UPDATE UK ISP Zen Internet Freezes Line Rental Price Until 2020

Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet has announced that they’re “freezing line rental costs for the next four years”, which for example means that both their new and existing small business broadband and / or phone customers will enjoy a price freeze at £17.00 plus VAT until 2020.

According to Ofcom, average line rental costs in the United Kingdom have risen by as much as 33% in the past five years and that’s despite the fact that the underlying wholesale cost of the service has remained fairly flat.

One of the reasons for this is because providers have often preferred to shift the rising costs of broadband (e.g. higher data usage) into line rental, which can also make their Internet packages appear more attractive (pricing).

Andrew Fryatt, Zen’s Managing Director, said:

“Many of the larger broadband and telephone providers have recently announced significant increases in the cost of their monthly telephone rental costs. This happens annually in the UK in spite of the fact that wholesale prices have remained in the doldrums for some time.

At Zen we are committed to ensuring our customers benefit from a value product backed up by first-class customer care and a carrier-grade broadband connection. That’s why we’re freezing line rental costs for the next four years.”

However Zen’s announcement makes no mention of whether or not the same freeze also applies to their domestic (home) packages, which currently price line rental from £16.99 inc. VAT per month. Mind you it would be rather odd for an ISP like Zen to boast about freezing prices for businesses, thus taking the moral high ground, and to then not apply that same approach to home users.

We have asked Zen to clarify.

UPDATE 8:41am

Zen has confirmed that the freeze also applies to their home / residential customers.