Broadband ISPs Zzoomm and BeFibre Launch Wi-Fi 7 Routers for All UK Plans UPDATE
Internet access providers Zzoomm and BeFibre, which are both now part of the recently merged FTTP broadband network from FullFibre Limited (here), appear to have recently become the latest ISPs to introduce a new Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) capable wireless router – this will be available on all plans for new customers. Some packages and prices have also been refreshed.
Sadly, we couldn’t find any details of the new kit on Zzoomm’s website, while BeFibre was similarly vague, but they did at least provide a picture of the kit and a general comment. The picture was enough for us to identify the router as being one of HT-6766 models from Switzerland-based Heights Telecom (Heights Telecom UK Ltd), which is a familiar brand for BeFibre (here).
All the HT-6766 models tend to include 1 x FXS (phone) port, 1 x USB 3.1 port, 3 x 1Gbps RJ45 LAN ports, 1 x 2.5Gbps or 10Gbps LAN port, 1 x 2.5Gbps or 10Gbps WAN port and the usual array of WPS and power buttons etc. The dual-band model offers peak theoretical WiFi speeds of up to 6.5Gbps (5GHz = 5.8Gbps and 2.4GHz = 700Mbps), while the tri-band kit will do up to 18.1Gbps (6GHz = 11.6Gbps, 5GHz = 5.8Gbps and 2.4GHz = 700Mbps).
Advertisement
However, it’s not known whether Zzoomm has adopted identical kit to BeFibre, although they are now owned by the same group and did both introduce the change at the same time in early August 2025. BeFibre has now also aligned their prices to Zzoomm’s. Credits to one of our readers, Michael, for spotting the router development.
Rob McElroy, Product Manager at BeFibre, said:
“We’re pleased to confirm that WiFi 7 is now available to all new BeFibre customers. This cutting-edge technology delivers ultrafast speeds, lower latency, and improved stability, ideal for modern homes where multiple devices are always connected.
New customers will receive a brand-new WiFi 7 router as standard, along with a matching WiFi 7 Mesh extender if they add BeMesh, enabling them to take full advantage of the benefits straight away. It’s an important step in ensuring our broadband meets the ever-evolving needs of our users.”
In terms of Zzoomm refreshing their prices a bit, both their 200Mbps and 500Mbps packages have reduced their pricing by £2 extra per month, while their 1000Mbps tier is now £3 cheaper and the top 2300Mbps packages have been reduced by £6 (BeFibre of course mirrors all this). But the provider’s post-contract prices remain unchanged from what they were before.
The combined Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network of FullFibre and Zzoomm currently reaches 600,000 premises (RFS) and 80,000 customers across England – serving parts of 100 market towns, which makes it one of the UK’s largest altnets. This reflects both their open access wholesale network (FullFibre) and their in-house retail ISPs (BeFibre and Zzoomm).
UPDATE 9:45am
Advertisement
We’ve been sent the following additional comment.
Simon Gray, Brand and Marketing Director at Zzoomm and BeFibre, said:
“Delivering Wi-Fi 7 today is part of our continued dedication to be at the forefront of enhancing customer experience. As the Wi-Fi 7 standard becomes more prevalent across consumer devices, we’ll be well positioned to ensure our customers are able to make the most of their devices’ capability.
It also marks a technological milestone for us following the launch of the Be2300 (2300Mbps) Full Fibre plan available via BeFibre in November 2024; allowing us to pair multi-gigabit broadband with multi-gigabit Wi-Fi.
The new Hub offers an enhanced Wi-Fi experience with signal rates up to 6.5Gbps whilst enhancing our network integration through the inclusion on an FXS port for a more seamless digital phone (VoIP) experience, and multiple gigabit-enabled WAN/LAN ports for those ‘must have’ hard-wired devices.”
The rollout of the new devices is understood to have quietly commenced in June 2025 for Zzoomm, and July 2025 for BeFibre, before a full rollout for all new customers began this month (August 2025).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« WightFibre Connect 25,000th FTTP Broadband User on Isle of Wight
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real persons legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
After a Ombudsman judgement and the very real prospect of a my making a County Court claim against them for damaging my masonry Be-Fibre are supposed to be removing all of their CPE (including the drop wire) today. I have never dealt with quite such a disfunctional company. They have a but more to concern themselves with than Wifi 7 routers. If this does not go to Ombudman enforecement and The Small Claims track, I’ll be pleasantly sureprised. Good Riddance.
Would be good to hear from Ad47uk on this as he was not impressed with the router that was supplied by Zzoomm, when he moved to them after leaving Plusnet. I think he said he bought his on router.
There ought to be a niche for an ISP that does a to the ONT or NT5 service only for geeks who would prefer to choose their own gear (with appropriate pricing of course). In the early days of ADSL you use to have to do it yourself – remember the Alcatel “Green Frog” USB ADSL Modem?
@Dave
You mean like any number of ISPs who do this? where they don’t provide a router at all? Like aquiss, or idnet, or … you get the idea.
If you think it doesn’t exist, its probably because you’ve not actually looked.
** expecting you to come back and complain they’re not the cheapest supplier next. Power users != cheapest tariff takers.
I’d expect that price to be higher because using your own kit makes any troubleshooting harder.
“Would be good to hear from Ad47uk”
Surely you can’t be serious???
it was precisely the opposite, hence that frog modem. BT didn’t want you using anything else. These new fangled “routers” were for business services and even then you’d use the one they supplied.
Draytek got their foot in the door in the UK market by producing a router with a USB port that didn’t breach BT’s terms and conditions because you were still using the Alcatel modem.
As for modern wires only service, it should be obvious as to why hardly any ISPs do this for consumer grade service, and those that do cultivate a very specific, niche customer base. The mass market providers want a box that they can interrogate and trust and which avoids all potential issues created by customers who often don’t actually know what they’re doing.
I got my router before I changed to you know who :). The Zyxel I had from Plusnet had a problem, I used the original router for a while until a mate looked at the Zyxel and kind of fixed it, but it was never the same, so I went for the TPL-link I use now.
When i changed to You know who, I did try their router, but it has a slow UI and the Wi-Fi was not great, so I went back to the TP-link. Most of the complaints on Zzoomm’s Faceache page is because of the router.
Unless it is really needed, I hope Zzoomm/BEfibre or Fullfibre don’t give these routers out to old customers like me. It is a waste, unless, as I said above, it is really needed. Wi-Fi 7 is not going to make a lot of difference to most people if their Wi-Fi is okay.
@Ivor, I remember the frog modem or stingray as some people called it, I used it on a machine in my bedroom and use internet sharing to connect mine and my lodgers’ computer to it, routers were not really a thing for home users then. I used a coaxal network, with some BNC connectors, still got them in the loft and the frog modem.
The joy of superfast ADSL, even if it was a lot more expensive than dial up.
@Ad47uk: Thanks for taking the time to let us know why you didn’t like the orginal router you received from Zzoomm. Would you happen to remember the make by any chance? The new one is made by Heights Telecom, had never heard of them until now.
It is an icotera, there are two versions that were given out, I think I have the newer version. i know I said people have had some problems with the router and I found the UI slow and clunky, but I know some people who use the router, and it is fine, granted they are not the type to use the UI, in other words, it was installed and left. I went in to change the SSID and found it clunky. It also depends on where people put it and the house layout/build.
The other thing is the look of it, while many people would not care, it is a bit boxy and pretty large.
I never heard of them before, nor have I heard of Heights Telecom either.
But then, I suppose there are few companies that make routers for ISPs that we have not heard of.
@Ad47uk: Thanks for the information, always good to get the details from the person who would know, because of hands on experience. Wi-Fi 7 is good to have, not everybody would have the devices to suit, as you say.
You say Wi-Fi 7 is good to have, maybe it is, and even if people have the devices are they really going to notice any difference? After a certain speed, you fail to notice the difference, for the majority of stuff, maybe sending large files to a NAS you may. Then most people would use wired network for a NAS as it is more reliable. Wi-Fi 8 will be the next thing. I realise that things progress, if not we would still be on dial up, but sometimes the progress makes very little difference.
Sure, giving a new customer the latest router is fine or an old customer if they are having problems or the old router goes belly up, but not just for the sake of it, just like people getting a new mobile phone because it may be a bit faster than their old one in benchmark terms.
If I did not have a router that I got for Plusnet then I would have copped with what Zzoomm sent me, unless it really annoyed me. I did try it a few weeks ago, but it took ages to boot up and would not connect for some reason.
I’m on zzoomm 2.3gbps, their shipped zyxell router was utter garbage, but that’s fine, almost all isp supplied ones are, just get something decent and manage it yourself. Stops the isp being able to potter about on your lan anyhow.
*own router
The joys of a drop cable – is this why they can undercut BT ?
I spotted that a new box had fixed half-way the street telegraph pole, on the opposite side of the road, about 120 feet from my place, so did some research care of MS Co-Pilot AI.
Minimum height over roads must be 5.8 to 5.9 metres, and over gardens 2.5 to 3 metres.
Typical span can be 68 metres from the telegraph pole mounted CBTs (Connectorised Block Terminal) though can be greater.
Because my the first floor elevation of my property is tile hung, and to meet the minimum height requirement across roads must be a minimum of 5.8 metres, that means the connection to the house must be made to the barge board behind the guttering.
Apparently the diameter of flown Broadband cables used in the residential setting varies between 5 -5 millimeter and weighs 25-35 grams a metre. Making cable run length weigh, at minimum nearly a kilogram. The cables are rated to wind speed of 50-60 mph and at that speed the force exerted by a single cable on the barge board would be 11.2KGf (Equjivalent to a filled small toolbox). . .a nd mounting brackets must be rated for a dynamic load of 150-200 N . . . aka goodbye barge board.And there are no special restrictions for areas regularly subject to windy conditions e.g. coastal,mountainous,flat plains.
I’m told that, at rest, the sag on a 36.6 metre cable could be 0.5 to 1.2 metres – make a good shipping rope.
And better, some CBTs have provision for up to 12 cable ports. If fully occupied, in maximum wind coinditions that could be a total dynamic load on the telegraph pole of 134.4 Kgf i.e. 3 x One hundred weight bags of cement.
And then there’s the whiplash when they break – ever seen what a broken arrestor wire can do to flight deck crew on an Aircraft carrier ? Not pleasant.
The the watch phrases must be “Buyer beware” and “Head ’em off at the pass”
engineers can use
I wrote a longer post then remembered that I could just link you the Openreach document. In summary the calculations on pole load have been done, it’s fine, sorry it’s awkward in your case but presumably you had a copper line at some point so the fibre will take the same path and it’s nothing to do with ‘Rachel from Accounts’ or ‘mixed urban areas’ those comments were quite unnecessary. Scrotes be scrotes nationwide and stuff has ended up on phone cables for time immemorial.
https://www.studocu.com/en-gb/document/university-of-bradford/telecommunications-engineering/cp08-overhead-apr2020/111006412
You’re welcome.
You should see the cables outside my window, they are hanging pretty low, my old copper cable swings a bit in the wind, it is a wonder my FTTC worked at all.
The fibre from my altnet is pretty tight, not too tight because it has to contend with the slight sway of the pole.
An if you reside in a “Mixed” urban area, there’s nothing the kids love best than lacing a discarded pair of trainers together and slinging them over any exposed flown cable.
I have not seen that happen for years,
And there’s ‘le Rachel From Accounts, up before a Select Committee, trying to answer questions as to why productivity in the UK is trailing Europe.
What have your 3 posts got to do with this article regarding Zzoomm and BeFibre introducing a new Wi-Fi 7 capable router for new Customers on their Network. Moderator please take note!
I’m interested to see how good this new router is. My Zzoomm contract is up in March next year. So I’ll see how it compares to my TP Link Deco BE65 WiFi 7 router. Hopefully it comes with some sort of parental controls or I’ll stick with what I’ve got.
Just because your contract is up, it don’t mean, and it should not mean you will get a new router unless there is a problem with the one you have.
Too many routers are sent out and either lay about in cupboards or end up in landfill.
I have a fair few here, from different times, granted some of them would not work on full fibre, without some mucking around and some of them are way out of date anyway.
I am fine with my TP-link and I have 10 months ish to run on my Zzoomm contract and don’t want or need another router. Wi-Fi 7 for most people will make no difference and even if they have Wi-Fi 7 compatible devices they will not notice any difference I doubt.
We are told to reduce waste and use what we got, and then you get ISPs and mobile phone providers dishing out hardware as if it is food. I realised some are reused to recycled, but a lot is not.
I just had to get and install another thermostat because the one I have is not being supported any more, granted the old one is over 7 years old.
@Ad47uk I know someone that re contracted yesterday. They were give the option for the new router, which they opted for as they have had a bad experience with the previous router WiFi wise. So based from that one person old customers will be able to get the new hardware. I was also told by someone on the Zzoomm Cheshire page. That the new hardware has some firmware issues at the moment as well.
Fair enough, if they are having problems then get a new router, but yours should be fine, so may as well carry on using it,
#PolishPoler I’m afraid you are showing your popular pejudice underwear dear, by ‘Mixed area’ I meant socially and economically mixed not necessarily racially. I remember clearly, for a long-time before the area became racislly mixed, when the sons and daughters of white van man were prevalent in the area in the late 1980s and 1990s the first sight that greeted me when egressing my property for work was a pair of old trainers strung over one of the flown aluminium telephone wires from thenearby telephone pole. It trainers disappeared after a while . . so either BT eventually got around to rejoving them or the aluminium cable broke (They were prone to crystalisation and breaking, especially if subject to an abnormal load). You’re excused as I am describing an event which may have pre-dated you’re arrival here. In the event I not in the habit of re-writing history for the sake of political correctness.
The kids at the time also had the habit, usually practised at night, or relieving Volkswagen owners of the VW badge on the radiator grill of their vehicle – contemporaneous with the popularity of the “Beasty Boys”. Such overt action doesn’t happen now the area has become more racially, socially and economically mixed, . . err . .err other new activities have taken its place fly-tipping, pavement parking and prostitution . . cest la vie !
The last thing I want to do is burst any precious woke reality bubble.
I’m afraid I didn’t refer to it as being racist merely unnecessary, same as the other pointless remark.
You’re also quite wrong thinking the 80s and 90s predate me and implying I’ve no idea about socially mixed areas: I would’ve been both in terms of age and demographics one of those kids of the white van man.
Might not be me that’s out of touch when you are the one thinking a council estate lad in their late 40s is a woke 20-something middle class lefty.
Not that any of this has anything to do with either the article or the comments on poles. Don’t trust everything AI tells you, there are two obvious incorrect statements in there and probably more.
I’ve no idea what this means ‘I spotted that a new box had fixed half-way the street telegraph pole’ but if you mean the box is halfway up the pole it’s not a CBT. The 68 metre span isn’t a CBT to premises thing it’s pole to pole. Once it’s over your garden there’s no height restriction on flown cable. 3 metres over other gardens on the way to you else needs wayleave.
You’re welcome.
Many people have commented on this site in a regular way, Nick, being one of those. After a long hiatus he’s back. Somebody decided after protracted deliberations he could have his device back. Hence the result! We’ve missed Ya! 🙂
No fun throwing your old trainers over less than 10 foot high flown cable! With steps you could hang out your washing! 🙂
Utter tosh, BT / Openreach has never used overhead drop cables to customers’ premises with aluminium conductors.
I had the first gen icotera with Zzoomm when I started on the 900mbps package. It was ok, once configured it never seemed to miss a beat, but I also only use WiFi on my phone and iPad. The whole house is wired with Cat6a cabling. I switched to 2 gig when it came available and was issued the 2nd icotera (with the 2.5gig port. I have purchased a 2.5gig switch and everything runs off the single router port. I had 1 issue early on, no hairpinning (it was broken, called loop back in the icotera.) I beta tested the new firmware for 2 weeks before it was rolled out, fixed all my issues, been fine since. The provided icotera never misses a beat.