Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Rochdale-base UK ISP Zen Internet has today officially launched The Fibre Hub, which essentially aggregates access to a number of major and smaller alternative full fibre broadband networks (Openreach, CityFibre, Trooli, Freedom Fibre etc.) and offers that up to partners (e.g. other ISPs) at the wholesale level.
Zen previously only supplied services to homes and businesses using products from Openreach (BT) and CityFibre, but over the past couple of years they’ve been busily expanding that range of networks and have previously spoken of their “aspirations to become the UK’s alt-net aggregator of choice“ (here). This could provide an alternative to the likes of PXC (Talk Talk Wholesale), AllPoints Fibre and others in the wholesale space.
The provider began to soft launch this through their Zen Partner programme on 23rd April 2025, which initially offered access to CityFibre’s Business FTTP with speed options ranging from 160Mbps to 2.5Gbps, and CityFibre Residential FTTP with speed options from 1Gbps to 2.5Gbps alongside existing Openreach access (over 19 million premises across both). This access is now available for all channel businesses to take advantage of. A new residential 160Mbps tier will also be introduced soon.
Just to be clear. CityFibre’s FTTP network alone currently spans over 4.4 million UK premises, with Zen Internet covering 3.8 million of these (Ready for Service). By comparison, Openreach’s FTTP network covers around 18.3 million premises, and there’s some overbuild between these two.
Richard Tang, Founder and CEO of Zen Internet, said:
“Hosting the launch of The Fibre Hub at The Gherkin, London’s iconic building, reflects our ambition to be the UK’s leading alt-net aggregator, offering unparalleled choice, reach, and performance.
We are excited to announce rollout timescales including Trooli access from early June, and Freedom Fibre from mid-July. The Fibre Hub is just another example of how we do things differently, and that’s true in lots of ways.”
Zen has previously indicated that Trooli’s network would also become available via The Fibre Hub “later this summer” and Freedom Fibre were due to be introduced into their Partner Portal “soon“, although today’s announcement merely states that those two “networks will be available on the hub later this year … with further alt-nets to be announced soon“.
The launch is said to include “several new features” for The Fibre Hub, such as network migrations, a cosmetic redesign (formerly known as Zen’s ICP Portal), and a bulk migration tool.