ISP Zen Internet UK Launch EveryRoom to Tackle WiFi Notspots

A new survey by broadband ISP Zen Internet has claimed that 9.1 million UK households don’t have access to WiFi throughout their homes and the provider believes that it’s the “responsibility of the broadband industry” to ensure this is delivered. As such they’ve launched their new EveryRoom guarantee (mesh network solution).

Ensuring a home is completely covered by a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is no easy task and that’s primarily because every home is different, both in terms of build materials (walls, doors etc.), layout and size. Meanwhile consumers are already trying lots of solutions in order to improve their wireless connectivity.

According to Zen, some 18% of respondents to their new survey have moved their router to what they consider a better position in the home, whilst 15% have purchased a WiFi extender but these also come with challenges such as “risk of speed degradation”. Furthermore Zen found that 21% believe that being on multiple devices at once can affect their connectivity, with a similar amount (22%) blaming their ISP when they lose connectivity in certain areas of the home (even though their broadband line might not be to blame).

Despite the steps they’re taking to solve the issue, UK households are still struggling to get WiFi connectivity everywhere they want in their home with a quarter of respondents (26%) having to avoid certain rooms when it comes to getting online. Poor connectivity can also mean lost revenue for providers, with 10% households asking for a refund from their broadband ISP if they can’t get online.

Most of the markets largest ISPs have already launched WiFi style guarantees in order to help tackle this, which usually involve supplying either Wi-Fi extenders / boosters or complete Mesh network setups (such things can also be purchased separately). Now Zen Internet appears to be doing the same with their EveryRoom service.

Paul Stobart, CEO of Zen Internet, said:

“With WiFi connectivity throughout the home now an expected requirement for modern day living, it’s unacceptable that families are still struggling to connect to their WiFi in whatever room they want. It’s the responsibility of the broadband industry to ensure consumers have the best service possible and this includes providing the tools to deliver this.

We’re continually looking at ways to improve our customer experience and this is another step to offer the best support we can. Whilst not every household is going to have the same experience, it’s clear that the ‘not-spot’ is present in a large proportion of households across the UK, and we aim to rectify that for our customers with our new solution.”

So what is EveryRoom? The service costs £7.99 per month for a 12 month contract (plus £9.99 postage per repeater) and for that you’ll receive a wireless repeater device (mesh network) to work alongside the provider’s FRITZ!Box router. Zen claims that a single one of these “should be enough to guarantee connectivity in every room for most homes“, but if you sign-up and don’t get a stronger signal throughout your home then they’ll send you another one “for free” (we wouldn’t call a monthly fee “free” but that’s just us).

After a bit of digging we found that the repeaters they send out are the Fritz! Repeater 3000, which tend to cost a little bit over £100 each. The devices are capable of supporting Wireless LAN speeds up to 1733Mbps (5GHz 4 x 4), up to 866Mbps (5GHz 2 x 2) and 400Mbps (2.4GHz 2 x 2).

You can of course buy these separately but then you may not be able to benefit from Zen’s support. Alternatively there are cheaper mesh solutions, although you have to pay attention to the specs in order to ensure that they can deliver good wireless speeds.

UPDATE 3:32pm

Zen informs us that their survey was conducted by Censuswide with a sample size of 2,001 general UK consumers between 01.11.2019 to 04.11.2019.