Symmetric service?

[mcglynnj]

I hope someone from Zen still watches this board...

I've been with Zen for more than a year now and I am very happy with the service I'm getting so far, given the limitations of the technology available in my area (xDSL).

At the moment I'm on the Fibre 1 service which offers up to 40M down and 10M up.

I'd like to ask, specifically to Zen itself, does the company have any plans (at-present or it has debated it) to offer symmetric-speed services when FTTP becomes more readily-available in the next few years? In an ideal world, say 100M down and 100M up?

 

[Meatball]

Zen can only offer what the underlying network provider can support.
In FTTP areas Zen offer a 900 on both Openreach and Cityfibre but only Cityfibre is symmetrical. OR is only around 110 up.

 

[Mark.J]

Adding to this..

ISP Zen Internet’s Cityfibre FTTP Service Goes Live in Newcastle

Broadband ISP Zen Internet has confirmed that their new 900Mbps Full Fibre Plus package (£40 per month), which is based off Cityfibre's UK Fibre-to-the-Premise

www.ispreview.co.uk

 

[Wildling]

FYI for anyone researching like I was, Zen apparently don't offer a symmetric service even in CityFibre areas now.

100/18, 300/47, 500/70, 900/100. They can offer 3 months free incentive to upgrade if you initially choose 100 or 300.

Edit 7/1/22 -
Just to confirm, I am getting 900/900 on what Zen advertised as 900/100, just like @MarkJ said.

 

[Mark.J]

Actually they do, the uploads on those tiers via Cityfibre are uncapped. But a quirk of Ofcom's speed code rules (of which Zen is one of the few members) means that they don't yet have enough speed test data to advertise the required median average, as recorded at peak times. Instead, Zen has opted to play it safe and show the same uploads as on Openreach, where they do have the data. But hopefully this will just be temporary.

However, as I say, underneath this the packages are still just as symmetric as they are on any of CityFibre's other ISPs. It's just an issue of rules and advertising.

 

[Pheasant]

Mark are Gigabit Networks then the only ISP on CityFibre that offer asymmetric packages as their basic offering (without spending another £20 to get symmetric)?

 

[Mark.J]

I think so, but I haven't spoken directly to GN about their approach (whereas I have done this with Zen), although I was a little surprised at the price difference when you choose asymmetric.