Zen Internet UK Confirm Plan to Launch 330Mbps FTTP Broadband Service

Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet has today confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they’re planning to launch a 330Mbps (Megabits per second) capable fibre optic broadband package using the latest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology upgrade, which was yesterday made commercially available (here) to the UK market.

At present Zen already offers two FTTP based packages – Fibre Enterprise and Fibre Enterprise Plus – that come with download speeds of up to 100Mbps and uploads of up to 30Mbps. Both services are targeted more towards business consumers and thus cost from £70 +vat per month with a 500GB (GigaByte) download allowance.

Sadly the number of consumer friendly ISPs with FTTP packages is still fairly low, largely due to its poor coverage. So it’s understandable that Zen’s current FTTP solutions don’t seem to be particularly well promoted on their website, where slower FTTC solutions with better availability take priority, but that hasn’t stopped them from preparing a 330Mbps product.

Andrew Saunders, Zen’s Head of Product Management and Marketing, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Zen Internet was one of a select few ISPs chosen by BT to run early trials of FTTP Fibre Optic Broadband services. We have been providing FTTP services since last year and we now have a number of Zen customers enjoying 100Mbps FTTP broadband. We do intend to launch the new 330Mbps FTTP Fibre Optic Broadband services but currently don’t have a confirmed date.

At the moment our primary focus is on our FTTC Fibre Optic Broadband services now offering download speeds of “up to 76Mbps” and upload speeds of “up to 19Mbps” and are pleased to report we have had a doubling of sales of these services in recent months.”

Unfortunately Zen refused to be drawn on pricing, although it’s safe to say that any future 330Mbps packages would be at least as expensive as their current 100Mbps service.

As for the domestic/home market, BT is still the only provider with a vaguely affordable 100Mbps (15Mbps uploads) FTTP package that costs from £35 inc. VAT per month and includes unlimited usage (traffic shaping) with free evening and weekend calls. Few have been able to match that and it will be interesting to see whether they can produce a 330Mbps option too.

Meanwhile some of the other ISPs we’ve spoken with are still struggling to make a viable consumer broadband solution out of the new service. This is partly because of the huge and costly capacity headroom required to make 330Mbps economically viable. Thankfully most ordinary consumers still have no need for such speeds, yet.