Zen email about switching to full fibre

Currently on FTTC, my copper line runs around the side of the house to a back bedroom partially over a conservatory, so worried there could be a complication about switching to fibre.


Email i got from zen this week.

Openreach, the company that runs the UK's phone network, is closing its old copper network at the end of January 2027. Your broadband currently runs over this network, so we need to move you to a modern replacement before then to keep you connected.

This change is happening across the industry and affects broadband services still delivered over the old network.

What's changing?

We'll move your broadband to full fibre, Zen's fastest and most reliable connection type.

Full fibre can provide faster downloads and a more reliable connection for things like streaming and video calls. We’ll be in touch nearer the time to confirm your move date.

Your phone line

Full fibre uses a new connection rather than the copper line you use today, so this move won’t affect your phone service. Your phone line with your current provider will continue as normal.

So i contacted Zen tech support asking if my install would be an issue but they claimed its just about switching off pots and my connection would be the same contradicting the email.

anyone know who's right and if switching to fibre will my setup be an issue?

Openreach's PSTN and ISDN will close at the end of January 2027, thereby ending Openreach's traditional broadband products, which included an analogue landline. However, SOADSL (ADSL with no analogue landline), SOGEA (FTTC with no analogue landline), and SOGFAST (G.Fast with no analogue landline) will remain available from Openreach. The restrictions on new connections to these products for premises served by FTTP in FTTP Priority areas do not affect migrations from a broadband plus landline product to the equivalent broadband only product.

If you still have an analogue landline, Zen needs to do something. If not, then you could stay as you are. I would therefore argue that Zen's email is misleading and Zen Tech Support is right.

However, there is one wrinkle. Zen, like several other ISPs, has chosen not to support SOGFAST, so G.Fast customers must upgrade to FTTP if it is available, downgrade to SOGEA or move to an ISP that supports SOGFAST.

Openreach is heavily incentivising ISPs to switch their customers to FTTP whenever possible. I understand your concerns about installing FTTP, but you will have to move eventually, so why not do it now? Zen's FTTP may even save you money compared to your existing broadband product.

If you move to FTTP, the fibre will likely have to follow a different route than the existing copper.

@Deadite66

The ONT that Openreach would install if you went for Full Fibre does not need to be co-located with the router. The ONT and router are connected by an ethernet cable which can be up to 100 metres long, (85 metres is the max recommended though). This cable must be CAT5E spec or higher.

The ONT is the interface between the fibre and ethernet connection to your router and will need a 13A power socket within about 1 metre of it. The ONT is the end of the Openreach circuit and the limit of their responsibility.

If you need the router to stay in its current location, one option would be to arrange for an ethernet cable to be run from wherever the ONT is fitted to your preferrred router location. External grade ethernet cables are available, but neither Zen nor Openreach will arrange this for you - you will have to either do it yourself or get someone in to do it.

Just to give us the full picture, who provides your landline phone at the moment?

Not that channel distance is likely to be reached in most residences, but where did you pluck 85 metres from?

All standards on any grade of copper cable from Cate5e onwards, for GbE and 2.5 GbE (the most likely connection speeds on Openreach ONTs) will be up to a cabling channel distance of 100 metres.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

but where did you pluck 85 metres from?

It was something our IT department advised us many, many years ago, when planning the remote control of our equipment from another part of the building, to allow a safety margin.

I have since seen it mentioned in other forums as a rule of thumb.

Edited by MK65 (Fri 02-Oct-26 09:45:26)

If the fixed cabling is installed correctly (and properly tested/certified - either a basic link test or better yet a full channel test - - any commercial installation that is worth its salt will have these at a minimum) categorically that is not correct. Standards and specifications for Ethernet over fixed cabling have existing for decades from both ISO and EIA/TIA

Unfortunately repeating poor advice from forums, doesn’t make it correct either. Definitely not a rule of thumb.

Landline is BT, i never use the landline phone only use the internet with Zen.

In reply to a post by Deadite66:

Landline is BT, i never use the landline phone only use the internet with Zen.

Ask Zen - categorically in writing - "are you guys migrating me to FTTP or SOGEA?"

There can only be one answer.

The email is quite misleading,
Openreach don’t run the phone network they run the access network, Openreach are not closing its copper network, but the PSTN (telephone network) is being retired, Zen may need (or more likely) want to move you off copper because you are on a legacy shared metallic path facility (SMPF) and you have been paying two providers , paying more than if you had a single supplier , Zen could have supplied you with both services as part of your broadband fee , so you could have removed BT years ago and used just Zen .
I’m assuming Zen supplying telephone and broadband would have been more acceptable to you than BT supplying your broadband and telephone.

You can’t stay on this SMPF arrangement any longer as it’s affected by the PSTN retirement, so it was a matter of time before BT or Zen invited you to decide to do something but staying as you are is not an option …Zen are only proposing to do something with the broadband side of your shared metallic path , in that they want to move you onto FTTP , because they can do that independently of your SMPF , which will revert to telephone only from BT .

I suspect this Zen communication being disingenuous isn’t really an issue for you , it’s more the practicality, the FTTP they are offering to arrange is in effect a brand new service , the copper cable can’t come down at the same time as the optical cable goes up as your telephony from BT requires it , and Zen can’t cease that for you, if you want that gone you need to do something about that yourself.


You don’t need the new optical cable to follow the same route into the rear bedroom unless that’s what you want , but the tech won’t climb onto your conservatory roof to install it , so perhaps accept you may need to have a different ingress point into the building or bedroom , you can always run your own Ethernet cable from the new FTTP ONT to the router location or move your router to another location

If you don’t want FTTP in those circumstances, I’d call BT to cease your telephone, this will cease your Zen FTTC broadband, then reorder broadband (with Zen if that’s your preference) but as SoGEA , copper /fibre broadband without telephony, and not FTTP , this keeps your existing copper wire in use , it just won’t have BT telephone on it , this also will save you money , but as it’s something you could have done years ago , presumably this was never a priority for you .

Edited by Iniltous (Fri 02-Oct-26 17:10:47)