Boost your speed and leave the buffer behind

If you haven’t got enough internet oomph, being online is sometimes a deeply frustrating experience. Instead of instant access to the apps, entertainment and services you love, you’re stuck with frozen video calls, snail-like streaming and laboured loading screens.

Whether the symptom is buffering, juddering or dropping-out, the cause is usually a lack of speed. So how do you get broadband that lets everyone in your household do everything they want online, whenever they want to, without slowing down or snarling up?

Here are a few ideas.

1. Get a speed upgrade

If you’re frustrated by slow internet speeds, you may need an upgrade. That can mean moving from copper broadband (also known as ADSL) to part-fibre broadband (also known as SOGEA or FTTC). Fibre is faster and more reliable than copper, so the more fibre you have in your connection, the more likely it is that you’ll enjoy stress-free streaming, video calls, gaming or browsing.

2. Get all the fibre

If you live in a household of heavy internet users, the next step up is full fibre, also known as FTTP. Full fibre is really quick. Our full fibre download speeds currently top out at 900Mbps (though faster is coming, and already available for some - see below), which is more than ten times faster than the fastest part-fibre connections.

Why would you need speeds like that? Not everyone will, or at least not yet, but households who like to use lots of data-heavy apps and services (streaming, gaming, video…) on different devices at the same time will be better off on full fibre.

3. Go for the max

We’re now offering another step up for heavy users who want to be able to forget all about speed, because they know they’ve always got plenty. Our Full Fibre Max is gigabit-plus full fibre connectivity, offering breakneck speeds, the latest WiFi standards and extra features galore. Full Fibre Max comes with speeds of up to 2 Gbps, alongside state-of-the-art WiFi 7 and a choice of the most advanced routers on the market.

What does all that mean? For a start, a 2Gbps connection will download a 50Gb file in four minutes. It means that large households with extremely different streaming tastes can all enjoy their favourites at the same time, without anyone missing out. Think of the arguments you won’t need to have!

Or to put it another way, Full Fibre Max lets you do what you like online, at any time, because the speed of your connection is never an issue.

4. Attack in the attic, stream in the cellar

Full fibre is available to 70% of the UK at the moment (though that figure is growing all the time), which means part fibre FTTC or SOGEA might be the fastest speed you can get at the moment. So if it sometimes feels like it’s not enough, what’s to be done?

One solution is to stick with the broadband speed you have and instead maximise the WiFi signal around the house. In that way, gamers in the loft and streamers in the basement can still enjoy an uninterrupted experience.

With the help of a powerful repeater (a device that amplifies and pings out your WiFi signal to increase coverage), Zen’s EveryRoom service gets rid of household ‘not-spots’, those far-from-the-router rooms that suffer from signal fatigue. If a single repeater isn’t enough, we’ll send you a second one. The really clever thing is that EveryRoom switches between the router and repeater to intelligently adapt to your broadband use.

More than speed

Speed and room cover aren’t the only factors that determine the quality of your online experience. With Zen, you also benefit from the investment we’ve made in our high-performance data network, creating a truly resilient service. Our award-winning support team means that if you do have a problem, it will be quickly sorted.

If you’re tempted to upgrade your speed, just visit our broadband page and see what services are available at your address. Speed demons can also pre-register now for our Full Fibre Max.