The popular Rochdale-based ISP Zen Internet has revealed that its new range of 'up to' 40Mbps speed fibre optic broadband internet access packages will launch in September this year. The service will make use of BT's Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology, which is currently being rolled out to 66% of the UK population by 2015.

However, back in February, Zen warned that it would be difficult for ISPs to match BT Retail's prices for its similar 'Infinity' products (original news), which costs just £24.99 Per Month for an "unlimited" (Fair Usage Policy) package with 40Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps uploads on an 18 month contract.

Since then several ISPs have launched FTTC packages and most have not been able to match the BT Retail prices. Zen's Head of Product Management, Andrew Saunders, is reported to have told PC Pro that their own FTTC services will carry an extra premium of between £5 and £10 per month. This has yet to be finalised.

Earlier this month Zen announced that it had doubled its monthly broadband download allowances. The move meant that customers who pay £24.99 per month (Zen Active) for downloads speeds of 'up to' 20Mbps (1Mbps uploads) would now get a 50GB usage allowance on a 1 month contract (original news). Today's news suggests that an FTTC version of Zen Active would cost at least £29.99 per month.

Saunders also warned that it would be awhile before BT's fastest 100Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises ( FTTH / P ) products came online, which will ultimately be made available to 2.5m UK homes and businesses by 2012. Indeed so far BT has only conducted isolated trials, in places such as Ebbsfleet, and has instead been focusing upon deployment of their slower FTTC service.

In related news we've been informed that Zen has only this week begun inviting a small but select group of existing customers to help trial their forthcoming FTTC packages.