In reply to a post by cjn:

A&A offer VoIP with or without broadband or porting existing number. I opened a new A&A account and received a new number. When I was ready I ported in my own number and then deleted the new number.

A reasonably simple and cheap solution is to open an A&A account and port in your own number. plus open a FreeVoipDeal account. The A&A allows free receiving of calls, for only £1.44/month. The FVD account is for outgoing only, at rather good rates, and you can assign your own number(s) for these calls, without porting them. FVD doesn't receive calls.

Thanks, but what's the advantage in using A&A (£1.44pm) rather than Zen (£0.00pm) for incoming calls? Or is it simply to separate voice and broadband with different providers (which presumably makes any subsequent switches easier)?

Our digital voice service costs just £6 per month

Zen isnt £0.00

In reply to a post by iannewson:

Our digital voice service costs just £6 per month

Zen isnt £0.00

A previous post here:

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/zen/t/4772383-a-ze...

suggested that there was no charge if you opt not to buy any inclusive minutes. Admittedly I've not checked that with Zen though.

Zen certainly don't make it obvious whether you can have DV with no bundled calls. If you can, then great, although there seems to be no actual contract involved. You can always change to an external VoIP supplier in the future. Obvious solution is just ask Zen rather than relying on hearsay.

In reply to a post by cjn:

Zen certainly don't make it obvious whether you can have DV with no bundled calls. If you can, then great, although there seems to be no actual contract involved. You can always change to an external VoIP supplier in the future. Obvious solution is just ask Zen rather than relying on hearsay.

Yes, I will of course do so.

It's always good to check but it's not hearsay as I'm still with Zen as a customer and that's how it works if you have broadband with them at least for FTTC.

The bill also lists the month as a single broadband item described like this:

Unlimited Fibre 1 - Monthly charge
Care Level: Standard
Lifetime Price Guarantee: Yes
Phone Number to Migrate to SoGEA: ;
Zen Username: zen000000@zen
Period of service: 23-Jan-2025 to 22-Feb-2025

However I won't try to extrapolate that for any other product (e.g. full fibre / leased line) or services that didn't historically depend on the phone line.

Only those who took out a contract with Zen some time ago when it guaranteed no price increase are moved to digital voice with no charge - but we have no included calls.

For new customers, DV is £6 with the inclusive minutes. There doesn't appear to be any option to take it without.

https://www.zen.co.uk/phone/digital-voice

That's a shame - well for reference the service is referred to (in the account portal) as Digital Voice PAYG if someone is making a pre-sales enquiry.

And I would say it's a mistake to not offer a "line-only" service option (without inclusive minutes) given the choices available on the wider market.

I still have a Draytel geographic VoIP number (now telappliant.red)
and I only made a one-off payment years ago.

That was for exploring options to be able to give out a Manchester number that could ring me anywhere on my mobile (without a landline caller being charged a mobile destination ppm).

Edited by prlzx (Fri 14-Feb-25 21:22:04)