UK ISP Zen Internet Issues Warning Ahead of 1st July 2015 Price Hikes

Customers of Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet are being warned to expect a rise in the cost of their broadband packages from 1st July 2015, which will hit only a few months after their last December 2014 price rise (details) on the cost of phone line rental. But it will only impact some subscribers.

Admittedly Zen has a reputation for being a bit more expensive than the big boys, which is often mitigated by their perceived advantage through the delivery of a normally superior service quality and support. But even Zen are still hindered by the limits of BTOpenreach’s underlying response, which means that the advantages of paying extra will only take you so far.

For example, home users currently pay £18.37 per month for Zen’s entry-level ‘up to’ 17Mbps (ADSL2+) Zen Lite package with a 50GB usage allowance, which is well above the budget level pricing of TalkTalk’s £3.50 per month and Sky Broadband’s £7.50 options (both of which are unlimited usage, include free routers and that’s also excluding any special offers). On the other hand Zen’s current superfast FTTC “fibre broadband” packages are a lot more in keeping with wider industry pricing (largely because ISPs don’t have much flexibility to differentiate).

In terms of the price rises, customers are being informed via personal letters and as such we don’t yet have a full picture of what is changing and by how much. We do know that some packages, especially legacy products, are going up by several pounds per month and this is thus more of a price hike than a tweak. For example, customers on the ISP’s older ADSL Zen 8000 Active package will see their monthly fees shoot from £21.27 to £26 +vat per month.

A Zen Internet Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Zen will be updating some of its broadband prices from 1st July 2015. For many years Zen has avoided imposing industry-wide price rises on its customers, brought about by a surge in demand for high-speed, high-usage connectivity in the home and office.

However, the cost of delivering our services to a standard that supports our highly-connected world – particularly in harder to reach areas with limited infrastructure – is continuing to rise. In some cases, it costs more than double the amount we charge our customers. As a result, we’ve reached a point where we must reluctantly alter our rates to reflect the growing overheads associated with installing and distributing broadband.

We are writing to every affected customer and will endeavour to alert them by any means about the changes as soon as possible. A specialist team will be on hand to discuss alternative broadband packages – including eligibility for a transition to fibre broadband – as well as offering support and advice on the new monthly prices.

We appreciate this will come as a surprise to many, so Zen won’t change any prices until 1st July 2015 – rather than offering the standard one month notice period – to allow customers to discuss their options with us.”

Crucially the ISP notes that customers will be “free to move away from Zen if the changes are unacceptable to them, and they can do so without facing any penalty“. But any customers who wish to move away or alter their services must inform Zen before 5pm on 31st May 2015.

We hope to have more details shortly.

UPDATE 12:03pm

It does indeed look as if the changes appear to affect customers in ADSLMax (up to 8Mbps) areas, which are often predominantly rural (last 9-10% of the UK) where BT’s older 20CN infrastructure still exists. The other two package price changes are thus as follows:

Zen Lite / Zen 8000 Lite
Current price: £15.31
New price: £16.00

Zen Pro / Zen 8000 Pro
Current price: £29.78
New price: £40.00