Broadband ISP Zen Internet UK Now Offering 2.3Gbps Package
Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet appears to have Finally begun to make their long-awaited top tier Full Fibre Max package available over CityFibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which means you can now take symmetric speeds of 2.3Gbps for just £55 per month.
Just to be clear about this, the new package is currently only available via parts of CityFibre’s network that have been upgraded to support XGS-PON technology (here) and that means availability is quite limited. At the last update in October 2024, CityFibre informed ISPreview that they were “on track to double our XGS-PON footprint to 40% by the end of the year” (RFS premises) – out of c.4 million UK premises passed.
The package itself attracts an 18-month minimum contract term with free setup, a pledge of no mid-contract price rises and Zen will also throw in one of Amazon’s eero Pro 6E routers, although we really wish they’d bundle a more professional / advanced user focused device with this sort of tier (e.g. the eero kit is seriously lacking in the ports department). You can optionally pay £10 a month extra for the eero Max 7 Pro, but that’s still a pricey compromise device.
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The new speed tier was originally due to launch in September 2024 (here), but it ended up taking a little bit longer than that to arrive, although we aren’t sure of the exact date they finally made the 2.3Gbps option available (oddly, Zen’s pre-registration page for it is still live). Credits to Gary for spotting.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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They’ve been offering this for ages. I called them and ordered last year.
“Zen will also throw in one of Amazon’s eero Pro 6E routers, although we really wish they’d bundle a more professional / advanced user focused device”.
I would have that most customers who are after this sort of speed would probably prefer to source their own kit anyway so it probably won’t be too much of a problem.
Any news on the trooli offering of this?
Yes, it live via Telesales just now (online orders will come later)
Can someone please explain what is such a speed good/used for?
If Zen internet released:
We covered remote village in “poor” area of …..
with decent connection I would give them thumbs up.
Anyone that sends and receives a lot of data, maybe you do a lot of remote backups, or just use a lot of cloud services, etc
Looking at my firewall traffic I have transferred 12TB over the last 14 days (Virgin Gigabit) still impatiently waiting for CityFibre to become available, they started installing around here a few years ago.
Indeed. The only people who actually *need* such speeds (instead of wanting something to boast about on the internet) would be better served by a business package instead.
Of course, here’s an example. large house hold with many family members using internet simultaneously with the kids wanting to download the latest Fortnite updates quickly right after school so they can play for an hour before dinner
I’m an AI researcher – the speedbost is useful for me moving large datasets around.
Showing off. 🙂
I noticed it was available to order through my account page on January 24th, so it was at least available by then. I was charged £9.95 set-up fee although that may be because I was already in contract for Full Fibre 900. Oddly, I never got an email notification to say I could upgrade despite signing up on the pre-registration page.
They tried to make me pay the £9.99 to re-grade from CityFibre 300 to 900, and I was in the final month of my contract at the time. I said I’d look elsewhere, and mentioned a few competitor ISP names, and they found it in the goodness of their heart to waive the fee.
Would be nice if there was a discount for not taking their kit. No one wants the eero and you’re indirectly paying extra for the privilege of them sending it out and it sitting in the box.
Would be good if ISPs offered a “To The ONT only” service. Would help cut down on e-waste.
I am with Idnet and I was able to sign up without having their CPE.
Most ISPs send out equipment because a) they consider it a larger part of the user experience now that everyone offers broadly the same speeds, and b) it assists greatly when the user reports issues as it gives them a device with a known good config and one that they can interrogate. Yes, they could offer a loaner scheme but that adds complexity and delays for both sides.
This forum is perhaps testament to why ISPs generally dislike people attempting to DIY. Multi gig will add further complexity, interop issues, showing up issues in otherwise marginal home cabling, etc.
Ultimately this is a consumer/SMB grade service and so you get their equipment. It isn’t a leased line service where there is an expectation that the customer knows what they’re doing.
@ivor. This wasn’t always the case. In the days of dial up you were responsible for buying and configuring your own gear, in the early days of ADSL you were supplied with a USB modem and mictofilters that you were responsible for setting up. I think the real reason they do it is that the call centres are now filled with poorly trained staff working to a script and anything outside the box they are incapable of dealing with.
@Big Dave,
You mean like Freeola?
People really need to push back against these absurd years-long contracts. It’s an ISP. You should be able to switch whenever you want to. There is and always should be choice.
In fact, that we don’t have city-/council-built dark fibre infrastructure is absurdly shortsighted and silly, too.
But hey, that’s the way things are here.
All the more reason IDNet has my respect for offering rolling monthly contracts.
You should be with your ISP because they’re good, and because you want to be. Not because you’re forced to be because of a stupid contract.
Life’s short. Don’t waste it on companies that don’t respect you.
The IDNet monthly contract is also way more expensive which is inevitable as there are fixed costs involved with a switch. I agree it’s nice to have the offer but I wonder how many they actually sell.
Long term contacts give ISPs confidence they can recover the cost of installation, router, marketing costs, price comparison site fees. Offering a one month contract inevitably means ISPs need to charge more, perhaps not their full one off costs but certainly a lot more than a longer term contact. Most households demand lower prices, inevitably that means longer contacts.
I do get why there is a contract, as it costs money to set up and install, but the 24-month contracts that are going around is way over the top, I think 18 is too much, but it is or used to be the standard. Myself, I think 12 months should be the maximum. I will not sign for 24 months, even if I moved from Zzoomm,
EE 1.6Gbps £74,99 or £79,99 12 months.
Freeola £73 with 12 month back for hosting and e-mail. 30 day contracts.
I see your point.
I’ll take it… Ohhh no I can’t I’m not in a cityfibre area.
But I am in a Virgin XGS-PON area so please, when are Zen going to wholesale on Nexfibre’s network and hurry up!
I upgraded to this a week ago inc the Eero 7 (paired it up with an Error 6E in mesh mode to extend wifi to the whole premises) – working fine and great speeds – most of my big devices (work machine, laptops, servers) are on 10gbe/2.5gbe. They even upgraded overnight to it didn’t interfere with my work day. Limited functionality of the router isn’t really an issue for me – I route through a TrueNas scale box that does most of the stuff i need (PiHole, reverse Proxy, VPN etc). The speedboost is really helpful as I’m an AI research and move some quite beefy datasets between my home and the office.
Zen still unable to offer anything faster than 80 Mbps in Oxford would be just as valid a headline.
I got the 1600 package and didn’t get a router sent, they then offered me one and I turned it down… much rather use my UDM Pro SE.