Leaving Zen

Currently have FTTC (80/20) with zen.

Am considering moving to a new provider for FTTP.

Will the One Touch Switch still work even thought I'm moving to a different product?

Will my Zen connection (using the phone line) cease when the new Fibre line is installed and working, or do I have to manually cancel with Zen.

I don't need to keep the landline number we have with Zen.

In reply to a post by astanden:

Currently have FTTC (80/20) with zen.

Am considering moving to a new provider for FTTP.

Will the One Touch Switch still work even thought I'm moving to a different product?

Will my Zen connection (using the phone line) cease when the new Fibre line is installed and working, or do I have to manually cancel with Zen.

I don't need to keep the landline number we have with Zen.

Don't know anything about One Touch Switch but if you are going for FTTP then just order it from your preferred supplier and cancel Zen when you are happy with it.
(I kept my FTTC connection running for a few days after my FTTP went live before I cancelled the FTTC.)

Not exactly the answer to what you are asking …

I am going from g.Fast with BT retail, to FTTP with EE. EE say they will take care of the cease of the g.Fast once the FTTP is live. (I will believe this when I see it)

Is this new provider going to use Openreach FTTP, or one of the Altnets ? Because I suppose it all depends who is signed up to this one touch thing you mention.

I reckon tha advice given in the other reply is probably safest. Order FTTP from whoever, leaving the Zen circuit in service, cease with Zen when you are happy the FTTP is doing what you wish.

Once again, not exactly what you asked, but we had a line go from SOTAP with BT to FTTP with Vodafone, it was all handled by Vodafone. If you do order and Zen's service is being automatically cancelled you should get a letter/email from Zen saying something like 'Sorry you are going'.

One Touch Switch should deal with the move you are contemplating so you should not need to cancel with Zen. In your case, the landline should automatically be cancelled as part of the move. However, the suggestion that others have made of keeping your current service until the new one is up and running is a good idea in case anything goes wrong during the change-over which it does occasionally. Once you are happy with the new service you could then cancel Zen.
Last year we switched from BT VDSL to toob via City Fibre. The new service was installed quickly with excellent on-time service on the installation from City Fibre and toob and worked perfectly from day one.
However, in our case, we opted to keep the landline number which we ported to Voipfone. Porting the number automatically cancelled the BT services.

Edited by jjgraphics (Tue 21-Apr-26 16:01:53)

Thanks all.

Will probably not use the One Touch service and cancel Zen when all is up and running.

If an existing FTTC connection is left in place when installing a new FTTP connection, then doesn't that leave an unwanted drop wire in place (if the FTTC was delivered using an overhead cable) when the FTTC is cancelled?

I'm sort of wondering aloud because I'll shortly be in the same position and I thought it would be neater to have the FTTC drop wire removed and replaced with the fibre connection, even perhaps using the same hole through the wall.

I realise that this would lose redundancy but I feel inclined to take that risk to avoid leaving unused outside cables in place. Unless I'm missing something?

In reply to a post by astanden:

Thanks all.

Will probably not use the One Touch service and cancel Zen when all is up and running.

Makes sense. I have never seen the sense in expanding OTS to include for example switches between Virgin Media and Openreach ISPs. OTS only makes sense for switches of ISP on the same connection and their involvement in switches between different media looks like a recipe for unwanted interference in the customer's services.

It will leave the original phone line in place but not sure why that is a problem? Openreach will come and take it away at some point I'm sure.

AFAIK once you have swapped to FTTP you won't be able to revert back to FTTC, so unless you carry on paying for two services the copper will be of no further use.

That's fine, it's not in the way 🤗

I have recently had Plusnet FTTP installed. When this was got to work the installer cut the FTTC cable.

Strangely the FTTP is both faster and for the 1st year cheaper than the FTTC was.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Strangely the FTTP is both faster and for the 1st year cheaper than the FTTC was.

I don't think that it is particularly strange:

My understanding is that Openreach are offering Full Fibre to ISPs at a lower wholesale price than FTTC. This is to both reflect the inherent greater reliability of FTTP, (and hence lower maintenance costs), and to promote take-up.

I would be more surprised if it only cheaper for the first year and not in the longer term too.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Strangely the FTTP is both faster and for the 1st year cheaper than the FTTC was.

I should very much hope it's faster as it does not use copper cable. As suggested by MK65it should also be cheaper overall due to reduced infrastructure costs.

What speed do you go from and to?

In reply to a post by ashdown:

If an existing FTTC connection is left in place when installing a new FTTP connection, then doesn't that leave an unwanted drop wire in place (if the FTTC was delivered using an overhead cable) when the FTTC is cancelled?

There are no guarantees that they will remove the old wire either way, it comes down to if the specific engineer finds its easier to use the old wire to pull the new one.

This can also be a drawback as I still had POTS when my FTTP was installed and a miscommunication ended up with the engineer removing the old line to pull the fibre. So I had no phone line for a week as I migrated it over to VoIP.

Edited by alexatkin (Sat 09-May-26 09:45:28)

Update.

Switched to Olilo this week from Zen, using the one touch switch.

New OR fibre installation was about an hour and service up and running with speeds as advertised.

Very impressed with Olilo’s customer service so far.

Using a Fritz!Box 7530 AX with no major issues, just a few niggles with settings but otherwise all good.

Yet to have the first invoice from Olilo or the final invoice trom Zen (with hopefully a partial refund).

Edited by astanden (Fri 15-May-26 12:45:03)

In reply to a post by burble:

AFAIK once you have swapped to FTTP you won't be able to revert back to FTTC

Only if you are in a Fibre Priority area with copper stop-sell in place.

But frankly, I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to switch back anyway. Fibre is far more reliable, and you always get the speed you pay for.

It's an issue about resilience; if you're in an area with poor mobile coverage, then relying on fibre represents a vulnerability with poor work-arounds.

I think you're talking about PSTN switchoff (analogue voice), which is a completely separate issue.

Even when there is no copper stop-sell in place, you cannot buy an analogue phone line. You have not been able to do so since (IIRC) September 2023.

In reply to a post by CHW_BA12:

It's an issue about resilience; if you're in an area with poor mobile coverage, then relying on fibre represents a vulnerability with poor work-arounds.

In what way? FTTP is more resilient than SOGEA (FTTC as was) being passive between the premises and head-end exchange (*), not reliant on poorly maintained or missing batteries in DSLAM cabinets.

The PSTN shutdown requiring active equipment at the premises for VoIP / Digital Voice is a completely different matter, and not something raised by the OP.

* except for some rural installations with subtended headends.