A few questions about moving from FTTC to FTTP

I'm currently on Zen FTTC but now able to order FTTP. Once the FTTP is installed my plan is to cease the FTTC after 1-2 weeks. I am only 2 months into my minimum term but Zen have confirmed they would treat it as a migration therefore I would not continue to pay charges for the remainder of the FTTC contract.

1. I'd like to hear feedback from others that have done the same - were there any issues or did it go smoothly? I'm worried that Zen might decide to cease the FTTC before I'm ready - I work from home so rely on the broadband.

2. The option exists to keep line rental - is Zen's "line rental" VoIP or does this entail keeping the copper pair? Still deciding what to do re phone but I'll probably switch to a 3rd party VoIP due to price (provided that my FritzBox 7530 plays nicely with my DECT handsets).

3. If I do switch to VoIP I understand that porting my phone number will cease the copper pair and FTTC - any issues with doing it this way? Is it best to inform Zen in advance?

I've just moved from FTTC to FTTP with zen and i think zen managed to mess up pretty much every step of the way.

Firstly when i placed the order it immediately went to a FAILED status. I chased this again and was told it would be fine, but 3 or 4 days later it still wasn't. Eventually chased again and they had messed up passing my details through so finally pushed it through manually.

The install itself went fine and was all switched over running on FTTP.

The same regrade order then switched over to say that it had FAILED again to cancel the old ADSL install. I called to chase this and was told it would be fine and again required a manual nudge. I confirmed if it was ok to go ahead and cancel my landline as it was with BT and they confirmed it was.

The following day I cancel BT landline and an hour later get an email from zen saying they would be closing my account and were sorry to see me go and the product affected was my 900 fttp regrade.

I've called them several times since and they told me my ADSL cancellation would finalise last night, however it still seems to say failed. They assure me that my account won't be closed, but it's really rather worrying as it will be the 24th December and I don't want to be spending xmas with no internet. I'm not sure based on their previous mess ups that I believe them.

Overall I've been really unimpressed with how they've handled it. I've been a customer for years but they seem to have gone completely down hill.

It does seem that Openreach/ISP's/phonenumbers are a problem, it seems that nobody has yet fully thought through what would happen with the change to FTTP and a simple system to enable it.

I was a bit surprised. I was expecting them to say they could just give me some sort of VOIP thing and port my old number across for a few quid extra a month, but wasn't the case. Was quite a bit more expensive from memory.

Order FTTP with whom?

if ordering FTTP with Zen and you have an existing Zen FTTC service, would expect them to do this as a migration, i.e. no overlap of service at all. Trying to the overlap with the same provider will be difficult, if this is very important then you need to order a data only FTTP service from another provider.

As far as I know Zen voice is still over the copper pair, i.e. old fashioned

On the voip if the old phone number ends up in any way linked to the FTTP then porting number out would cause a cease of FTTP, you need a port with renumber

Thanks for the replies. I have asked Zen to clarify if it would be done as a hot-cut migration or if there could be an overlap of service. If a hot-cut I think I'll chicken out.

When I migrated from (Zen) FTTC to (Zen) FTTP a few months ago, there was an overlap. When it was arranged they suggested that I get the FTTP installed, confirm that it was working as expected, and then contacted them to cancel the FTTC service.

This is exactly what happened, though I contacted them only a few hours after FTTP went live and the old service was shut off the following day.

What did you find out or decide re the phone number/copper/VOIP?

Well that's annoying as I specifically asked zen on twitter if it's possible to migrate to FTTP from FTTC Whist in contract and was told it wasn't.

So I didn't go with zen for the FTTC.

Well that's not what they are telling me, they are saying it would be done as a regrade with a possible downtime of 1-2 hours, so no overlap. If I wanted an overlap I would have to order as a new service and then pay early termination fees on the FTTC (I won't be doing that as one reason I moved from IDNet to Zen was to save money). Seeing as I would be staying as a customer and spending more money with them you would think they might be more flexible with regards to contracts, though I suspect it's because their tools and processes can't cope with such scenarios.

A regrade will make a number port to VoIP near impossible, so will need to mull this over.