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Shropshire-based UK ISP Aquiss this week appears to have added yet another alternative network to their platform after reaching an agreement to sell packages to homes and businesses covered by Gigaclear’s full fibre (FTTP) lines, which primarily cover rural premises across various parts of England.
Gigaclear’s network is currently available to over 612,000 premises across rural parts of England. But we haven’t previously seen many other retail ISPs offering packages via their network (e.g. Squirrel Internet), so it’s nice to have another one like Aquiss join the club. The ISP also supplies packages via Openreach, CityFibre, Netomnia (business packages), Freedom Fibre and FullFibre’s broadband networks.
According to the website, Aquiss’ new Gigaclear based plans start from £42 inc. VAT per month for symmetric speeds of 200Mbps (discounted to £21 for the first 3 months) on a 12-month minimum contract term (inc. free installation) and rise to £60 for their top 1000Mbps tier (£30 for the first 3 months). Customers will also receive a static IPv4 and IPv6 address, although you’ll need to use your own router.
On the surface, the entry-level plan in particular might seem relatively expensive, although it’s worth remembering that Gigaclear builds in more costly to deploy rural locations, which is reflected in the price you pay. The prices that Gigaclear charges for the same sort of tiers on their website are also only first-term discounts (Aquiss use standard pricing). For example, the 900Mbps (1Gbps) plan from Gigaclear is discounted to £49 per month, but the standard post-contract price for that is actually £85. Staying loyal via Aquiss may thus be cheaper over the longer term.