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Zen not using Cityfibre national product?

WKDRED

ULTIMATE Member
I noticed from a ISPreview article in the comments section and the article itself, the discussion of Zen not having complete Cityfibre coverage. It would seem from the comments they have chosen to not utilise the national product at all and instead simply not serve some areas their back haul doesnt reach. According to the article, at the time of the article about 20% of CF areas were not covered.

Did they used to use the national product in the past? As I remember 2-3 years back they were at one point spamming me with FTTP is coming soon, which wouldnt make sense if they didnt cover my area.
 
As far as I know they always used their own and only in areas where they were established at that exchange.

Could they have been talking about Openreach fibre instead maybe?
 
The article was about Zens coverage of the Cityfibre footprint.


If your question was about my area it has no OR FTTP. So the emails were for CF FTTP.
 
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Zen offer FTTP products on both Cityfibre and OR

The differential between their FTTP pricing clearly indicates that currently the OR option is more expensive to them. Whether that is just OR or a bit of BT Wholesale we don't know.

Zen however will probably not embrace a Cityfibre area until it reaches an economic level, especially if it only partially covers an exchange area and it may also depend on whether they are consolidating FTTP and FTTC traffic.

They coined the terms "gold rush" and now "wacky races" for FTTP and so are in the best place to make commercial decisions until it settles down and wholesale prices align with the real cost of provision. (not that anything appears to align with the cost of its provision these days).
 
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I think I am more confused after reading that.

What I am curious about is why Zen think it makes more sense to not cover an area than to use the Cityfibre national product which would allow them to sign up customers in areas they dont cover with the local product.

Not sure how they could gauge an economical level when they are unable to measure demand due to not accepting orders.
 
Zen offer FTTP products on both Cityfibre and OR

The differential between their FTTP pricing clearly indicates that currently the OR option is more expensive to them. Whether that is just OR or a bit of BT Wholesale we don't know.

Zen however will probably not embrace a Cityfibre area until it reaches an economic level, especially it it only partially covers an exchange area and it may also depend on whether they are consolidating FTTP and FTTC traffic.

They coined the terms "gold rush" and now "wacky races" for FTTP and so are in the best place to make commercial decisions until it settles down and wholesale prices align with the real cost of provision. (not that anything appears to align with the cost of its provision these days).
Zen know by forecast what level of market share they are likely to get and the product type percentages. Particularly new business and current customers that are more demanding.

If they can get capacity to a central Cityfibre site then they can cover all the Cityfibre areas involved which lowers their risk but the initial investment may be significant or there may be ongoing delays. They are bound to be constantly reviewing this.

In addition while they have a good existing customer base it is spread across the FTTC footprint. Their main focus will be to retain customers in OR/Altnet FTTP areas.

One of the issues for all the ISPs is the FTTP change can be a disruptive process for many ( or perceived to be). Many will remain loyal to their ISP and others will review the market with heavy advertising and may change to other niche players or seek the safety of one of the major players.

Zen know the market and will have their sums. If they are not currently offering FTTP in a Cityfibre area there will be a good reason. I think their other term is the “Wild West “ because it is.
 
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I think there's some missing history here. When CityFibre first launched, and Zen first started selling via CityFibre, the national product didn't exist. Even now the national product isn't truly national -- e.g. Andrews & Arnold use it and they don't appear to have access to every "city" (see https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/home1-cityfibre-services/).

Thats an interesting find, of course my city is listed I have access to all of the ISPs using that product, including Idnet who have decided to use both Zen and Cityfibre national.

Is odd I think though for them to not connect all their rollout locations.

Vodafone appear to be the only ISP on my FEX that use their own back haul. Talktalk is also missing.
 
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