A new ruling by the Scottish Lands Tribunal, which could have significant industry-wide ramifications, has re-opened the contentious issue of land ownership and rent reductions on UK mobile masts (inc. rooftop sites), such as those that may occur when mobile or wireless broadband operators attempt to renew an existing lease at a much lower rent.

Digital infrastructure builders and landowners rarely seem to see eye to eye. In the now distant past, it was often landowners that would extract highly lucrative rental agreements in return for allowing mobile and broadband operators to deploy infrastructure on their land (e.g. mobile masts, trenches for optical fibre etc.). This often made it too expensive for network operators to expand their coverage as much as they would have liked.

The government attempted to correct this in 2017 by revising the Electronic Communications Code (ECC) to make it easier and cheaper for operators to access public or private land (here). But that initially swung the problem in the other direction (here and here) and resulted in some providers, particularly mobile operators, trying to force the adoption of dramatically lower rents (sometimes slashing rents worth thousands to just a few tens of pounds).

Since then various tribunal rulings and wider political efforts have been made to find a greater balance, which has had some modest success (here and here), although experiences do vary. But the latest case, which centres on a proposal by On Tower UK Limited (OTUK) to renew an existing site lease – at a much-reduced rent – with the Church of Scotland, threatens to throw a new spanner into the works.

What’s the big deal?

Central to this case is the fact that the original tenant of the radio mast installation in Kay Park Parish Church in Kilmarnock was Orange PCS. But as so often happens in these cases as companies change over time (mergers, sales etc.), the lease was later assigned to EE and Three UK, before then being assigned to Arqiva, and finally to OTUK.

However, the lease is understood to have placed certain restrictions on any assignation and the landlord was not told of the assignation, thus the landlord appears to have objected when OTUK served notice to renew the lease on its standard terms at a rent of £3,000 (considerably lower than the contracted amount).

Normally it can be hard for landlords to successfully object to this kind of renewal, but the Scottish Lands Tribunal ultimately ruled (here) that OTUK was not a party to a Code agreement when it served the paragraph 33(1) notice to change the agreement. Put another way, the tribunal ruled the notice, and by extension the ensuing application, were both invalid.

Ian Thornton-Kemsley, Galbraith (land managers), said (BDC Magazine):

“Over the years operators have transferred sites between themselves apparently without properly considering the lease requirements; the case illustrates this. Despite the wording of the Code, operators are not prepared to justify the changes sought to the existing lease; and they readily apply to the Tribunals to impose agreements if landowners do not agree to their terms, which are often heavily weighted in their favour. This appears to have been the case at Kay Park.

It is important to check that the renewal notices are valid and to adhere to the requirements of the Code. By successfully challenging the basis of the notice, the landowner has protected its income for the time being – important to a charity such as the Church.”

Crucially, this may not be an isolated case, particularly when you consider that some 700 agreements were assigned from operators to Arqiva around 2015, which in 2019 went on to sell its telecoms infrastructure and related assets to Cellnex (c.7,400 cellular sites) and they later became OTUK. The deal also included a right to market a further 900 sites across the UK retained by Arqiva.

Quite how many of the related leases may have exactly the same problem is unclear, but it could potentially make life a bit more difficult for mobile operators that are seeking to renew leases and want to slash rents at the same time.

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has just published the first of two shortlists of finalists for their 2024 annual industry awards event, which sees 37 organisations (broadband ISPs, network builders etc.) being nominated across 11 categories, with a shortlist for a further 7 categories due to be announced later in the year.

Just to recap. The winners of last year’s event were unveiled back in November 2023 (here), which among other things saw several broadband ISPs taking home more than one award across different categories (e.g. Hyperoptic, CommunityFibre and Brsk).

By comparison, this year’s event will add several new categories, such as the introduction of the Best Rural Infrastructure and Best Urban Infrastructure categories, as well as awards for Best Community Engagement; Best Sustainability; Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and finally the new Best SME ISP and Best Enterprise ISP awards.

Otherwise, taking the lead in this year’s shortlist of possible winners is CommunityFibre with four nominations across all categories, followed by Brsk, Cerberus Networks and Grayshott Gigabit with an impressive three nominations each. Reflective of the current market, the Best Consumer ISP under 100,000 customers also has a bumper list of nominees, while a number of altnets are nominated across all the categories.

Steve Leighton, ISPA Chair, said:

“The 2024 ISPA awards are a celebration of the tireless work and effort we have seen from the UK’s industry sector. It is safe to say that it’s not all been plain sailing for the sector in the past 12 months, but through their continuous efforts these outstanding organisations have not only strived to, but also succeeded, in consistently improving their quality of services, Together with the notably high levels of FTTP deployment, the levels of service provided across the UK have seen significant improvement. I look forward to the 21st of November, where we will showcase these incredible achievements and celebrate the successes of our industry together.”

The shortlist for the remaining 6 categories will be announced next month – including Digital Inclusion; Best Sustainability; Rural Infrastructure; DEI; and Communications Campaign. Finally, the Internet Hero Award will be announced closer to the ceremony.

The winners will be crowned at the gala ceremony on 21st November 2024 in London in front of more than 475 guests from across industry. The event will be once again be hosted at the OWO Raffles Hotel in Whitehall (London).

2024 ISPAs Award Shortlist

Best Urban Infrastructure
Brsk
FullFibre
GigaAir
MS3 Networks
Openreach

Best Enterprise ISP
Community Fibre
Cerberus Networks
KCOM
Vorboss

Best Rural ISP
Cerberus Networks
County Broadband
Grayshott Gigabit
Quickline Communications
Wessex Internet

Best SME ISP
Cerberus Networks
Community Fibre
Exa Networks
G.Network Communications
LilaConnect

Best Consumer ISP under 100k customers
BeFibre
G.Network Communications
Lightning Fibre
Lightspeed
toob
Zzoomm

Best Consumer ISP over 100k customers
Community Fibre
KCOM
TalkTalk

Best Voice Provider
bOnline
CallSwitch One
Dial 9 Communications
Giant Communications
V4 Consumer
Voipfone

Best Customer, Data and Network Security
Exa Networks
Gigabit IQ from Grayshott Gigabit
Home Telecom
RM
Talk Straight / Schools Broadband
V4 Cloud

Best Customer Experience
BeFibre
Brsk
Connect Fibre
Home Unity
toob
Truespeed Communications

Best Community Engagement
Brsk
Community Fibre
Freedom Fibre
Gigaclear
Grayshott Gigabit
Quickline Communications

Best Channel Support
Freedom Fibre
FullFibre
M3S Networks
PXC

Eastbourne-based alternative UK broadband ISP Lightning Fibre, which fell into administration earlier this year and ended up being acquired by existing backer Foresight Group via a new company called LF Holdco2 Ltd (here), are now seeking Code Powers from Ofcom for the new holding company in order to continue their full fibre build.

Applications for Code Powers are typically sought to help speed-up deployments of new fibre and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licences needed for street works. The powers can also help with supporting access to run new fibre via Openreach’s (BT) existing cable ducts and poles (PIA), which is something that Lightning Fibre have harnessed in the past and would clearly use again.

Just to recap. Lightning Fibre has already rolled out a new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Sussex and Kent in England, such as in Eastbourne, Hastings, Hailsham, St Leonard’s, Heathfield and more. The original goal was to reach 140,000 premises, but it’s unclear how many premises they actually reached before going through administration and suffering some redundancies earlier this year.

However, the new Code Powers application – this time for LF Holdco2 Ltd – clearly suggests they may be returning to a new phase of more active build, even if it is a bit short on specifics.

Code Powers Statement

The Applicant is a recently formed company that is wholly owned by Foresight Fibre Holdco Limited. In February 2024, the Applicant acquired the assets and business of Lightning Fibre Limited. Shortly after this purchase, Lightning Fibre Limited entered administration.

The network acquired from Lightning Fibre Limited (in administration), comprises a fibre to the premises (FTTP) access network in various parts of East Sussex and Tenterden in Kent, that currently serves several thousand customers.

The Applicant seeks Code powers to facilitate the continued operation of the Lightning Fibre (in administration) network and to facilitate the extension of the network. It intends to provide retail full fibre broadband services to residential and business customers, wholesale broadband access services to other internet service providers (ISPs) and wholesale services to other providers.

Sadly, that’s all the detail we get for now, but it will be interesting to see whether Lightning Fibre announces any new build expansions over the coming months.

The MD of UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), Adrian Kennard, has today pointed out another potential issue with Ofcom’s new One Touch Switch (OTS) system for quicker and easier switching between broadband providers, which could conflict with the statutory 14-day cooling-off period.

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 currently require a 14-day cooling-off period, which affords consumers the right to cancel their service contract within that period, although some costs may still apply to doing this (i.e. it’s not to be treated as a free trial).

For example, customers of BT’s broadband service are told: “Once you place your order you can cancel anytime up to 14 days after your service starts, or when you receive your equipment (whichever is later). You need to return any equipment we’ve sent you.” But BT’s terms do caveat that “If we’ve already started providing a service, you’ll have to pay us the full cost of the service you’ve had.”

Similarly, A&A’s terms state: “For services, the cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract (i.e. when we accept your order). However, ordering services as soon as possible, or for a date within 14 days of order means your right to cancel will expire once the service is provided within 14 days of order, even if you are not yet using the service provided.”

In addition, section 36 of the act also provides a facility for consumers that do not wish to wait 14 days for a service to be performed. It specifically allows a consumer to make an express request, in a durable medium, for a service to be performed within the 14 days, and waive their right to cancel within 14 days if the service is performed (i.e. you can still cancel if the service is not performed and only pay for the part of the service that has been performed, in proportion).

However, Adrian’s latest blog notes that section 36 is at risk of running into a bit of a conflict with OTS and broadband services more widely, which requires internet providers to action switches within just 1 day “where technically possible“ (instead of 10 days under the old system).

Adrian Kennard said:

“However, this wording does not fit well with a service such as broadband/internet. The problem is that such a service is installed and then ongoing, possibly even with a minimum term. The supplier has costs for arranging the installation, and may well have commitments with circuit providers for a minimum term.

If a customer cancelled after the installation was complete and the service is working, but within 14 days, the supplier has to charge in proportion. For a 12 month term, that is a fraction of the costs to the supplier. Indeed, with services on 12 month term it is common for a free installation to be offered, which is another cost for the supplier if cancelled within 14 days.

As such broadband service provision invariably has a 14 day cooling off period, denying the consumer the option to have an installation done sooner.

…

Until now, for most broadband/internet installations, either a new circuit had to be installed (which takes time), or a migration is done with a carrier such as BT Wholesale. BT Wholesale have, to date, enforced a 14 day delay in migrations. So 14 day cooling off period is effectively enforced.

However, a new initiative by OFCOM has changed things. This takes effect 12th Sep 2024. As a result, BT Wholesale are dropping the 14 day minimum lead time on migrations. OFCOM are trying to encourage switching of broadband to be easy for consumers, indeed, the wording of the OFCOM general conditions means a provider has to provide a service as soon as technically possible if the customer expressly requests it, which may be within that 14 day cooling off period.

The fact OFCOM are, in effect, insisting operators allow customers to request services sooner creates a serious problem for providers. If nothing else, a free installation type service would not be sensible (again, to the detriment of the consumer). Even if a provider chose not to fully adhere to OFCOM GC, and insisting on a 14 day cooling off time, this effectively denies the consumer an option. But the wording of 36(2) of the regulations means an Internet provider will not be willing to offer quicker broadband switches without significant risk.

I stress that a consumer has to make an express request for a faster install, in a durable medium.”

Adrian is currently writing to his MP in the hope of getting the legislation tweaked to better reflect the realities of modern broadband provision and the new migration system. But any such changes will probably have to wait for the government to conduct another major review of such consumer contract protections. But even if such a change was accepted, it could still take several years to run the usual course of debates and implementation.

“We’d love to offer the full range of options, including cheap or free install on a 12-month term, along with service provided even next day when possible. But at this point, such options are a risk for small providers and ultimately will reduce consumer choice,” claimed Adrian.

News

The mobile operator will now communicate pricing changes to customer in ‘pounds and pence’, rather than via esoteric inflation price indexes

This week, Three UK has announced that it will simplify the way in which it communicates mid-contract price rises to its customers.

The annual price hikes will now be conveyed in terms of ‘pounds and pence’, as per Ofcom’s new regulations aimed at stopping customers being hit with unexpected bills.

The changes will come into effect for new and upgraded Three customers from September.

“Like many mobile providers, we regularly review and revise our pricing to ensure that we remain competitive and reflect the cost pressures we face as a business,” said Elaine Carey, Chief Commercial Officer at Three UK. “While we have always made sure annual price changes are clear and transparent to customers, we want to provide greater clarity going forward. Our unique tiered approach means any increase is fair, while ensuring our prices remain competitive.”

In December last year, Ofcom proposed the introduction of stricter rules surrounding mid-contract price hikes for mobile, pay-TV, and broadband customers, after an investigation found that many customers were confused about inflation-linked price increases.

The new rules would force telcos to do away with ‘confusing’ metrics like the consumer price index (CPI) or retail price index (RPI), and instead communicate changes to customers as a simple numeric value. They also require pre-planned price rises to me made more obvious to customers when they first sign up for a new contract.

The new rules were formally adopted last month, with telcos given until 17 January 2025 to make the necessary adjustments.

BT/EE pre-emptively adjusted it policy back in April, with Vodafone and TalkTalk having quickly followed suit.

In somewhat related news, Three’ planned merger with Vodafone will remain in limbo for a while longer, after the Competition and Markets Authority announced this week that it required more time to assess the impact of the merger.

The two companies argue that the £15 billion merger will allow them to invest more heavily in UK infrastructure, generating an economic boost for the UK. Detractors, however, argue that reducing the mobile market from four players to three will make it less competitive, potentially leading to increased prices for consumers.

Join the UK connectivity market in discussion at this year’s Connected Britain conference

Also in the news:
AST SpaceMobile prepares to launch first commercial satellites
nexfibre passes almost 1.3m homes with full fibre
Telstra joins UNESCO’s Business Council to promote ethical AI

The Scottish Government (SG) has confirmed to ISPreview that they will be introducing a “temporary pause” on Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) applications for gigabit-capable projects covering multiple premises, which is intended to ensure the “best use of public funds” and to help “deliver an optimised roll out schedule“.

The SBVS is designed to complement the SG’s £600m Reaching 100% (R100) broadband upgrade project with Openreach (BT), which is because R100 alone won’t be enough to upgrade every single property. As a result, the SBVS was setup to offer homes in disadvantaged areas the ability to take a subsidy of up to £5,000 to help cover the installation costs of a 30Mbps+ capable network, which can be combined with vouchers from other premises to help build a new local network (nearly 6,000 premises in Scotland have benefitted from the vouchers).

However, some suppliers for the voucher scheme in Scotland recently informed ISPreview that the SG is planning to put a “pause” on new applications for broadband vouchers from Monday 19th August 2024, which specifically impacts PRPs / Pre Registered Packages (i.e. this is where a supplier / network operator bundles vouchers together, such as when aiming to upgrade a whole village in one project).

The main reason for this is because the SG wants to avoid clashing (i.e. duplicating public investment) with the UK Government’s Project Gigabit programme, which has separately allocated £450m (here) to help spread 1Gbps broadband speeds into some of the most remote rural areas of Scotland.

The associated Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has previously estimated that some 410,000 premises across Scotland may need support from public funding to help them gain access to gigabit broadband speeds in the future (here).

Crucially, the first large build procurements under the new Project Gigabit scheme have already launched (example) and so, much like the recent situation in Wales (here), it has become necessary to pause a major part of SBVS until the exact coverage plan for contracts under the new project have been determined. The UK’s central Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) is already suspended across much of the country, including in Scotland, for the same reason.

An SG Spokesperson told ISPreview:

“The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is a key component of our strategy to maximise broadband coverage in Scotland. We can confirm that there are no changes to the Scheme for individual properties, with applications for both superfast and gigabit-capable solutions open as usual. Property owners and residents can keep up-to-date on voucher eligibility for their property via our address checker.

Following the launch of the first Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland in May 2024, there will be a temporary pause on SBVS applications for gigabit-capable projects covering multiple premises. A similar pause is being made by the UK Government to ensure best use of public funds and deliver an optimised roll out schedule.

Applications for superfast [30Mbps+] projects covering multiple premises remain unaffected.”

The fact that the scheme is still open to individual applications may be a moot point, since suppliers often have to use PRPs to make the economics of a remote rural broadband build work and support efficient network delivery. By comparison, individual vouchers may be more viable for infill and extensions of an existing network, rather than new community-wide deployments.

The difficult reality here for suppliers to the voucher scheme with pending voucher schemes and the communities involved is that they will face some costly disruption, which may be enough to place some of their proposed broadband deployment projects into a state of limbo (we’ve already seen this happen before in England). But any already approved voucher projects should be able to carry on as normal (the same goes for those already submitted in a final format and undergoing approvals).

Project Gigabit ultimately aims to help extend 1000Mbps (download) capable broadband networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025 (currently 83.4%) and then “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030 (here). But those figures are an average, and actual coverage may vary around the country.

Mobile network operator Three UK has today followed BT, EE, Plusnet, Vodafone and TalkTalk by introducing a new pricing policy that aligns with Ofcom’s new guidance banning inflation-linked annual telecoms price rises (i.e. annual price increases will in the future be outlined in “pounds and pence”).

Just to recap. The market regulator recently banned annual price rises that are based off confusing inflation (CPI/RPI) or percentage-based changes (here). For example, this means that Three UK will need to phase out their existing policy, which states: “Each April, your monthly charge will increase by the previous December’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate, plus 3.9%.”

However, Ofcom’s change was never designed to stop mid-contract hikes completely (it’s more about making future pricing clearer and simpler), but it does at least require providers to tell customers precisely what any future price increases would be when they sign-up (“in pounds and pence“). This rules out changes to core subscription prices that are linked to unknown future inflation values or percentages.

Mobile operator Three UK intends to adopt this change for “new and upgrading customers” from September 2024 (existing customers will remain on the old policy until they upgrade or re-contract). In practical terms this means that annual prices (i.e. your core subscription price) will increase by between £1 and £1.50 a month each April, dependent on the data allowance of the contract (i.e. a bit fairer than the blanket approach adopted by others).

Price Hikes by Data Allowance
➤ 4GB or less: £1 more a month

➤ 5GB-99GB: £1.25 more a month

➤ 100GB or more: £1.50 more a month

In addition, Three’s 4G/5G based Home Broadband customers will also see annual rises capped at £2 a month per contract, which is below the £3 increases seen on some of the aforementioned fixed line broadband ISPs.

Elaine Carey, Chief Commercial Officer at Three UK, said:

“Like many mobile providers, we regularly review and revise our pricing to ensure that we remain competitive and reflect the cost pressures we face as a business. While we have always made sure annual price changes are clear and transparent to customers, we want to provide greater clarity going forward. Our unique tiered approach means any increase is fair, while ensuring our prices remain competitive.”

The fact that providers can now specify a specific rise ahead of time will of course do little to dampen calls for an outright ban on mid-contract hikes in favour of fixed term pricing, which is something we’d support. But it’s worth remembering that the new policy, which won’t be enforced by Ofcom until 17th January 2025, is only focused upon the core subscription price of a package (i.e. call charges and any paid add-ons may still adopt a different approach).

At the same time we shouldn’t forget that not all providers adopt the same approach as the biggest players. Quite a few smaller providers, particularly newer alternative broadband networks (altnets) in the fixed line space, often promote packages with simple fixed price terms.

In an unsurprising development, both Sky TV (Sky Broadband) and EE (BT) have now confirmed their separate plans for withdrawing the old Netflix Basic (£7.99) plan from their various bundles. The move follows on from last year’s decision (here) by the video streaming giant to replace Basics with their “Standard with adverts” plan.

Just in case anybody has forgotten. Netflix stopped offering their old ad-free Basic plan to new or rejoining members in October 2023. But this raised a question mark over the fate of the service for those TV and broadband providers that have been bundling it with some of their packages, often as part of a special agreement with the streaming giant.

Sky actually stopped offering the original Basic plan last year on its bundles (e.g. Ultimate TV), although until now it wasn’t clear what would happen to existing customers with a related bundle. Meanwhile, EE has continued to offer the Basic plan, but Cord Busters reports that this is all coming to an end.

Firstly, Sky have confirmed that customers with Netflix’s Basic plan on their related bundles will, from September 2024, be “automatically” changed to the ‘Standard with adverts’ plan. However, you won’t pay any less, despite the ads tier costly less than the Basic’s one, which seems a bit unfair. Customers can alternatively upgrade to Standard by paying an extra £6 per month or cancel.

Finally, EE has just joined Sky in withdrawing the Basic plan from related packages for new customers. New customers will instead get the ‘Standard with adverts’ plan on related bundles (e.g. Entertainment or Big Entertainment), while existing customers have been warned that they can only keep the Basic tier until they renew their contract, or until late 2026 if they’re out of contract.

One catch here is that the new Standard with Ads plan is currently only supported on EE TV’s latest 4K Pro (inc. Mini versions) and the 4K Apple TV boxes. But EE has pledged to upgrade customers on older boxes, at no extra cost, to the latest kit if they’re affected.

Mobile operator Three UK has expanded their Connected Communities programme, which offers “free high-speed broadband, smart tablets and digital training sessions“, to include the Carrbridge Youth Centre in Birkenhead. The scheme has already launched across four youth groups in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.

Following a pilot in 2022 by Three UK’s Discovery team, the Connected Communities scheme was set-up with the goal of providing “brilliant young people across the country with the tools they need to succeed – empowering them and their communities every day, through the power of Three UK’s network.”

The first learning session at the Carrbridge Youth Centre was delivered by Three UK’s Discovery team on Tuesday 2nd July 2024 and provided attendees with training in stop-motion animation. The 5G broadband and tablets provided will remain at the Youth Centre and be available to all of those who use it.

Craig Miller, Head of Retail at Three UK, said:

“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to bring our Connected Communities programme to the youth of Birkenhead. Being able to run a Discovery session for the Carrbridge Youth Centre has helped us to empower and educate young people with the tools they need to excel in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.”

The day has finally come when UK ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP), which have long been one of the few remaining fixed line broadband providers’ to only offer plans with capped data allowances (albeit very big ones), has finally adopted packages that come “without a usage cap” (aka – unlimited, although they don’t describe it like that).

Until now consumers looking to take out one of AAISP’s broadband packages, such as via their FTTP or FTTC products, would have typically chosen one with a default data allowance of either 1TB (TeraByte) or 10TB. For example, their 115Mbps speed home broadband package on Openreach’s network would cost £37 per month for 1TB or £47 for 10TB.

However, the big change today means that those 10TB packages will now be expressed as coming “without a usage cap“, although the ISP will retain their 1TB plans for those who have lower usage demands but still want high quality service and support etc.

A&A Statement

For many years A&A has resisted offering “Unlimited” plans. Our explanation for this unusual approach has always been themed in a way that aims to be “technically correct”; one can not download an elephant and one can not download more than the capacity of the connection multiplied by time. Therefore, strictly, “unlimited” is false.

We’ve often resorted to analogy to bolster our explanations; “an all you-can-eat buffet actually does run out eventually”, for example.

In tandem with this, we believe we have always offered usefully and appropriately high inclusive usage limits, such that many customers (in their own words) often describe them as “effectively unlimited for me”. What they mean by this is that the quota so massively exceeds their actual usage, that the limit is not something they must worry about, or indeed think about at all, ever.

This allergy to presenting something not entirely correct has, definitely, had a consequence for A&A in terms of potential customers. We are definitely aware that potential customers have chosen an alternative provider because of quota anxiety.

The business has changed and developed, and real world usage has started to plateau. We have also deployed a large number of our new FireBrick FB9000 as LNSs and BGP routers, and begun offering higher bandwidth services, up to a gigabit, and monitored average usage over a sensible period of time. We are confident we have ample network capacity.

As a result, we feel that now is the time to start to offer packages that other ISPs would probably describe as “unlimited”, but which we would describe as “without a usage cap”.

Changes this month

During August anyone on:

Home::1 10T
SoHo::1 20T
Office::1 20T

will have their package changed, with no increase in cost. Our website and order pages will be updated over the coming days too.

“Lite” Tariff

Anyone on

Home::1 1TB
SoHo::1 2TB

will have their package name changed to “Home::1 Lite” or “SoHo::1 Lite”. The price will stay the same, and the inclusive usage will remain unchanged. This package is intended for people who want the high quality, low latency Internet connection A&A provides but do not need high usage, and at the slightly more budget-friendly price point.

Final words

We hope customers are pleased with these changes, though we do recognise that in a majority of cases they will have no effect at all!

We want to reassure everyone that this change has been extremely carefully thought through, and the assurances given over many years about being able to maintain quality of service (in terms of loss and latency) still stand. We are confident that we will still be able to offer low latency, high quality, Internet connections.