Porting phone to Zen FTTP at a later date

Hi,

So I'm currently with Plusnet for phone line and FTTC. In a few months the contract will end and I'll be forced onto broadband only with no phone.

CityFibre is available in my area and I'm thinking of moving to Zen.

My plan was to get Zen installed as broadband only, then once everything is fine to add Zen's Digital Voice service, porting the Plusnet number, which will then cease my Plusnet service. Do they upload the phone settings to the router automatically?

As I WFH, I'm trying to minimise any possible broadband downtime.

Will this work? Is it possible to add DV to Zen at a later date and port my number? The limited info I've read seems to infer it is, but I'd thought I'd ask around to check with people and see if anyone has done this.

Thanks.

Edited by pompey_steve (Fri 23-Jan-26 20:20:29)

I would suggest that you have an ideal opportunity to break the link between the ISP and the phone. This will allow you to change ISP in the future without worrying about whether the phone ports over. You will need an ATA for this, but once the ATA is set up, there will be nothing to change on the ATA if you change ISP.

If you go with a company like Voipfone, they can give you a temporary number for you to set everything up and then you can port your number in without needing any further set up.

Doesn't have to be a ATA if you go with someone like Voipfone, I'm with A&A and use an app on my mobile.

@pompey_steve

What you are proposing is very similar to what I did just over a year ago.

I too had Plusnet FTTC and decided to move to Zen FTTP via City Fibre, but planned to use Andrews & Arnold for the VOIP.

As you say, CityFibre installed and Zen activated their broadband only service. After a few days to satisfy myself that the new service was OK, I arranged for A&A to take over the telephone number.

When this changed over, with a down time on the phone of barely an hour, Plusnet produced a final bill and sent me a refund about 3 weeks later. Do not cease your Direct Debit until you have received this refund, otherwise it will be delayed.

Re: the ATA - the Zen supplied Fritz!Box 7530AX that I have includes a built in ATA, which A&A supplied instructions for configuring - no external device required. It was boringly simple!

As an aside, that was back in November 2024. Just two days ago we decided that we no longer needed any for a landline telephone and contacted A&A to cease it. It just took one email to them and it gets disconnected tomorrow. No refund for that though, but I won't complain at £1.80 for a full month.

I found A&A very easy to deal with, (including on the phone), both in establishing the VOIP originally and now ceasing it.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

I think I'll go the route of Zen and the phone with A&A.

Looking at A&A, it's so cheap to pay for a monthly number I might get one and a cheap ATA just to try things out in advance.