Zen follows BT with 100Mbits/sec fibre launch

 

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By Nicole Kobie and Barry Collins

Posted on 17 Nov 2011 at 14:15

Zen has unveiled a fibre-to-the-premises broadband product, following hot on the heels of BT's launch earlier this week.

The 100Mbits/sec will be available from only four exchanges across the UK at launch, with more coming online from the beginning of next year.

The Fibre Enterprise package will cost £70 excluding VAT a month for 100Mbits/sec downloads and 15Mbits/sec up, with a 500GB limit. The Fibre Enterprise+ package boosts uploads to 30Mbits/sec for £95 a month.

The service is twice the price of BT's own FTTP service, announced earlier this week at £35 a month, but Zen is targeting businesses rather than consumers, although it said it would sell to the latter. Unlike BT, Zen doesn't impose traffic management and is an eight-times winner of the PC Pro broadband award.

However, the question remains whether customers even want to switch to fibre, with BT so far converting only 5% of its customer base to fibre, despite a heavy marketing campaign.

“We think fibre’s the future," said Zen’s head of product management, Andrew Saunders. "We’re not sure if it’s going to be in three years’ time or five years’ time when the tipping point will come, but it’s the future.”

Saunders suggested businesses could be the key to fibre uptake. “BT needs to deploy more towards businesses," he said. "It would help UK PLC if there was more fibre available.”

Earlier this week, Zen also launched its Ethernet in the First Mile service, offering guaranteed symmetrical connections of between 1Mbits/sec and 10Mbits/sec. These are costed individually, but are typically around £250 per month excluding VAT.

The service guarantees the speed available on the connections, rather than the contended service seen on the cheaper fibre. “It’s like building your own private road as opposed to travelling on the M25,” said Saunders.