ISP Zen Internet Says Businesses Wrong to Demand Fibre Optic Broadband

ISP Zen Internet has warned that businesses in the United Kingdom should “stop focusing” on the perceived need for true fibre optic (FTTP/H) broadband services, which take the fibre direct to their doorstep, because their needs can already be met by the existing but slower Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) solutions.

According to Zen’s Head of Product Management, Andrew Saunders, most organisations “don’t need” the 330Mbps speeds that are possible on Fibre-to-the-Premises (possibly rising to 1Gbps in the near future) lines as the up to 80Mbps performance offered by FTTC (possibly rising to 100Mbps+ in 2013) should be “more than enough“.

Andrew Saunders explained:

“Business customers are being led to believe that they must have superfast broadband, delivered via fibre directly to their premises, and anything less will not be satisfactory.

The Government is working with the industry to try to deliver Europe’s fastest broadband network by 2015 and we hope that they succeed, but meanwhile the needs of businesses can be met right now from existing Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) options, and this is not being made clear.

Over half of premises in the UK can already access FTTC broadband, a solution which avoids disruption and guarantees high performance and reliability. Most organisations don’t need the 330Mbps promised by FTTP, and will find 80Mbps more than enough and large enterprises demand bespoke solutions, so for them the debate is largely redundant.”

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, recently revealed that superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services were now available to 65% of homes and businesses (with a take-up rate of just 7%). Saunders also suggests that the “wait” for true fibre optic broadband services could be adding to uptake woes, with only 18% of its customers choosing to adopt FTTC. He added that customers with good connections are often happier to stick with their standard / cheaper broadband service than to upgrade, at least for now.

Either way businesses that only have access to FTTC lines will, from spring 2013, also be able to order a full FTTP line (FTTP-On-Demand) if they so wish. But the cost of doing so is expected to be steep and thus likely to dissuade some smaller firms, as well as home users.