A Rochdale-based UK internet service provider founded in 1995, certified as a B Corp, offering broadband, voice and connectivity to homes and businesses.
Zen Internet is a UK internet service provider based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. It provides broadband to homes and businesses, and also sells leased lines, business voice services such as SIP trunking, hosting and security services. Wikipedia lists fixed broadband and related connections among its services. In the company's own words, Richard Tang says broadband makes up about three quarters of its revenue, and Zen has been described as one of the first internet providers in the UK.
Zen was founded in 1995 and began by giving schools and small businesses in the Rochdale area access to the internet. Richard Tang co-founded it and is now chairman and chief executive. He describes the culture as putting people first and money second, and the company's long-term goals as happy staff, happy customers and happy suppliers. Zen became a certified B Corp in November 2020, and Richard says the aim is to use business as a force for good. Those statements are company claims, but they are clear and consistent across the pages we read.
Zen's head office is Sandbrook House at Sandbrook Park in Rochdale, which it moved into in 2008. It opened a city-centre office in Leeds in April 2019. Wikipedia reports about 550 employees as at August 2023. The company has supported Rochdale's New Pioneers programme, partnered with Rochdale AFC in 2020 and celebrated full fibre arriving in the town in January 2023, so local ties are strong. In December 2025 it agreed to take on the UK consumer broadband customers of Lit Fibre.
On people, Zen says staff choose a charity to support each year, and a Social and Charities Committee organises fundraising. Its website footer lists workplace awards, including Great Place To Work certification, and it cites a Which? recommendation and a 2025 PC Pro award. These are company-reported. In 2008 it declined to work with Phorm, an advertising company that wanted to use ISP data, which gives a sense of its approach to customers. Teams include customer service, network and platform engineers, voice specialists, sales, marketing, finance and people teams.
We have not researched entry routes. A good first step is to look at the Zen website for roles in Rochdale and Leeds. Zen also shows that a telecoms career can be built outside London: if you live in the North West or Yorkshire, a company like this offers a chance to work on real networks near home.
Website: www.zen.co.uk
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