Zen was founded in 1995 by Richard Tang after a drink in the pub, Zen Internet was one of the first Internet service providers in the UK. Zen began by providing Internet access to schools and small businesses in the Rochdale area. Its website says it has since moved from 2 employees in 1995 to 413 at the start of May 2012 and in 2004 achieved an annual turnover of £14.2 million along with a customer base of more than 77,000 broadband users nationwide. In February 2008, the company announced they would not be speaking to or partnering with Phorm, a controversial advertising company hoping to purchase user data from UK Internet service providers. In April 2008, Zen Internet moved all its employees from their purpose-built HQ on Moss Bridge Road in Rochdale into the much larger Sandbrook House offices located at Sandbrook Park, a move part funded by the North West Regional Development Agency. In August 2008, after the BBC proposed changing their content delivery provider for their iPlayer streaming service, Zen Internet warned that costs would increase once the move to Level3 was complete. Zen provides broadband to both businesses and home users. They were one of the early ISPs to offer 'self-install ADSL' and designed their network not to rely on other providers for backbone. Zen Internet are currently a member of the CISAS, an alternative dispute resolution scheme giving access to independent and speedy conflict resolution.
Products
Using Redback, Foundry, Juniper and Cisco hardware, the Zen core network is run over five POPs, two in their home town of Rochdale, Telecity in Manchester, Telehouse in London and a fifth POP in Leeds. Zen Internet is a member of the UK peering points LINX, LONAP, ManNAP and IX Manchester. In 2005, Zen unbundled the Rochdale exchange followed by the Bury, Oldham and Blackfriars exchanges in 2006 to provide an unbundled service to local residents and businesses. Zen have six main product areas:
In 2006, the company won several awards at the Internet Service Providers' Association annual awards ceremony. These awards were: "best business ISP", "best heavy business broadband", and "best uncontended service". The company featured in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 from 2003 to 2006 as well as featuring in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 in 2004. In 2010, Managing Director Richard Tang was named Customer Service Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young at an awards ceremony in Manchester. This award recognised the retraining scheme introduced by the company in the Rochdale area.
