Zen, what are your medium to long term plans?

I am curious about the state of the network and its future. I am not having any speed issues with anything I use at Zen.

I have tonight done a bit of reading on a few fora and seen the demise of many an ISP and it has brought to light my previous concerns. The once mighty Nildram seems to have its name in tatters and networks in disarray due to PIPEX and perhaps because of an influx of new customers as well as allocating too much usage allowance. It seems the Pipex Group, Ticali, TalkTalk, PN and a few others have truly deteriorated the service they provide to customers and in doing so are creating a really poor name for the industry. It is almost becoming synonymous with double glazing problems of a few years back.

I was one of the people that had suggested to Zen that our caps were not high enough when MAX was launched but I am so glad that you kept the prices high, caps low and that I was wrong. Yet I can't help but wonder how you are going to cope with the influx of new customers.

Zen are probably the only ISP I know that can offer excellent CS and clean allowances however you are seeing a lot of new customers from places like Nildram, Pipex, PN et al so what are you doing about it? You don't charge for LLU migration and I suspect that some of the people abuse this process to get back on BT and you are also struggling with support ques at certain times of the day. I realise you are hiring new staff and this takes time but what are your goals and plans now for the ISP as a whole?

I expect the next downfall to be Entanet and their resellers because their packages are priced so as to attract extremely heavy downloaders. They are doing very well with their products for the low prices but I can't see it being sustainable. No one can offer 60GB peak and 300GB off-peak for

This is a very good few questions that I would like to see answered as well, But they themselves probably ARE confidential.
I was with f2s until Feb this year, They denied point blank that they were being bought out even days before the official announcement, So no matter how many times Zen says they are not in talks, They could be, Because it's confidential.
UNFORTUNATELY.

"I am truly concerned that soon Zen will be oversubscribed and the current price is too low for my liking."

Yup, you've lost me.

I don't want to cause offence, but this post is very naive. Zen is a business, and no businessman is going to tell you of their future plans, in full view of their rivals. You will never get an answer to that sort of question. Zen provide us with a service, but they also have a duty to their shareholders to provide a good return on their capital. The only way that you will have any involvement in a limited company and gain access to inside information is to become a major shareholder.

I'm not quite sure what the purpose of your post is, nor what specifically prompted it. If I didn't know you better I'd be inclined to think it was trolling.

Zen have repeatedly said that they want to be the best at what they do. Richard Tang himself - the MD of Zen - has posted in this very forum to state that he has no intention of selling Zen.

Of course no-one can say "never", circumstances change. ISPs have come and gone over the years, and that's a trend that will continue. However I don't think that Zen are necessarily one of those that will disappear any time soon. Personally I'm reassured by the comments and commitments he and the Zen staff have made, and I'm nowhere near paranoid enough to think that Zen might be engaging in secret talks to sell out the business.

Richard has invested a lot in building up the business and I suspect he would rather be a niche player and continue to be "independent" rather than sell out. I think it also goes without saying that he is a very shrewd businessman and that Zen's products won't be selling at a loss, so as much as you may feel the "current price is too low", I doubt that Zen would take that sort of financial risk.

Remember: Zen are not Pipex, they're not Nildram, they're not Plusnet. They are Zen - they have a unique identity and are well-known and respected (look at the awards they've won in the last few years). Comparing the way they run their business to other ISPs is like trying to compare bananas and potatoes.

Whilst I can appreciate that you may have concerns, especially following your experiences at Plusnet (whom I believe were your previous ISP), you must surely realise that your post may actually cause some commercial harm to Zen by fuelling unfounded (and unnecessary) speculation, and disuading new customers from migrating in from elsewhere.

But then it did occur to me that perhaps the latter is what you hope to achieve, to disuade any heavy users from migrating in from elsewhere?

Remember that domestic ADSL is only one part of Zen's business, so while they will naturally not want it to be unprofitable, they are not completely exposed if there should be a difficult period for whatever reason.

Paul

I will admit that it really is, maybe on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I think I am worrying that if Zen deteriorate that my choice of a good ISP is almost non-existent in the current market. Eclipse, BD, Pipex, AOL, TT, Entanet, Sky etc. are all aiming for the mass market and I don't know of any other decent ISP should it go wrong.

Is there any other ISP with their own network that charges a premium and is therefore sustainable or an ISP that is cheap but has low usage figures able to provide a solid, non-shaped/throttled connection? Maybe I am being paranoid.

I think you're being paranoid

I can understand why you might read into my post in that way but fortunately you are wrong on all counts - not trolling, not trying to dissuade anyone from joining and not trying to damage Zen's business.

As to Zen stating that they would not sell then I will remain a sceptic. A business will sell if an offer presents itself that is too good to be true but I am not worried about that right now.

TBH it struck me hard having read the fora about the ADSL market in the UK. There is consolidation taking place in the sector but people like us are quickly loosing choice for good, honest and dependable ISPs. Everyone seems busy increasing customer numbers at the cost of service and network quality and hence my worry. If I had to choose another ISP today I could not name you one I could choose on par with Zen or replace them with. That is great news because I am with the best but what if....

Oh come on ! Zen are very good admittedly, but I think you are putting them on far too high a pedestal. There are several other ISP's that I would consider, should I need another one, but I don't think it would be either fair to Zen or even on topic to discuss them here.