Zen prepares fibre broadband launch

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 4 Jun 2010 at 09:08

Zen Internet is preparing to unveil its fibre broadband packages - but warns that 100Mbits/sec fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) is still months away.

The Rochdale ISP is one of the few ISPs that has announced plans to offer customers fibre broadband based on BT's network.

The company will initially offer up to 40Mbits/sec fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) lines in areas covered by BT's fibre rollout from September. (You can check your local telephone exchange's FTTC status using SamKnows Broadband's postcode checker.)

Zen's head of product management, Andrew Saunders, told PC Pro that the company will offer fibre equivalents of its current ADSL packages. Saunders said there will be an extra premium of between £5 and £10 for the fibre packages, although pricing is yet to be finalised.

However, Saunders warned that customers waiting for up to 100Mbits/sec FTTP services face a longer wait, as BT has yet to even start full trials of the technology, which runs fibre right from the local exchange to the customer's door.

BT has stated that up to 25% of its fibre lines could eventually run the higher speed FTTP services.

Zen earlier this week announced that it had doubled the monthly download allowances on all of its ADSL packages.