitoring graphs are available on our Control Pages and will show lots of information to help 'see' the quality of your line as well as showing traffic levels.
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[H3] We'll fix your line
Give us a month and we'll sort your problem broadband line or your money back
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If you are migrating your service to us, even though you know you have a problem with your broadband line, we'll take on the fault. We'll tackle the problem and get it fixed within one month. If we don't, then you can migrate away, and owe us nothing for your migration to us and your service charges for that month.Learn more

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ADSL vs VDSL vs G.Fast vs FTTP

The four main types of broadband are ADSL, VDSL, G.Fast and FTTP. The ADSL service uses a modem link all of the way back to the telephone exchange - this will have a lower speed for the modem sync (0-21Mb/s) depending on the line. VDSL uses a modem link only back to the main street cabinet, and so this is normally a much better service with a higher speed (0-80Mb/s) depending on the line. We also offer G.Fast, which is a variant of VDSL but can give higher speeds on short lines (0-160Mb/s). FTTP (Fibre to the premises) is where your property has fibre installed right in to your property, and we offer services with speeds up to 1Gb/s. Which services are available depends on your location. For an estimate of the speed for your location and which services are available to you, please use the availability checker.Note that we do not offer the "FTTP On Demand" product.

A&A: An unfiltered Internet connection

We do not have, in our network, any equipment installed to filter access to any part of the public Internet for our customers as a whole. We will give 12 months notice if we ever add any such filtering.This claim relates to the passing or normal unicast IPv4 and IPv6 packets to and from the public Internet based on the appropriate standards and RFCs. This means packets can be dropped because a link is full or there is a technical fault, or because they are malformed in some way, or clearly spoofed or incorrect source addresses. In the case of some sort of attack we can take steps to manage that. Only packets actually addressed to your IP addresses will get to you, and similarly only packets from you that are from your IP addresses will get to the Internet (BCP38). We don't control the rest of the Internet and so cannot bypass corporate or national firewalls or filtering outside of our network. However, we aim to deal with peers and carriers that have similarly open policies where possible.An unfiltered service does not give you any right to do anything wrong or illegal, and we can, of course suspend your service for breach of our AUP or non payment. You can run your own firewall or restrictions on your own network or ask us to set up such firewalls for you. Parents are advised to supervise their children's use of the Internet and consider parental controls as appropriate.We do this because censorship is a bad idea. Even a small amount of censorship for a good cause is the thin end of the wedge and ultimately leads to restriction of free speech. Bear in mind that we may have to restructure your contract for service to be with another company or other legal mechanisms to avoid censorship or monitoring orders

A&A: An uncongested Internet connection

Our target is to ensure links to carriers are not congested - i.e. we are never the bottleneck. Whilst it is technically impossible to guarantee this, we will monitor congestion carefully and provide reports on how well we have achieved that target for each type of service

WiFi Challenges and Limitations

Wireless networking is one of the most useful of all modern technologies, allowing levels of convenience and flexibility that would have seemed like science fiction only a couple of decades ago. But, it can sometimes be problematic.Read more about WiFi challenges and limitations

Our broadband speed code of practice

We have a code of practice that covers speed and quality. Read more.

We'll fix your line even if you are with another ISP!

Give us a month and we'll sort your problem broadband line or your money back.If you are migrating your service to us, even though you know you have a problem with your broadband line, we'll take on the fault. We'll tackle the problem and get it fixed within one month. If we don't then you can migrate away and owe us nothing for your migration to us and your service charges for that month. Read more.

As fast as we can

Broadband and fibre internet access is available using a number of different technologies depending on where you are and your budget.In most of the country we can offer services using VDSL (fibre to the cabinet). In other areas we can offer services using slower ADSL or faster G.FAST and FTTP technologies.The speed your can achieve will depend on the technology and line length and quality and can vary over time. Use the availability checker or quote/order form to obtain a speed estimate and check your options. We are committed to offering quality and speed of service more.

Bonded FTTC and ADSL2+ for rural locations

For over a decade we have provided bonded ADSL2+ connections when enables the total throughput of multiple circuits to be bonded together to increase the upload and download speeds. This is also applicable to FTTC services. This type of solution is ideal for rural areas where speed is restricted by the length of the line. We can also rent our FireBrick FB2900 router, which can be used to firewall and bond the connection at your side. Read More.

Anti-Slamming

We have a page about Anti-Slamming.

[H2] What customers have to say...

"Needed a reliable and fast ISP for professional reasons. The choice became rapidly obvious when comparing ISPs. Less marketing expenses, more networks and support staff investments. I'm still customer after 3 years, meaning I've got the value from this company."Source: ISPReview

"CQM System is excellent and add a lot of value to the service""AAISP FTTC for the last 2 years. Totally brilliant."Source: Kitz

"I will continue to use AAISP for the foreseeable future and would recommend to anyone who requires an internet only package with high speed and high reliability."Source: Trustpilot

[H2] Reviews about us

TrustPilot

ISP Review

As you will have noticed, we have very honest pricing on our web site - we don't have silly special offers with 6 months free that tie you in for 18 months. We try to offer the option of services without a minimum term where our carriers allow us - we want people to stay because we are doing a good job not because they are tied in. It can, however, be tricky to explain why you would get broadband from us. So here are a few questions to ask yourself or your ISP...

[H2] Quality broadband from people that care

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[H3] Prefer to talk to a UK based team?
We don't use an overseas call centre, in fact we don't really run a call centre as such.We have skilled, technical people, with English as a first language, directly employed by us, based in our offices in Bracknell, Berkshire, and in Ebbw Vale, Wales. We're happy to talk on the phone or via email, SMS, IRC or web chat... whichever you prefer.

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[H3] Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
Our tech support staff are not following a script. They have access to detailed line monitoring and diagnostics tests, some of which are unique to A&A. Whilst "turning it off and back on again" can be valid, it is far from our standard response. Our support staff have training in low level protocols and understand networking. They have seen the equipment we use, and have even visited a telephone exchange and seen how equipment connects together and understand how things work for real. You don't even need to say Shibboleet.

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[H3] Does your Internet slow down in the evenings?
We have a published policy of trying not to be the bottleneck, which means investing in extra capacity to avoid slowing down lines during busy times.

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[H3] Static & Public IP addresses
All our broadband service (including L2TP and Data SIMs*) have static/public IPv4 and IPv6 address by default. There are no costs for additional blocks of IP addresses. (Home::1 customers can request up to a /28 of IPv4). You can even bring your own IP addresses. (*Data SIMs are IPv4 only)

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[H3] Do you know if your service is working properly?
We monitor every line, every second. We know exactly how your broadband is performing, we create graphs that staff and customers can view to see drops, packet loss, latency, and traffic speed. These graphs update in real time and we keep the graphs for historical analysis in the event of your line having a fault.

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[H3] Do you get told when things go wrong?
We are very open about faults in our network, what happened, and what we are doing to stop them happening again. Any complex network will have issues. Sometimes our openness and honesty makes it look like we have more problems than others ISPs, but we don't. When there is a fault that we don't control, such as a fault on a phone line itself, we have a tenacious team that are notorious with the carriers for taking no crap and getting things fixed properly. We even offer to take on faults where other ISPs have given up, with a money back guarantee.

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[H3] Are you blind, or deaf, or just don't like using the phone?
We aren't just contactable by phone, we deal with customers in whatever way they find comfortable. We can work with customers using telephone, email, sms, irc and mastodon/fediverse. We have even been known to provide some out of hours tech support over WoW in-game chat before now. Whilst our support hours are eight to six, we have a dedicated team who are happy to help out if they can in their own time. We care about our service and our customers.

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[H3] Great connectivity to the Internet
We operate our own network and have our own IPv4 and IPv6 space. We have many connections to the wider internet consisting of (but not limited to):Multiple tier 1 transit providers: NTT, Level3 and CogentMultiple connections to both the LINX and LONAP peering exchange pointsMultiple private (direct) connections to the main content providers (Such as Amazon, Apple, Cloudflare, Google, Limelight, Netflix and others)Multiple direct connections to our Wholesale partners (eg BT Wholesale, CityFibre, and TalkTalk Business)The above means that our customer traffic takes the shortest as possible route which improves performance, reduces latency and increases resilience. Find out more about our network here.

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[H3] Are you a geek?
Many ISPs assume all of their customers are the same level of expertise. We have customers that have worked on kernel level device drivers on linux, or been involved in establishing public Internet services in the UK back in the 90's. We try not to make assumptions, but also try to cater for anyone that does know what they are talking about. We can set up reverse DNS for your IP address space. We do understand MTU issues and how to address them. We can make sense of a PPP negotiation dump. We have been offering IPv6 since 2002. We are always happy to discuss new services and leading edge technology and how we can accommodate your needs no matter how geeky. Don't worry if you are not a geek, as our staff have a lot of patience - they are not on the clock to handle as many calls per hour as possible, so do not be afraid to ask or say when you do not understand.

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[H3] Do you know what principles your ISP stands by?
It is often not clear where people stand, or the principles companies try to work to. All companies have to act in the best interests of their members, but being a small company allows the owner and director's views to be taken in to account in the way the company works. A&A have a strong view on privacy and the mere conduit nature of Internet access. We don't monitor or intercept or block Internet traffic. The director has a blog which makes his views on many subjects clear. We even sponsor the Open Rights Group.We also have more details on policy here.
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[H3] Network
We have some information about our infrastructure on our Network page.

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[H2] People tweet nice things about us....

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We have developed a proven, mature set of VoIP and mobile offerings; usable either as complete services in their own right or as components for incorporation into your own projects, that you can supply as complete solutions to your customers.

[H2] Services available

[H3] Phone Numbers

We provide phone numbers in UK area codes and 07 mobile which can be used as VoIP or routed to a SIM or eSIM. We provide a 'hosted' telephone service with features such as voicemail, hunt groups, call recording and so on.Port in your existing number(s) - landline, ISDN or mobile and convert them to VoIP.Order a new number from any area code and be up and running in no time.Lots of features as standard such as call recording, hunt groups, SIP trunking and more.No minimum term.Peak time UK landline calls from 1.5p/min & UK mobile from 4p/min.07 Mobile numbers with eSIM, issued immediately.Buy a DECT or wired phone from us or use your own equipment.The service provides a lot of flexibility to use telephones the way you want to.

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[H3] Data SIMs

Not your normal mobile broadband service, but ideal for a number of scenarios.4G/5GFixed IPv4 address.Optional L2TP handover to your own network.No content filtering.Ideal for telemetry, POS, remote signage, IoT, or environmental monitoring, or simply as a backup to fixed line services.1.75p +VAT per MB upload/download

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[H3] SIP2SIM®

[H4] Sole trader?
Need a separate work number?Second number on your mobile phone (dual SIM/eSIM)?Landline number on mobile phone?
[H4] Corporate phone system?
Want mobiles to work just like a normal office phone extension?Need call recording?The service allows a real mobile phone service, no app needed, using 4G/5G to connect to a SIP/VoIP server, or to our VoIP service (landline and mobile numbers).

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Some of our numbers support text messaging (SMS), for more information please see our Text messaging page.