{"id":19889,"date":"2019-11-09T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T00:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=19889"},"modified":"2024-02-23T15:27:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T15:27:39","slug":"zen-internet-on-ending-the-fibre-tax-and-working-with-altnet-isps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/11\/zen-internet-on-ending-the-fibre-tax-and-working-with-altnet-isps.html","title":{"rendered":"Zen Internet Talks Ending the Fibre Tax and Working with Altnet ISPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a new interview the founder and chairman of UK ISP Zen Internet<\/a>, Richard Tang, has called for the “fibre tax<\/em>” to be scrapped in order to boost “full fibre<\/em>” broadband and explains some of the problems of working with smaller altnet ISPs. On top of that he also warns about the difficulties of trying to regulate internet content.<\/p>\n

There’s a story that Richard likes to tell about how Zen originally started life with a chat in the pub during the summer of 1995, back in the early days when internet access was still a tremendously slow (narrowband dialup<\/a>) but fascinating new experience that less than 2% of the UK population were using.<\/p>\n

“I asked my brother Dan if he thought the Internet would take off, and he said \u201cyes\u201d. We set up a tiny network in a shared office in Rochdale – six modems, a couple of Linux boxes, and a 64kbps leased line to the Internet \u2013 and then in October 1995 we opened our doors for business<\/em>,” said Richard.<\/p>\n

Since then a lot has changed and today Zen Internet<\/a> is arguably not only one of the most established, but also one of the best rated consumer and business broadband ISPs in the UK market. The provider is currently home to over 500 staff, around 126,000 broadband customers and last year delivered an annual turnover of \u00a371 million. Richard attributes much of this success to the provider’s “people-first<\/em>” approach.<\/p>\n

An Ever Changing Landscape<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Naturally this also makes Richard an ideal person to ask about the current broadband market and its many challenges, not least since his “long-term dream goal<\/em>” is for Zen to eventually become one of the market’s five largest providers. Obviously they still have quite a way to go on that front but they’re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

In particular we were keen to know whether, given the rising choice of alternative networks (e.g. Cityfibre<\/a> and the possibility of Virgin Media<\/a> going wholesale), Zen would ever diversify and start working with other platforms instead of just the underlying one provided by Openreach<\/a> (BT<\/a>). Richard clearly welcomes the extra competition for Openreach<\/a> “as a good thing<\/em>” but he also has a warning.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to the delivery of fibre networks, there is a lot more to it than simply putting the fibre in the ground. There is a massive amount of additional work needed to develop the systems, processes, products, and services … Openreach<\/a> has had decades to develop and refine all these things<\/em>,” said Richard. “Zen would have to do a substantial amount of on-boarding and integration work … [and] … with the exception of Virgin Media<\/a>, the footprints today of the ‘AltNets’ are too small to make this … worthwhile<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Richard also expressed concern about the Fibre Tax <\/strong>(business rates on fibre). At present new fibre builders are currently benefiting from a rates relief holiday of 5 years in England and 10 in Scotland, although such networks are often planned over 15-20 years. “At Zen, we need to continually upgrade our network, but the existence of a fibre tax makes some upgrade routes significantly less attractive … If the Government is genuinely keen on a full fibre future, I believe they should scrap fibre tax altogether<\/em>,” added Richard.<\/p>\n

Zen’s Chairman also stresses that hybrid fibre technologies, such as G.fast<\/a><\/strong>, should not be overlooked. “For a proportion of the UK (e.g. those close enough to the cabinet to get 250 Mbps or faster), G.fast<\/a> could supply all the broadband speed that customers could need for the next ten years and beyond. A hybrid approach of full-fibre and G.fast<\/a> could therefore achieve the same end-result quicker and at less cost<\/em>,” said Richard, although he agrees that “full fibre for everyone<\/em>” is still the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

One of several other areas that this interview touches upon has to do with the thorny issue of internet content and regulation. The Government’s Online Harms White Paper<\/strong> has made no secret of its desire to tackle fake news, hate speech, conspiracy theories and more via websites and social networks (here<\/a>). On the one hand Richard welcomes the principle, but he notes that there are some very real problems with trying to regulate it.<\/p>\n

“Regulators tend to work well where there can be clear measurements and you can evaluate if something crosses the line. But the grey areas in this case are immeasurably bigger when it comes to what is right or wrong. To give an example, when does a Twitter exchange cross the line from being heated to being considered bullying and one that requires proactive action?<\/em>,” pondered Richard.<\/p>\n

Check out the full interview below for more.<\/p>\n

Interview with Richard Tang of Zen Internet
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Question 1: No doubt Zen has noticed the rapid rise of alternative network providers across the UK, with most focusing upon the deployment of full fibre infrastructure. Even Virgin Media<\/a>\u2019s parent (Liberty Global) now appears to be considering the possibility of a wholesale solution for access to their network. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Like many ISPs, Zen has traditionally taken their products from Openreach\u2019s infrastructure. Can you now see this changing in the future and would working with other networks make it more challenging to create a streamlined set of products (i.e. FTTP<\/a> from multiple operators with different wholesale costs\/rules in order to achieve the widest coverage)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

The prospect of Openreach having some full-fibre competition is a good thing, potentially offering both wholesale customers like Zen, and end users, more choice. However, Openreach has a massive head start and the competition has a mountain to climb to catch up. The full-fibre challengers have ambitious plans and are well funded; however, they have two major challenges ahead of them.<\/p>\n

Firstly, when it comes to the delivery of fibre networks, there is a lot more to it than simply putting the fibre in the ground. There is a massive amount of additional work needed to develop the systems, processes, products, and services that are essential for the delivery of a complete broadband service. Openreach has had decades to develop and refine all these things, whereas many of these new players are still at the early stages. At Zen, it took us several years with a fair-sized software team to develop our Wholesale systems, and the opportunities to speed up this process with additional funding were limited. I believe some of the alternative full-fibre providers may have underestimated the time it will take them to implement these essential new systems.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it will be difficult for these providers to differentiate their offering from that of Openreach, particularly given Openreach\u2019s seemingly ever-increasing ambitions for FTTP<\/a>. Zen would have to do a substantial amount of on-boarding and integration work before offering services based on an alternative full-fibre provider. With the exception of Virgin Media, the footprints today of the \u201cAltNets\u201d are too small to make this additional work worthwhile. And, as mentioned, we can\u2019t yet rely on the AltNets having mature systems to integrate to, meaning more manual work to provision and manage the services, resulting in more cost and a poorer end-user experience. Even if the AltNets are able to deliver on their ambitions and achieve significant scale, I would still struggle to see how they will differentiate themselves from Openreach. The tiered discount scheme for fibre broadband from Openreach gives us a big incentive to continue to buy from them, so the AltNets would need a very compelling proposition to entice us away.<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019ve highlighted big challenges ahead for the AltNet full-fibre providers, I do believe that increased competition to Openreach is a good thing in the long-term \u2013 not just for end-users but also for Openreach themselves. That thought provides me with some incentive to want to support the AltNets at some point in the future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Flick over to page 2 for more..<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Question 2. At the time of writing this, Zen has unbundled around 400 of BT<\/a>\u2019s exchanges (55% UK coverage) and a further 50 are expected to be added before the year is out (65% coverage). Going forward we understand that there\u2019s an ambition to do this for 987 exchanges by around 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can you tell us a bit more about why you\u2019re doing this and what advantages unbundling like this will have for your FTTP<\/a> and wider Ethernet line of products etc.?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

We have 450 exchanges live today (the 50 that were in progress have all now been delivered), and our target is to reach 700 exchanges by the end of 2020. That will give us around 80 per cent coverage of the UK for fibre broadband. This investment will give us the big advantage of being able to compete on a level playing field with our biggest competitors. Without these new exchanges we just couldn\u2019t achieve the price points to do that. It also gives us more control of our network so we can continue to build on our reputation for reliability and exceptional service. On top of this, it allows us build upon our already successful wholesale business.<\/p>\n

Unbundling like this gives us benefits across both our broadband and Ethernet product portfolios. We sell significantly more on-net Ethernet circuits compared to off-net circuits due to the better pricing we are able to achieve. In broadband, we charge the same price on-net and off-net, and our on-net circuits cross-subsidise our off-net circuits. So the greater our on-net footprint, the better our commercial model will be as we scale up. Unbundling gives us choice too \u2013 we can choose to be an early adopter because we do not have to rely on a wholesale provider.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 3: Last year Zen spoke of their desire to become a \u00a3100m business within 3 years, rising to \u00a3150m by 2023 and then \u00a3250m within 10 years. What sort of network and strategy changes do you envisage will need to be made in order to achieve the latter target (we assume the \u00a3100m goal is a fairly safe bet since Zen\u2019s last turnover was \u00a371m)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

A key theme in terms of our network strategy is going to be the amount of bandwidth that we will require. We will need to move from a network carrying 100\u2019s of gigabits per second to one with the capacity to carry several terabits\/sec. We are currently designing this new network.<\/p>\n

Although Moore\u2019s Law strictly refers to the number of transistors on a chip, it is widely used to refer to the exponential increase in compute power, memory & storage, and bandwidth that we have seen since the birth of computing, and will undoubtedly see for the foreseeable future. A typical Zen customer uses about 2% more bandwidth each month \u2013 so around 25% more bandwidth each year.<\/p>\n

Our expansion plans therefore involve us going to around 700 fibre parent exchanges and installing metro, regional and national networks to enable both superfast and ultrafast connectivity for our customers. Based on what we know this will place us in the top five broadband networks in the UK.<\/p>\n

Regarding our commercial strategy, our goal is to move from being a niche premium player to becoming a true challenger brand to the biggest names in our industry, whilst continuing to build upon our reputation for service quality and reliability. Our aim is to be a conscientious challenger \u2013 doing the right thing for our people, customers, and supplier relationships based on our people-first values.<\/p>\n

My long-term dream goal is that one day the broadband \u201cBig 4\u201d will be known as the \u201cBig 5\u201d, with Zen being the fifth member of that group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 4. Much has been said about the future of Openreach\u2019s hybrid fibre G.fast technology, which was originally planned to cover 10 million premises by the end of 2020 and was later reduced to around 5.7 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some indications we\u2019ve seen even suggest that the roll-out may be scaled-back yet again in order to better focus on \u201cfull fibre\u201d (FTTP) as the future. As one of the first providers to sell such products, what are your thoughts on G.fast and its future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

The beauty of G.fast compared to FTTP is the speed and convenience of deployment. Rather than having to run a new fibre to each individual building, which is an enormous amount of work, G.fast can be deployed much more easily with a cabinet upgrade.<\/p>\n

For those customers who are close enough to the cabinet, G.fast has the capability to supply their broadband needs for the next ten years and beyond. You have to therefore ask whether it\u2019s worth the extra cost and effort to deploy full fibre, or whether to wait until those old copper cables truly run out of steam.<\/p>\n

The Government seems hooked on full fibre and not at all interested in G.fast. I\u2019m sure that this has been influential in Openreach\u2019s decision to scale up FTTP and scale down G.fast.<\/p>\n

My conclusion on G.fast is that it\u2019s a worthy technology that has the capability to deliver Ultrafast speeds to a significant proportion of the UK for many years to come. However, with so much focus currently on full fibre, I fully expected Openreach to further scale back its G.fast plans in favour of FTTP, and this now appears to be happening.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Since writing these questions Openreach has put G.fast under review (here<\/a>) and presently only intends to cover 2.73m UK premises by March 2020 (future deployments – if any – are yet to be decided).<\/div>\n

Question 5. Earlier this year Cityfibre<\/a> lost a Judicial Review of the UK advertising watchdog\u2019s decision (or at least its interpretation of related research) not to clamp down on ISPs that advertised slower hybrid fibre (FTTC<\/a> \/ VDSL2<\/a> \/ Cable etc.) services as \u201cfibre\u201d, \u201cfibre broadband\u201d or \u201cfibre optic broadband\u201d etc. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The operator had wanted only true \u201cfull fibre\u201d (FTTP) providers to have the right to use such terminology in their adverts. Do you think the court made the right decision and what would you have done differently, if anything?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

Yes, I think the court made the right decision. The important thing for the consumer is that \u201cFibre Broadband\u201d – e.g. FTTC<\/a> – is significantly faster than standard \/ copper \/ ADSL<\/a> broadband, which it is for the vast majority of people.<\/p>\n

I can see Cityfibre<\/a>\u2019s motivation, but the benefit of them being successful would have been Cityfibre\u2019s benefit rather than a wider benefit for consumers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Flick over to the final page 3 for more..<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Question 6. A number of alternative \u201cfull fibre\u201d (FTTP) network providers (e.g.TalkTalk<\/a>, Hyperoptic<\/a>, Cityfibre, Gigaclear<\/a> and INCA) have called on Ofcom<\/a> and the Government to take tougher action against Openreach (BT<\/a>), not least in order to limit their ability to overbuild them and thus hopefully improve overall UK network coverage. <\/strong><\/p>\n

However, nearly all of this battle is currently taking place in urban areas, where commercial competition is natural and often aggressive. Likewise there are advantages to overbuild between rivals, such as a greater a choice of networks \/ services. On the other hand it can make the market more complicated for both consumers and wholesale ISP clients.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are your views on this issue and how do you think it should be tackled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

If you were to take it from the view of competitor providers then the argument would be that Openreach has an unfair advantage because they are benefitting from being the incumbent. A benefit that BT has enjoyed since it was privatised in the \u201880s.<\/p>\n

However, on the flip side, if Ofcom<\/a> or the Government was to bring in restrictions, then that would also restrict competition. This would almost certainly not be in the best interests of the consumer.<\/p>\n

Both sides of the argument have merit, but on balance, I feel we need to leave the market open to free competition. The competitor providers seem to have enough funding to compete effectively with Openreach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 7. The Government recently published their new Online Harms White Paper, which appears to mark a significant shift toward a much more censored internet, where everything from fake news to hate speech and conspiracy theories could, at an extreme, end up being either removed at source or blocked by a broadband ISP. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The rules will focus upon major social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.) but could also target smaller file-hosting sites, online forums, messaging services and even internet search engines. Smaller sites may struggle to implement effective filtering due to cost and limited human moderation resources (e.g. individual blogs are run by people who simply aren’t awake 24\/7 to monitor such things).<\/strong><\/p>\n

One difficulty here is that there can be different interpretations of what is or is not \u201cfake news\u201d and some of the other content category definitions are similarly ambiguous. Suffice to say, many fear that in the race to protect internet users and children from harm we might ultimately sacrifice freedom of speech and expression. What are your thoughts on the recent proposals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s desire to make the Internet a safer place for everyone in the UK is commendable and has my full support.<\/p>\n

It is a very complex subject however. The Government intends to create a regulator to take responsibility for all of UK\u2019s online safety, but the remit for the new regulator is huge and far beyond what any regulator has attempted to tackle before.<\/p>\n

Regulators tend to work well where there can be clear measurements and you can evaluate if something crosses the line. But the grey areas in this case are immeasurably bigger when it comes to what is right or wrong. To give an example, when does a Twitter exchange cross the line from being heated to being considered bullying and one that requires proactive action? – That is one of thousands of very difficult questions that both the new regulator and the regulated companies will need to contend with.<\/p>\n

A foundation stone of the white paper is the requirement for organisations to show a sufficient \u201cduty of care\u201d towards their users. The challenge with this approach is that \u201cduty of care\u201d is a qualitative and subjective term that is difficult to define and so for the regulator will be difficult to enforce. It is unlike, for example, the GDPR regulations that define much more clearly what you can and can\u2019t do with personal data. There is a danger that the new regulator will become completely tied up in knots dealing with a small number of individual cases, arguing the toss with the organisations concerned about whether those organisations have shown a sufficient duty of care or not. For example, if you are looking at things that are legal but could be harmful to mental health \u2013 where do you draw the line? How do you deal with a piece of content that may be innocuous to the vast majority but potentially harmful to a small minority? How big does that small minority need to be before the regulatory line is crossed, and how could you assess the number of people potentially impacted in any case?<\/p>\n

The new regulator will have a very broad remit \u2013 the white paper lists 23 individual \u201charms\u201d ranging from terrorist activity and modern slavery to sexting, intimidation, and children accessing pornography – each a complex subject in itself. Add to that, the breadth of organisations covered by the new regulation. Although the regulation is intended to be proportionate, and primarily aimed at the big social media companies, the wording of the white paper means it will apply to the majority of UK businesses. For example, any business with an online shop that allows customers to comment on the products they have bought will fall under the regulation. It\u2019s a gargantuan challenge.<\/p>\n

The Government says it wants the new regulator to become cost neutral quickly, so who is going to pay for it? How would you set up a charging structure that potentially places a levy on the millions of UK companies that will fall under the regulation?<\/p>\n

The consultation acknowledges that the regulator must have, and maintain, detailed knowledge about how the platforms of regulated companies work. This is going to be yet another huge challenge for the regulator \u2013 to keep up with the ever-evolving technology and specific implementation details in potentially thousands of regulated companies.<\/p>\n

There is talk in the white paper about potentially filtering international harmful content by firewalling it off from the whole of the UK. The technical challenges of doing this are enormous. Probably even bigger is the challenge to freedom of speech or the idea that the Government can isolate the whole of the UK from content it deems harmful. Parallels would quickly be drawn to the approach that the communist government in China has taken with their Great Firewall of China. Who within Government would decide what to block?<\/p>\n

Overall, the sentiment of the white paper is excellent and very relevant. It aims to build upon much of the excellent and effective work done by organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation<\/a> (IWF) but to also go much further. The new regulator will, however, have the biggest challenge of any of the UK\u2019s regulators in my view. I believe there is a real danger of the regulator\u2019s remit being so huge that it is unable to focus on anything in enough depth to make a positive difference. I hope the regulator will avoid this trap, so it is able to make some positive steps forwards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 8. In keeping with the above, Government politicians are known to be concerned about the future adoption of DNS over HTTPs (DoH) technology. At present ISPs usually control their own Domain Name Systems (DNS), but the new encrypted DoH solution can be managed by a third-party (e.g. Google\u2019s Chrome website browser) and they may in the future enable it by default. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Politicians are concerned that DoH may hamper their censorship plans and some ISPs are also worried that it could create more problems for their service, such as by hindering the operation of certain features. On the other hand DoH is fundamentally a security and privacy improvement for consumers. What is your perspective on this debate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

DoH is a good thing as it encrypts a data stream that was previously unencrypted, and so that is an improvement for overall Internet security.<\/p>\n

I believe the worries around DoH hampering filtering are a non-issue.<\/p>\n

For normal users it makes no difference to what the service provider can and can\u2019t do. The DNS requests from normal users terminate on Zen\u2019s DNS servers. With DoH, the data will be encrypted en-route but will be decrypted on our DNS servers so we will be able to do the same thing with those DNS requests as we can with plain text DNS requests.<\/p>\n

If DoH requests are routed away from Zen \u2013 e.g. by Google\u2019s Chrome browser defaulting to Google\u2019s own public DNS servers, then it\u2019s still a non-issue for filtering. It just means that Google will be responsible for the filtering rather than Zen.<\/p>\n

Those people who are technically savvy and want to do something malicious are already encrypting their DNS requests and hiding the source of those DNS requests so DoH doesn\u2019t give those people anything new.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 9. The Government wants to see nationwide coverage of \u201cfull fibre\u201d (FTTP) broadband ISP networks by 2033 and in order to do that they\u2019ve committed nearly \u00a31bn to help foster such networks, such as through targeted investment schemes and vouchers. Do you think this is the right approach to achieve such an aim and, if not, what should they be doing differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> Since writing these questions a new 2025 target for “full fibre<\/em>” coverage has been adopted and then watered down to “gigabit-capable<\/em>” (here<\/a>). A General Election has also been called and so this may yet change.. again.<\/div>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

Since you posed this question, things have moved on! Now Boris Johnson has pledged nationwide full fibre by 2025 and has proposed to invest \u00a33-5bn to make this happen.<\/p>\n

The future prosperity of the UK is dependent upon broadband continuing to get faster. Full fibre connectivity is currently the ultimate solution to allow homes and businesses to upgrade the speed of their broadband connections over the long term. From this point of view, I welcome the Government\u2019s aspirations to hasten the rollout of full fibre connectivity nationwide.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in my answer to question 4, for a proportion of the UK (e.g. those close enough to the cabinet to get 250 Mbps or faster), G.fast could supply all the broadband speed that customers could need for the next ten years and beyond. A hybrid approach of full-fibre and G.fast could therefore achieve the same end-result quicker and at less cost. The Government should ask itself whether spending \u00a33-5bn with a singular focus on full fibre is the best use of public money when there may be a lower-cost alternative that achieves the same end-result. If the Government is thinking very long-term (beyond 10 years) and there is sufficient public money then full fibre for everyone is still the ultimate solution.<\/p>\n

The other niggle I have is about fibre tax. It has always struck me as odd that the Government taxes fibre optic cables, whereas they don\u2019t \u2013 for example \u2013 tax slower and less capable copper cables. The Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2018 was a step in the right direction by providing tax relief on new fibre until March 2022, but as things stand, the new fibre will be taxed from April 2022 onwards, and there is no tax relief on existing fibre. At Zen, we need to continually upgrade our network, but the existence of fibre tax makes some upgrade routes significantly less attractive. On the one hand, the Government is massively keen on full fibre, and on the other, the more full fibre there is, the more tax the Government will collect. It seems a bit like they are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. If the Government is genuinely keen on a full fibre future, I believe they should scrap fibre tax altogether.<\/p>\n

Despite my concerns, I am supportive of the Prime Minister\u2019s aspiration for a full fibre future, as full fibre provides an unlimited bandwidth upgrade path.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Question 10. Openreach and Ofcom<\/a> have both recently launched consultations on their future approach to switching off old copper networks as part of a phased move toward full fibre FTTP infrastructure. What sort of challenges do you see this as creating in the future and how do you think it should be handled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard’s Answer:<\/u><\/p>\n

Switching off the old copper network is going to be a big and complex endeavour that is, in my view, going to take significantly longer than the current target date of 2025. Openreach is, however, taking a very sensible approach and considering all the specialist services such as Redcare alarm monitoring and panic alarms for the elderly.<\/p>\n

Taking panic alarms as an example, there is a huge number of these deployed in houses across the UK, and they will only work with old copper telephone lines. Who is going to organise for each and every one of these to be swapped out? And who is going to cover the cost? This is one of a number of really big challenges to switching off the copper network.<\/p>\n

Even putting specialist services aside, there are many people in the UK who use their landlines regularly and who will be very resistant to changing over to an IP telephony service. They won\u2019t want to swap the handsets that they know and love for IP handsets, and they also won\u2019t want the trouble of swapping their router to one that has PSTN ports. Having a landline phone service is very important for safety, particularly for vulnerable people, and so it will be very difficult or impossible to turn off the old copper telephone service unless everyone has moved across. I can imagine it taking a very long time to get the last 10% of people across.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, I\u2019m happy that Openreach and Ofcom are taking a sensible approach. Getting the copper network switch-off over the line will require a big collaborative effort by the whole industry. Openreach and Ofcom appreciate this and are working well with industry on the first stages of planning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

—<\/p>\n

ISPreview.co.uk would just like to send Richard our thanks for taking the time to provide such considered and constructive answers to our questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new interview the founder and chairman of UK ISP Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has called for the “fibre tax” to be scrapped in order to boost “full fibre” broadband and explains some of the problems of working with smaller altnet ISPs. 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