CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent Full Fibre platform, and Zen Internet, the UK’s only Which? Recommended Provider for Broadband, have agreed a major expansion to their strategic partnership. The new agreement sees Zen making exclusive long-term volume commitments across CityFibre’s entire eight million home target rollout as part of its £4bn investment programme.
The expansion builds on the initial partnership between the companies first announced in 2020, in which Zen committed to launching services across four initial locations. This has since increased to 31 locations on the CityFibre network which Zen now offers its services. The expanded agreement will enable Zen to use CityFibre’s complete rollout deploying dense Full Fibre infrastructure in 285 cities, towns and locations across the country by 2025. CityFibre’s network currently passes 1.5 million homes and over 1.3 million of those are today able to order Full Fibre broadband with a connection in as little as five working days.
The early success of the partnership has enabled Zen to significantly increase its long-term volume commitments over CityFibre’s nationwide network. Zen will continue to launch in new cities in the coming weeks and it is expected that its services will be available to all homes across the entire CityFibre footprint by late 2022.
Zen’s symmetrical broadband packages will be among the fastest available to any home in the UK, providing its customers with up to 900 Mbps of bandwidth when both downloading and uploading. The service will transform consumers’ digital capabilities, providing more than enough bandwidth to unlock the full potential of every digital devices in the home while also future-proofing a home’s internet capabilities. Today, it provides a solid connection for hybrid working, entertainment and keeping connected, while enabling customers to choose and benefit from the UK’s only Which? Recommended Provider for Broadband.
Paul Stobart, Chief Executive Officer at Zen, said: “We’re delighted to be working with CityFibre on delivering full fibre broadband to even more UK homes up and down the country. We’re seeing great consumer demand and interest in our early cities and are excited to ensure more homes can access an award-winning full fibre service at what is a pivotal time for connectivity in the home. By 2030 everyone will have made the switch and we are excited about the role Zen plays as an ultrafast pioneer to be a key enabler of early adoption.
“Our industry is rapidly changing as is today’s consumer who rightfully demands a reliable and speedy service. The rates in volume of data and information being shared has increased beyond all recognition and people are fundamentally reliant on good connectivity. The CityFibre rollout provides a level of healthy competition and providers like us here at Zen have a critical role to play in delivering reliable connections whilst looking after our customers really well.”
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre, said: “We are delighted to have had the opportunity to demonstrate the technical and commercial superiority of our Full Fibre networks to Zen and we are thrilled they have selected CityFibre as a network of choice across our nationwide rollout. Zen has proven to be an outstanding partner, and we look forward to accelerating the availability of their market-leading services to millions of homes across the UK.
“We are determined to build the UK’s finest Full Fibre network, a rock-solid platform for our customers, with better products at the right economics. In doing so, we’re playing our part in helping to provide the UK with the critical digital infrastructure and competitive dynamic needed to drive improved services and prices for consumers across the country.”