Internet provider Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) this month became the latest ISP to introduce symmetric broadband speeds capable of harnessing the top 2.5Gbps (2500Mbps) tier on CityFibre’s growing Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is currently available to around 4 million premises across the UK. But for now it’s only a trial with limited availability.
The ISP is currently somewhat limited by CityFibre’s own availability of their new XGS-PON based full fibre network (progress report), which has been deployed into over 90% of their fibre exchanges. But the new 2.5Gbps capable XGS-PON products are currently only available to around 20% of their actual ready for service footprint (rising to 40% by the end of the year).
“In a very few number of residential areas we are able to order symmetric 2.5Gb/s speed CityFibre services as a trial. At the moment this is only available for new installations. Where 1Gb/s speeds are currently available we should be able to offer upgrades to 1.2 or 2G download speeds (the upload speed will remain at 1G),” said A&A’s multi-gigabit trial page (here).
The trial packages for new customers all attract a one-off installation fee of just £10 and a simple 1-month minimum contract term. But you’ll need to choose your own router, as they don’t yet supply one for these trial tiers. Otherwise, the prices are as follows (credits to Chris for the news tip).
| Download / Upload | Technology | Home::1 no usage cap* |
|---|---|---|
| 1.2Gbps / 1Gbps | GPON | £65.00 PM |
| 2Gbps / 1Gbps | GPON | £75.00 PM |
| 1.2Gbps / 1.2Gbps | XGS-PON | £65.00 PM |
| 2.5Gbps / 2.5Gbps | XGS-PON | £75.00 PM |
* Services are also available with a 1TB/month usage quota, for £10 per month less than the above prices.
Speeds listed are the “line rate” actual throughput will slightly lower due to overheads etc.