Zen Internet joins local loop unbundlers

Business ISP Zen Internet has announced its own local loop unbundling (LLU) trial, with the Rochdale exchange the first to be set free.

From next month, customers in the area will be migrated from BT onto Zen's network and see their connection speeds boosted to 4Mbps or 8Mbps.

If all goes to plan with the trial, the ISP may introduce even higher speeds - up to 24Mbps - and will look into the possibility of unbundling further exchanges.

However, according to Zen, the decision to invest in LLU is driven more by a need to control the hardware at exchanges, and so guarantee reliability, than pure greed for speed.

Zen is the latest ISP to join the ranks of LLUers, following the likes of Bulldog, Easynet, bought today by BSkyB, and Wanadoo, which is investing €1bn in the technology.

Last week, Bulldog said it had been disappointed in BT's progress over LLU in recent months. However, a Zen spokesman said although its LLU process hadn't been hassle-free, the telco had not gone out of its way to create problems.

"It was inexperience as opposed to deliberate obstruction," he said. "They generally tried to be helpful but there were problems with site access."