Customers of UK Broadband ISP Zen Internet Face Another IP Address Switch
Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet has recently begun notifying customers of yet another migration of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for a small subset (under 2%) of user IPv4 allocations, which for most subscribers should only result in a brief service disruption (c.30 seconds) and possibly the need for a router reboot. But others may find it more of a pain.
Most consumers tend to connect via broadband providers that use dynamic IP addresses (or shared addressing via CGNAT), and so a change in your IP – however often it may occur – is somewhat par for the course. But in Zen’s case it’s worth remembering that they’ve long sold their broadband packages alongside Static IP (IPv4 and IPv6) addresses as standard (i.e. the IP address shouldn’t change or won’t change very often).
Static (or Fixed) IPs tend to be more associated with premium / business packages for advanced users, where customers are more likely to desire a fixed address because they’ll be hosting servers or domains, using bespoke VPNs or VLANs, have specific security requirements (e.g. the need to whitelist a specific IP to firewalls) or want to avoid problems with Carrier Grade NAT etc.
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Suffice to say that a change of static IP assignment can create problems for some network admins and users with more complex IP needs (casual users need not worry), although Zen are giving customers 30 days’ notice of the change (several messages will be sent) and will confirm once the new IP addresses are live. The process is running between 1st May and 30th August 2026, with impacted IPs being in the following ranges.
Impacted Zen IP Ranges
The changes are happening to a small subset (<2%) of customer IPv4 allocations that sit in the following ranges.
62.3.64.0/20
82.69.64.0/18
88.97.0.0/18
82.68.128.0/18
82.68.192.0/18
82.69.128.0/18
82.69.192.0/18
62.3.96.0/19
212.23.12.0/22
212.23.22.0/23
212.23.24.0/21
82.68.0.0/18
82.68.64.0/18
82.71.0.0/17
217.155.0.0/18
217.155.64.0/18
217.155.128.0/18
217.155.192.0/18
At this point you might well be asking, why are Zen Internet assigning new IP address(es) to some of their broadband services and customers at all? The official line is as follows.
Zen’s Statement
“Zen operates one of the largest independent data networks in the UK. We invest significantly for better performance, better resilience, and a network that operates without limits or restrictions. This means constant evaluation to ensure we are optimising resources.
To ensure we can continue to deliver a reliable service, we regularly review how our IP address space is used and make changes where needed.
This helps us use available capacity efficiently and support both existing customers and future demand.”
However, over at Thinkbroadband they’ve suggested that the change may be more reflective of a desire to free up unused IP address space, possibly for trading away (sale) on the open market (IPv4s have value due to being a finite resource). For example, Zen’s IP Address Migration Page notes that customers who already had multiple IP addresses as part of a paid package will be assigned the same amount of new IP addresses, but they also said this:
“In some instances, you may have been provided with multiple IP addresses outside of an allocated package. In this case we will adjust the amount of IP addresses down to one. If you wish to purchase additional IP addresses, please email [email protected] and a case will be assigned,” which seems to reflect Zen’s desire to release multiple IP blocks that were once provided for free and may have thus gone largely unused.
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Regular readers may recall that this is NOT the first time that Zen Internet has conducted such an IP address migration (example), which seems to be a process that they’re doing very gradually, in phases, so as not to cause too much upset and change all at once.
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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>>You will most likely receive the 30 days’ notice within May, with the change taking place in June. There are a very small number of customers who may receive the initial notification in June, with the change taking place in July.
My IP is in the 217.155/16 range but have not received anything from Zen yet! I’m sure they know what they are doing.
Also looks like you can’t make the switch at your convenience within the 30 day notice period – annoying.
I suspect migrating individual IPs within a single routed range at different times would, at the very least, add complexity to the process giving more opportunity for suboptimal occurrences.
Really? Why couldn’t they provide a separate PPPoE credential for the new IP address? Zen don’t use DHCP.
Richard is selling again?
Yes. Hopefully any new ones bought are properly vetted and not still registered to Bulgaria before being put into public use like last time. Absolute shambles that was as it caused no end of grief for the staff and rightly so, a lot of customers
At the end of the day, they own those ranges, and you are effectively leasing them as part of your contract. What they do with them is up to them.
I have a /28 in one of the affected blocks, for which I had to complete a RIPE form and pay Zen an administration fee.
My new allocation is a /32, which is too small for my needs. I will contact Zen and argue that I fall into the paid service exemption based on the fee previously paid. If they do not accept that, I may well disconnect without penalty under clause 14.7 on Zen’s standard terms and conditions based on substantial detriment to me. If that succeeds, that will leave Zen to pay the substantial cancellation costs to Openreach for a service that was upgraded to FTTP less than a month ago.
I did seek assurances before upgrading to FTTP that I would keep my existing allocations, and proceeded with the upgrade based on those assurances. There is therefore an argument that Zen would be providing a service that is unfit for purpose (bearing in mind the disclosure, at least implicitly, that routed IPv4 is required, prior to the contract crystallising), but exercising my right to Consumer Rights Act 2015 remedies is likely to put me in no better a position that a clause 14.7 disconnection.
In case it’s useful to anyone for managing migration (because Zen don’t let you choose when to move, and won’t run the two sets of addresses in parallel), A&A have an L2TP service that you can connect to from a other ISP, with either fixed single IPv4 (+block of V6) on the standard tariff, or a block of v4 on the business one, so you could setup new addresses and test while you still have the old ones. (Some care may be needed with MTUs with the tunnel)…
I think they should also be able to move addresses on L2TP over to an fttc/fttp circuit if you wanted to do that.
I received a notification yesterday. This is the third time since being with them, although the first change was as a result of moving from fttc to fttp.
The last time they decided to change them was Feb 2024. They said they were putting me down to one IP then, which I rejected and there was no problem. I hope it will be the same again.
I have seen on Reddit people are being asked to pay £13 a month to keep their /29.
Looks like I am part of the affected people as I am in one of those blocks.
To date, Zen has not contacted me about this even once, so not sure when they plan to say something.
Same here… Lots of configuration work for me as the static IP is used for access to lots of different systems.
Disappointing behaviour by Zen. I have been a loyal customer for at least a decade (more if you count my business use). I’m fine with them migrating IP addresses, that is just part of managing networks. I have an 8 IP range that they’re pulling from me, unless I pay them over 30% more per month. This just stinks given that their contract said no price rises ever. I guess I’m off to look at alternatives now…
Sadly price for life was launched just before inflation went crazy. It sucks for customers on it as it was a great deal, but I bet it wss costing them a fortune.
I’m like many here and Zen is about to lose a customer of 2 decades – I received a response from them and it was basically you only have a block of IP’s due to an ‘administrative’ error but this is utter BS it was a key selling point, I’m pretty incensed by the attitude, I actually tolerate a lower grade of service just to stay with Zen, they hold all my domain names, my DNS settings – this is so disruptive.
Time to start looking elsewhere because I’m not going to tolerate being held to ransom long term.
Absolutely livid with the way this is being handled. I went with Zen in the first place (over 20 years ago) because I had a static /29 as part of the package. Now they want to charge £13.20 a month for that.
Exploring my options but it seems Zen is no longer the company it used to be.
+1 to this and a number of other points… It’s such a shame Zen is moving away from being a high quality ISP that focused on customer experience and technical capabilities, to one that is just squeezing its loyal customer base for more revenue.
Lets not forget they are not paying for these IP blocks themselves, rather they are in effect an ‘asset’… and my assumption is they are hoping to generate some cash by selling them.
I’ve been with Zen for over 20 years too… and have already had to sadly move other hosting type services away as the pricing is just out of whack with the service… but this will be the last straw for me. I’ve had my specific /28 for a very long time – and while an IP change is one thing, trying to charge an exorbitant amount for something that bears no cost (other than lost ‘oppouruntity cost’ from selling them) is just day light robbery.
Such a sad day for the industry when one of the few remaining technically strong and customer focused ISPs alienates some of their most loyal customers who have naturally provided free recommendations to so many other people over the years.
In fact was it you that recommended Zen to me, or me to you Rob? Either way – its been a LONG time for both of us!
Update – only fair that I give credit where it is due.
Zen have now sorted my issue and I’ll be retaining a /29 on current terms. Still need to change the range. Whilst that is a pain, I can work with that.
I do think they dropped the ball on this one and are likely dealing with a number of unhappy long term/loyal customers right now. I hope others receive a similar apology and rectification of the issue like I did.