Build your ultimate broadband package with Zen

When it comes to great broadband, there are a few non-negotiables. You need enough speed to do the things you want to do, and you need a reliable connection that does away with the worry that you might drop off at any moment. Good service is also pretty important, should you need to deal with any issues that may arise. And a fair price is also fairly high on most people’s list of priorities.

But there are also other elements that help to make up the ideal broadband package. Here’s what we think goes into making the ultimate package with Zen.

1) Broadband

Unsurprisingly, a good broadband connection is top of the list when it comes to building the ultimate broadband package.

Broadband deals from Zen largely fall into two categories nowadays: full fibre and SOGEA connections.

You’ve heard about full fibre. It’s the 100% fibre optic connection between your home and the exchange that means the best available speeds and reliability for your home internet connection.

Full fibre is rolling out to more and more postcodes every day, and where it is available it’s now the only option when you’re looking for an upgrade or new provider.

Full fibre speeds are frankly mind-blowing when compared with the fastest broadband available just a handful of years ago. Download speeds up to 900Mbps mean multiple users can connect and use their internet connections however they wish, without worrying about congestion or buffering. That means all the streaming, downloading, gaming and video calling you can manage, without breaking a sweat.

To check if full fibre broadband from Zen is available at your address, enter your postcode here.

The other type of broadband available to home users is SOGEA. That stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access, which is quite the mouthful, but the reality of SOGEA is much easier to understand than its unfortunate name!

SOGEA is more or less what we used to call fibre to the cabinet (or FTTC) broadband. The only difference is that, unlike FTTC, SOGEA comes without line rental. If you want to make or receive phone calls with a SOGEA (or full fibre) connection, there’s something else you’ll need, which we’ll touch on shortly.

SOGEA broadband is available at addresses currently not covered by full fibre broadband. It provides superfast speeds (up to 76Mbps), which is enough for most home uses.

2) Coverage in EveryRoom

So, you’ve got the broadband connection you need entering your home. That’s great, but now what?

There are two ways of connecting to your broadband router for internet (and home network) access: wired and wireless. We always recommend a wired connection for the very best performance, but most of the time this is just impractical. And that’s why – if you’re like most people – most of your devices will be connected wirelessly (over WiFi).

But the strength and quality of your WiFi signal is significantly influenced by two things: distance and obstacles. In other words, if you’re stood next to your router, with no obstacles in the way, you’re going to get an excellent wireless connection.

But if you’re some distance away from your router, with walls, floors and other objects in the way, your wireless performance is going to be diminished.

For lots of homes this reduction in performance is minimal and hard to notice, but in lots of other homes (particularly larger properties or those with solid internal walls), performance in one room may be dramatically worse than performance in another.

The simple answer to this problem is a mesh WiFi network, which uses additional wireless devices to boost your signal around the house for a better connection in every room. Our mesh WiFi system is called EveryRoom. It works seamlessly with the FRITZ!Box router we provide, for guaranteed coverage around the house.

For homes that struggle with their WiFi connections, EveryRoom has every corner covered. So don’t be held back by not-spots, get complete WiFi coverage instead.

You can find out more about EveryRoom, which is available to Zen broadband customers, here.

With the right broadband deal, and EveryRoom from Zen, your connectivity is sorted. But there’s more.

3) Go Digital (Voice)

Modern broadband connections lack one thing that traditional broadband included as standard: voice.

That’s because the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is about to be switched off for good. And that switch off means traditional telephone calling is about to go extinct. But fear not, because something just as good (if not better) is available to neatly fill the shoes of that departing voice service.

Digital Voice is the modern replacement for traditional telephony. If you’ve got a full fibre or SOGEA broadband connection from Zen, Digital Voice costs just £6 per month. It’s easy to set up (just connect your phone to the router instead of your master socket) and includes 1,000 minutes per month for hours of calls to mobiles and landlines, plus low call rates for calls outside of your bundle.

If you’re not keen on the idea of not having a home phone, no problem. Just pick up Digital Voice from Zen and you’re sorted.

4) Great service and a fair price

The above points deal with the physical elements of the ultimate broadband package, but they’re not everything.

Cast your mind back to the start of this article, where we mentioned service and price, and you’ll be happy to know that Zen has you covered in both these areas.

When it comes to service, our track record speaks for itself, and while we could go on about how great we think we are, we’re obviously going to be biased. So we’ll let other people do the talking for us.

For a start, we’re the ONLY Which? Recommended Provider for broadband in 2023, just as we were the year before. We’ve also won 20 consecutive PC Pro Best Broadband awards and are currently rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot.

And the reason we bring up all these commendations? Because they’re all directly influenced by the real experience of our customers. In other words, we’re highly rated by the people that matter most; you.

And there’s more, because at Zen we’re also committed to fair pricing, and that comes in the shape of our Contract Price Promise. The Zen Contract Price Promise is simple; it says that the price you pay at the start of your contract will remain unchanged throughout the life of your contract. In other words, no mid-contract price rises, just the same fixed price for the duration.

When other providers are imposing annual price rises on their customers, suddenly their ‘good value’ headline offers become less attractive the longer you stay with them. But we’re different. We want you to know before you ever take out your contract exactly how much you’ll be paying us. And in a world of continual price rises, it’s nice to know that at least you can count on your broadband price to stay the same.