Zen Internet Boosts Fibre Broadband Uptake by Extending FREE Installs

UK ISP Zen Internet has today moved to extend its existing FREE installation (saves £96 inc. VAT) promotion in an apparent effort to tackle the “slow uptake” of existing Fibre Optic based superfast broadband (FTTC) services in the country.

According to Zen, both new and existing customers will benefit from the free installation offer on its Fibre Broadband services, which will run from today (7th January 2013) to 31st March 2013. The installation itself includes an onsite visit by an engineer to adapt the faceplate and connect a VDSL modem and router.

Andrew Saunders, Zen’s Head of Product Management, said:

“There are lots of headlines about building even faster networks in the future, exciting media campaigns from the larger players, but generally a lack of easy to understand information about Fibre Optic Broadband services available today. We are concerned that in combination this is slowing the uptake of faster services that are available to about 50% of premises in the UK today.

We recognise that although today’s fibre based services are typically 8 – 10 times faster than traditional broadband, the cost of installation for Fibre Optic Broadband may be a barrier to many customers. So we have taken the bold step of introducing a special offer that removes this cost.”

In fairness many other ISPs pushed similar special offers last year, which were designed to coincide with a discount from BTOpenreach, although Zen seems to have waited until FTTC coverage improved before introducing a deal of its own. One clear downside of Zen’s offer is that customers will need to take a lengthy 24 month contract instead of the usual 12 month option.

Otherwise the services start at £27.60 inc. VAT per month for the Fibre Lite deal (20GB usage and up to 38Mbps download speeds) and increase to £78 for their Fibre Office Plus service (1000GB usage and up to 76Mbps speeds).