Broadband ISP Zen Internet UK Launch Fibre Hub – Becomes Altnet Aggregator
Rochdale-base UK ISP Zen Internet has today officially launched The Fibre Hub, which essentially aggregates access to a number of major and smaller alternative full fibre broadband networks (Openreach, CityFibre, Trooli, Freedom Fibre etc.) and offers that up to partners (e.g. other ISPs) at the wholesale level.
Zen previously only supplied services to homes and businesses using products from Openreach (BT) and CityFibre, but over the past couple of years they’ve been busily expanding that range of networks and have previously spoken of their “aspirations to become the UK’s alt-net aggregator of choice“ (here). This could provide an alternative to the likes of PXC (Talk Talk Wholesale), AllPoints Fibre and others in the wholesale space.
The provider began to soft launch this through their Zen Partner programme on 23rd April 2025, which initially offered access to CityFibre’s Business FTTP with speed options ranging from 160Mbps to 2.5Gbps, and CityFibre Residential FTTP with speed options from 1Gbps to 2.5Gbps alongside existing Openreach access (over 19 million premises across both). This access is now available for all channel businesses to take advantage of. A new residential 160Mbps tier will also be introduced soon.
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Just to be clear. CityFibre’s FTTP network alone currently spans over 4.4 million UK premises, with Zen Internet covering 3.8 million of these (Ready for Service). By comparison, Openreach’s FTTP network covers around 18.3 million premises, and there’s some overbuild between these two.
Richard Tang, Founder and CEO of Zen Internet, said:
“Hosting the launch of The Fibre Hub at The Gherkin, London’s iconic building, reflects our ambition to be the UK’s leading alt-net aggregator, offering unparalleled choice, reach, and performance.
We are excited to announce rollout timescales including Trooli access from early June, and Freedom Fibre from mid-July. The Fibre Hub is just another example of how we do things differently, and that’s true in lots of ways.”
Zen has previously indicated that Trooli’s network would also become available via The Fibre Hub “later this summer” and Freedom Fibre were due to be introduced into their Partner Portal “soon“, although today’s announcement merely states that those two “networks will be available on the hub later this year … with further alt-nets to be announced soon“.
The launch is said to include “several new features” for The Fibre Hub, such as network migrations, a cosmetic redesign (formerly known as Zen’s ICP Portal), and a bulk migration tool.
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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Wish Richard & Zen well with this venture. The idea that as a retail ISP you can sign up with Zen & gain access to multiple networks seems to be a win win to me. Hopefully this will enable to Zen to sign up with other altnets as well and fill their networks as well (All Points Fibre would be great if you see this Richard).
I’d assume Zen see All points more as a competitor. All points are also trying to do the aggregation thing, all be it they seem to be a few steps behind Zen. There own network is pretty tiny from what I can gathet.
I don’t get it, why not just sign with cityfibre and avoid the middleman taking a cut?
@Sam, it takes a lot of work to integrate with a new network so it’s attractive to connect with one organisation and get access to lots of networks. Also I understand zen has negotiated better rates than most small ISPs would get direct so are able to sell at the same price as smaller ISPs would get by going direct
How exciting … for the 23% of us still on copper! Lots of people have choice / overbuild, while we still have nothing.
86% of the UK has access to gigabit capable broadband.
What 23% are you claiming to be part of?
Believe he’s in the part of the population that have access to gigabit via cable.
“What 23% are you claiming to be part of?”
Ok 24% then. Personally I don’t believe 86% of the UK has access to fibre, much of that “gigabit” broadband is Vigin’s dreadful copper coax service which many won’t touch with a barge pole.
I’m in a major city and the best service I can get is VDSL with a 10 mbps upload.
Nobody said anything about 86% coverage with full fibre. That’s full fibre plus VM cable. Full fibre coverage is at 77%.
Yes, the 9% have gigabit available over coax only but it’s not exactly nothing and if the need for bandwidth were so high a person in that 9% would at least give cable a try.
In this person’s case it isn’t. Light user, wants the very lowest tier his ISP offers, 115/20. Given the constant complaints over a year and more you’d think were a heavy user crushing their current service and being hamstrung by it, planning to get gigabit at first opportunity.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/08/broadband-isp-andrews-arnold-uk-finally-adopt-unlimited-data.html#comment-309677
My sympathy is with those stuck on slower FTTC and full copper, whose online experience is genuinely harmed and for whom full fibre is transformative. Bit more limited for 400 GB a month user paying A&A for their Lite package.
As someone once said, “There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics”. Believe you me, I can make a column of figures tell any story I like.
Long overdue – 99% of homes and businesses (especially non-techie) don’t care about the infrastructure, they just want a connection. But there are far too many options around, ranging from Openreach-based ISPs, Virgin Media, Starlink, 4G/5G, FWA, and far too many alt-nets. I’d like to see a single ISP or even some sort of service where you input your postcode and it just provides you with what’s available, regardless of ISP.
I agree, though I think it would be better if there were multiple networks – all of comparable size and coverage – to enable a well-functioning open market for the ISPs. Regulation must be put in place to allow ISPs access to all networks while preventing the networks from consolidating to an anti-competitive level.
Agree – up to a point.
Aggregating fibre connectivity with, say, 4G/5G, Starlink and FWA and saying “sign here, we’ll supply the best” would confuse rather than simplify. 4G/5G might be “the best” at first but then suffer from poor performance later on – it is at the end of the day a shared wireless medium, with a hard limit to its aggregate throughput.
And the reality is that retail offerings will always be partially driven by what the supplier has been able to negotiate with wholesale providers, rather than what’s the optimal solution for the purchaser.
personally, I’d just like the prices to come down.
It sounds like a very smart initiative.