I get an amazingly advanced web UI which lets me do things nobody can do on any other ISPs (advanced options on my line etc). I can get a text/email/tweet whenever my line goes down and back up. I can hop on IRC and talk to sales/tech or even the owner (this[1] is his blog, by the way - He writes a lot, I recommend following him). And needless to say, full ipv6 support.
They're expensive, but that's because they don't oversell bandwidth. People constantly complain about ISPs overselling, but when someone comes along and does not do that, people say "Oh but it's too expensive".
"Even in 2013 it is almost unique to find a "home" package that includes IPv6. In IPv6 ::1 is the address for "Home". Calling it Home127.0.0.1 seemed silly."
EDIT: Ignore my comment, after reading up on them a bit more, they do seem like a pretty amazing ISP. Thanks for reminding me of them :)
Used these guys years ago for bonded ADSL and they were awesome, can't rate them high enough.
To any reasonably well-paid tech professional saving £30/month by going with one of the 'Big Four' ISPs: Buy cheap beef, get horse-meat.
Also ... IPv6 just works, and I have a /48 assignment.
This is my favourite part: "Sorry, for a censored internet you will have to pick a different ISP or move to North Korea. Our services are all unfiltered."
We need an ISP we'd actually like around here!
The main reason for holding call data is for billing purposes, no e-mail information has ever been stored (other than in customer's own inboxes and sent items in their e-mail accounts). All browsing data is anonymised and only used for optimisation purposes.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent annually on data storage, it’s welcoming that there is now a reason to reduce the amount of useless data we hold.
For example, in 2012-2013 almost 40% of traffic on our Network was Youtube related, not just streaming, Youtube specifically! Obviously millions of these requests are going to be for the exact same video, say for example Gangnam Style. So instead of us pulling the data from Youtube every time a user requests that particular video we store that video on our Network, so when a user requests it (even for the first time), it actually comes from us. All my company needs to do is check for any changes to the specific page. The result is a better customer experience (faster streaming) but also far less network traffic (this literally saves millions).
Without the storing of IP addresses accessed we wouldn't have the information needed to determine what sites/data we should be cashing and what we don’t need to bother with and this sort of thing would be considerably harder to pull off.
They have fought the Government and the Judiciary at every juncture to ensure net neutrality.
Where legally compelled to do so; the interpret the law in the absolute narrowest sense of the ruling.
I would be loathe to suggest they can do more. I trust my ISP more than I trust most people.
There are a ton if links I could produce but am on a mobile device. A simple Google search regarding Sky, TalkTalk et al will yield the case history and lobbying for privacy.
I wish somebody would do something about that.
Virgin Media's response says: “...We have also been in contact with government and with the Information Commissioner's Office following the ruling and the UK government's current position is that although the Directive was held to be invalid, our own Data Retention Regulations are still in force and we must comply with them until such time as they are struck down by a UK court.”
[1] https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2014/data-retention-why...
I remain very interested in A&A but by comparison I have all I need for now with Fast. A&A have my full support (fwiw) in their vocalisation of tech-community concerns and I hope Fast can follow suit.
[1] - http://www.fast.co.uk
Their T&C state they keep data for 12 months.
