ISP Zen Internet Reduces UK FTTP Ultrafast Broadband Prices

Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet has informed us that they’ve discounted the price of their standalone “full fibre” (FTTP) based superfast and ultrafast broadband packages, which offer average download speeds of up to 300Mbps (45Mbps upload); slower and cheaper plans are also available.

The packages are also supported by Zen’s new Lifetime Price Guarantee, which they say guarantees no price rises for as long as a customer stays with them. Should the same package decrease in price, existing customers will be able to avail of the new price, too (note: existing customers can sign-up to the new deals once their current contract expires).

As usual all of the packages include “truly unlimited” usage, a good quality wireless router (FRITZ!Box), a Static IP address and they’ve now removed their 12 month minimum contract terms in favour of a longer 18 month term (likely to help support the new price discounts). A one-off £55 activation fee also applies to all of the packages below.

Richard Tang, Founder & Chairman of Zen, said:

“When customers choose a broadband provider, they want a great service, competitive prices and to be rewarded for their loyalty. These revised prices aim to bring all this together by offering a value for money service that will entice customers to remain with us for years to come.”

One small thing to be aware of here is that Zen’s main website only shows their ADSL, FTTC and G.fast (Openreach network) based broadband packages to the public, which means that you’ll only see their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) services after you’ve run through the availability checker. Another issue is that you have to phone them in order to place an order for these packages (this can discourage people).

Unlimited Full Fibre 1 (38Mbps / 9Mbps)

PRICE (inc. Phone Line): £44.99 per month

PRICE (Broadband Only): £34.99 per month

Unlimited Full Fibre 2 (76Mbps / 18Mbps)

PRICE (inc. Phone Line): £49 per month

PRICE (Broadband Only): £38.99 per month

Unlimited Full Fibre 3 (150Mbps / 27Mbps)

PRICE (inc. Phone Line): £59.99 per month

PRICE (Broadband Only): £49.99 per month

Unlimited Full Fibre 4 (300Mbps / 45Mbps)

PRICE (inc. Phone Line): £70 per month

PRICE (Broadband Only): £59.99 per month

One other oddity that we noticed concerns Zen’s description of how the phone service is applied. On the top Full Fibre 3/4 packages those who select the ‘broadband only’ option are told “you don’t need to have a phone line installed,” but if you do the same for Full Fibre 1/2 then it says “you must have a phone line installed to receive broadband from Zen.” We’ve asked Zen to clarify why they’re different.

We should remind readers that at present Openreach’s full fibre network is only available to 1.2 million UK premises, although they aim to cover 4 million by March 2021 and 15 million by around 2025.

UPDATE 15:51pm

Zen are in the process of correcting some of the issues we’ve raised above and we note that the discounted price for Full Fibre 1/2 (broadband only) is now correctly showing as being the new standard price (not a 12 month reduction as it was before – we’ve tweaked the above report accordingly).