Zen, Neos carry out 400 Gbps upgrade between Manchester and London

Looking to address surging bandwidth demands through rapidly increasing AI adoption, datacentre growth and full-fibre roll-out across the UK, and linking two of the country’s leading business hubs, business connectivity provider Neos Networks has expanded its longstanding partnership with B Corp-certified telecoms provider Zen Internet with a major upgrade to 400Gbps connectivity between Manchester and London.

Neos Networks claims the UK’s largest business-dedicated network with more than 600 points of presence and 90 datacentres nationwide, providing high-capacity critical connectivity for businesses, from telecoms and energy to banking and emergency services.

Headquartered in Rochdale and employing 650 people, Zen offers a range of broadband, data, voice, hosting and infrastructure services to homes and businesses across the UK. It claims to be the largest B Corporation certified telecommunications and network connectivity provider in the UK.

With a network spanning over 2,800 exchanges, with more than 80% enabled for 10 Gb services, Zen also provides what it describes as “complex” network and cloud services for a range of large businesses and corporate customers through its strategic partnerships with Amazon Web Services and Cisco.

Delivered over Neos Networks’ nationwide fibre network, the upgrade to the advanced corridor is designed to support the UK’s growing bandwidth requirements as datacentre investment, AI adoption and full-fibre roll-out increase across the nation, and strengthening Zen’s strategy in the independent broadband provider (altnet) market expanding fibre access for businesses and consumers alike.

It is also intended to ensure Zen’s core network is ready for the future. Beyond the Manchester to London link, Zen uses Neos’s upgraded core and exchange-backhaul services, which are critical for delivering ultrafast, resilient connectivity.

“Our long-standing partnership with Zen Internet highlights the vital role of advanced fibre infrastructure when it comes to meeting the UK’s AI ambitions,” said David Bruce, CRO at Neos Networks commenting on the new deal. “Zen’s mission to become the country’s leading altnet aggregator is well-aligned with the breadth, quality and reliability of our backbone networks, and by working together, we’re ensuring an ecosystem that will ultimately benefit the UK as a whole.”

Zen Internet technical director John Lyons added: “In Neos we have a partner that not only delivers robust, high-capacity network solutions, but also real agility and collaboration, helping us deliver for our end users. Our collaboration is built on open communication, rapid provisioning and shared engineering standards like equipment duplication, diverse routing and true east-west redundancy. This approach means we can rely on Neos to deliver a network that consistently meets the high standards our customers expect.”

Just weeks ago, Zen Internet announced a strategic partnership with Sky Business Wholesale to allow its partners and direct business customers gain access to Sky’s Ethernet-enabled exchange footprint. The partnership was also designed to further strengthen Zen’s partner portal, The Fibre Hub, after its launch in May 2025 to further enhance nationwide connectivity by aggregating services from the UK’s leading alternative networks. This offers access to a full-fibre footprint of nearly 20 million premises via infrastructure providers Openreach, CityFibre, ITS and Freedom Fibre.