Why do Aquiss offer better deals for businesses?

[jez9999]

I've been looking for other ISPs than Zen, which I'm currently on, because Zen seem to have increasing downtime (3 hours last night) and their status page is atrocious and basically permanently in the red with a million planned outages (god knows why they don't do something to make it look better).

One option that seems to be mentioned a lot is Aquiss, whom I have to say I've never heard of but they seem to have been around for years. I was looking at their residential and business packages, and business seems to get "enhanced" rather than "regular" care, not to mention better speeds, for a slightly cheaper price even when VAT is taken into account. Anyone know why they seem to be fobbing off residential customers with a worse deal? Can I start a token PLC to get their business service instead?

 

[Caged]

That Zen status page is mostly a load of midnight Openreach maintenance work which any ISP would be affected by, it's not an indicator of a poor quality ISP.

Which packages are you looking at where business is cheaper than residential? I think there are different terms and conditions on a business service which are less generous to the customer which could account for a price difference.

 

[jez9999]

That Zen status page is mostly a load of midnight Openreach maintenance work which any ISP would be affected by, it's not an indicator of a poor quality ISP.

If it's Openreach, it shouldn't be on the Zen status page. They link to a separate page that appears to be for Openreach stuff. In any case, it's not at all clear and when my service is down that page doesn't do a good job of telling me why because it's always red anyway.

Which packages are you looking at where business is cheaper than residential? I think there are different terms and conditions on a business service which are less generous to the customer which could account for a price difference.

Pure fibre 80
Equivalent PPM £31.50
75/17
"Standard" care

Pure fibre 110
Equivalent PPM £30.00
100/17
"Enhanced" care

Actually for that equivalent price I was misreading it, it's just talking about the first 3 months "offer". I guess the business price inc. VAT is a little higher, £42/mo instead of £36/mo.

 

[SpellowHouse]

I've been looking for other ISPs than Zen, which I'm currently on, because Zen seem to have increasing downtime (3 hours last night) and their status page is atrocious and basically permanently in the red with a million planned outages (god knows why they don't do something to make it look better).

One option that seems to be mentioned a lot is Aquiss, whom I have to say I've never heard of but they seem to have been around for years. I was looking at their residential and business packages, and business seems to get "enhanced" rather than "regular" care, not to mention better speeds, for a slightly cheaper price even when VAT is taken into account. Anyone know why they seem to be fobbing off residential customers with a worse deal? Can I start a token PLC to get their business service instead?

I have been keeping an eye on prices for a little while, and in the past year or so companies have come out with a lot of new packages offering increased speeds for the same money. The one exception to that is Aquiss who still have the same deals they had back then. I am not sure why, I can only assume that they haven't paid much attention to their residential customers.
Incidentally, have you checked Zen prices? Their packages have increased speeds quite a lot but you won't get that unless you renew your package.

 

[jez9999]

Yeah but you also lock yourself in for 18 months if you renew. Speed isn't the issue for me anyway, it's just the somewhat increased downtime.

 

[SpellowHouse]

Yeah but you also lock yourself in for 18 months if you renew. Speed isn't the issue for me anyway, it's just the somewhat increased downtime.

The speed increases are substantial. The 500Mbps service is now the same price as the old 300Mbps service.

But, I guess it would depend who the problem is with. I have Zen and haven't had a single outage in years. I do get the odd Openreach maintenance though. I just have a 4G modem as an emergency.