Andrews & Arnold

I've written here before about ISPs. For the past couple of years, my internet at home has been from BT, and, well, it Just Works. Getting rid of BT's less than perfect hardware was the final step to making it all shiny, and apart from having to reboot the modem once every couple of months, it all seems to behave. In those two years, BT, like the rest of the market, have given up on pricing 40/10 FTTC differently from 80/20, so my connection now runs at 80/20 for no extra cost. Monzo tells me I've averaged just under £30 per month to BT for the duration, which is pretty good going.

However, with vague plans to move this year, I didn't want to start another 12 or 18 month deal. So what to do? Well, I've decided to stump up the premium and start a 6 month deal with Andrews and Arnold. The main two reasons for paying the extra are:

For a one-off £42, plus £1.20/month, they can port my landline number off onto VoIP without breaking the phone line/broadband it's attached to. As far as I can tell, nobody else on the market has this, and I decided it was worth the cost to be able to keep the landline number a handful of older relatives still insist on calling, but redirect all the calls to my mobile at my cost. I'm looking forward to when my aunt calls and I'm at the pub - "Sounds like you've got a lot of people in your flat, David". "Er, yes".
Mental health. Only a theory at this point, but I'm hoping the generous but not infinite 300GB/month download limit imposed by A&A will put a stop to some of my more extreme Netflix binges and force me to go outside more.

The switch isn't due for another month (timed to coincide with the end date of my BT deal), so I'll report back on how it all goes.

Update, 15 January - so far, both BT and A&A have behaved perfectly, sending e-mails/texts about the changes. It looks like the broadband will move on the installation date I picked, and the phone line three days later (which makes sense, because A&A only do phone lines to support their broadband).