We know this has been a long time coming and I have been asking people to hold on as the changes were in the pipeline. Today it is 'OFFICIAL.' ZEN have announced that we are doubling broadband usage allowances.Zen Internet are doubling broadband usage allowancesWe will be doubling our monthly download usage allowances for Zen Lite, Zen Active, Zen Pro and Zen Office from Tuesday 01 June 2010. The download usage allowance for new and existing customers will automatically increase. There will be no changes to the prices for these broadband services.
Double means double - we say no to Fair Usage Polices or traffic shapingWe do not implement a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) or traffic shaping as we believe they are misleading for customers. All our services have usage allowances which are clearly stated when you order the service. You can therefore choose the product you require depending on how you intend to use your broadband.
By having usage allowances on our service we are being up front and honest rather than hiding them in an FUP.
Please follow this link to find out more information on FUP and traffic shaping:
http://www.zen.co.uk/about/uncovering-fair-usage-policies-and-traffic-shaping.aspxWhy have we doubled our download usage allowances?Whether you are a home or business customer, we recognise that you are using your broadband for so much more now.
For this reason, and because we are truly serious about our mission “to provide the best ISP service in the UK”, it’s time for a dramatic increase to our usage allowances. Recent investments in our network, including elements of BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN) project, support these increases.
In the past many of you probably only had one computer at home which you simply used for surfing the net. Today you are using your broadband service to connect to multiple PCs. You watch iPlayer, upload photos, chat with friends and family, download films, (even in HD), play games and social network – not to mention the use of other gadgets such as mobile phones!
Business users also expect so much more from their broadband service as the Internet has become firmly established as an essential tool. Increasingly more and more information transfer, communications and business transactions take place across the Internet and as a result download volumes are increasing at almost 20% year on year.
This upward trend for all our customers is only set to continue, especially now that the download speeds for our broadband services have increased to ‘up to 20Mbps’ (link to
http://www.zen.co.uk/Broadband/zenbroadband/up-to-20mbps-broadband.aspx). Later this year we will also be launching Fibre broadband services that will provide a minimum 15Mbps download speed and the potential for ‘up to 40Mbps’. (link to
http://www.zen.co.uk/about/zen-announces-plans-for-fibre-optic-broadband.aspx)
How to check your download usage allowanceYour download usage is measured against what you download from the Internet. It is important to note that this is not just storing a file or document from a web site, but also covers activities like watching videos and TV programmes on sites such as YouTube or BBC's iPlayer and listening to radio stations over the Internet.
Please note that anything you upload does not affect your monthly download usage allowance. Our Download Usage Guide will help you to assess your approximate monthly download usage.
We will email you when you have used 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% of your download usage allowance. You can check your usage at any time on our customer portal or by calling customer services on 0845 058 9000.
If necessary you can easily purchase more usage to tide you over until the end of the month. Thanks to our one month contracts you can also upgrade to a different product at any time – it doesn't even have to be at the end of the month.
Please follow this link for more information on managing your download usage allowance:
http://www.zen.co.uk/support/adsl/usage-allowance-faq.aspx.
Kindest Regards,
Leo