In reply to a post by mixt:

If you do not want to worry about usage, I would go with Zen. Static IP out the box (or even a /29 if you want) and, unlike AAISP (if you also take the line rental), you will be able to make outbound calls on your landline (not possible on landline provisioned by AAISP). Zen also offer some bolt-on voice options for anytime minutes to 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 numbers (they were offering unlimited anytime minutes, but I can only seem to find 5000 anytime minutes on their site; weird, you might want to call sales about that if the anytime minutes add-on interests you).

Zen do not offer dynamic IP at all. By default, Zen accounts default to having one static IP address.


In these post IPv4 depletion days, I believe Zen have removed the option where you can opt for a /29 as part of the ordering process instead of a single IP address. I believe it remains free of charge for those that can justify it, though you have to request it specifically. I suspect a lot of people requested a /29 in the days when it was a free option and never used more than one WAN IP address.

My Zen FTTC connection has a /28 that was allocated several years ago - even then that required a RIPE form and payment of a one-off administration charge.


The FAQ links on the new Zen web site are a bit screwy - the home user pages take you the business FAQ. The home user call package on an FTTC plus line rental bundle is unlimited, as the proper FAQ explains.


I'd recommend Zen. The only major drawback is that there is no prospect of IPv6 in the near future, though you can always get an v6 in v4 tunnel from SixXS or Hurricane Electric.

Great comments, thanks for everyone's input.

In answer to some of your questions, I've actually recently started a VOIP company with my own server and SIP trunk so I will route all my calls through that. I won't be making any calls through the PSTN, only through VOIP.

RE: Plusnet, I'm a bit torn with this one. I quite like the idea of being with a smaller ISP and as the contract length is quite long I'm less inclined to consider them, even at a lower price point.

I will look at Xilo too thanks for the suggestion.

Certainly with Zen, the unlimited data is a big draw as I do not really want to be thinking about counting the GB's each month, and I like the idea of knowing exactly where I am cost wise.

The reviews about Zen that were making me wobble were on ISP Review.co.uk - there are a couple of recent ones (Feb 2015) and one from last September where people really aren't happy, but hey you'll get that I suppose. Zen have won awards recently for service and customer support so hopefully they are just blips. Certainly I've read some awesome reviews from last year about them too such as this one.

Ultimately I got quite a good feeling talking with both AAISP and Zen last week; I think either would be a good choice so maybe I'll flip a coin when my MAC code arrives

The three negative Zen reviews you mention involve:

* a simultaneous provide attempt going wrong followed by an unsuccessful attempt to get what the customer wanted manually. Simultaneous provide can throw up problems, the reasons for which are usually in Openreach's court to some extent.

* a refusal to take reasonable troubleshooting steps (probably BT Wholesale steps rather than Openreach - Zen use their own backhaul when available and BT Wholesale otherwise) because the connection was mission critical and the customer had no backup. I'd term this situation a customer error - if it's that important you should always have a backup even if that's a Mobile Broadband dongle plugged into the router

* an alleged billing error in somewhat unclear circumstances. The customer would have to pay some line rental in advance at the higher FTTx bundle rate, though we have no access to the account so no way of knowing whether this was charged correctly. The loss of service on migration from TalkTalk MPF may well have been Openreach's fault, but we have no way of knowing.


Obviously in an ideal world none of these customers would have had problems, The reality is that this sort of thing is, to some extent, common to any ISP using Openreach products. At least with Zen you get through to someone in Rochdale if you have problems, not someone in an overseas call centre.

I'm happy with my Zen connection, which has been mostly trouble free. The two technical problems I've had in two years of Zen FTTC were a BT Wholesale area wide fault and a Zen fibre cut compounded by the failure of Zen's router to switch traffic to the (fully functional) spare. Neither problem lasted for that long. Overall, the connection performs very well for a consumer grade product.

Thanks for the reply, good to hear a Zen customer's thoughts on those comments.

If it's cheap & quality, i would go with the post office or one of the other providers offering cheap line rental deals for the phone only, and Zen for the BB the upto 40mbps 40/10 unlimited product @£27.00 per month you could probably get both for around £40 per month,

Post office line rental only with line rental saver =£12.00 per month
or direct save direct save £11.00 pm line rental
So £11 line rental, Zen fibre 1 40/10 @£27.00 + the surcharge for not having zens line rental(which is wrong imo) £4.40+ vat =£43.40 per month so under your £50 budget

Edited by tommy45 (Sun 22-Feb-15 17:24:26)

As someone that has used a variety of ISPs Zen gets my vote as if things do go wrong they get Openreach to sort things quickly and actually listen to and take account of what you are telling them in addition to what they are observing on their monitoring.

I would recommend getting your line rental from them too as if they manage both the voice and broadband side you don't have to go in between two suppliers in the case of a problem.

In reply to a post by David_W:

In these post IPv4 depletion days, I believe Zen have removed the option where you can opt for a /29 as part of the ordering process instead of a single IP address. I believe it remains free of charge for those that can justify it, though you have to request it specifically. I suspect a lot of people requested a /29 in the days when it was a free option and never used more than one WAN IP address.

I called them up a couple of weeks ago, well past my 30 day initial period for ordering 8 IPs free of charge. Spoke to a young lady who put through a completely FREE order to switch me to a /29 allocation, no questions asked. I think it is the case that anything beyond /29 they require justification for the usage, like you have said (having to fill in forms etc). Actually, AAISP did that off the bat when I ordered with them. Anything more than a single static IP and I had to justify it. So I didn't bother, and just had one IP address with them.

I do find Zen's automated emails detailing that I have 5 usable addresses on a /29 a bit outdated to be honest. That may have been the case a decade ago, but things have moved on. It's possible to use ALL 8 IP addresses they assign you if you are clever with your routing or use NAT.

And yes, their website appears fragmented - wish they would sort it out. And yes, shame about IPv6 - maybe one day they'll get around to offering it to end users.