In reply to a post by Ad_G:

Long term CityFibre want everyone on their XGS-PON network so they can turn off the GPON kit.

I don't think that's true, unless you're talking decades away. The OLTs will remain combo GPON/XGS-PON for many years, and unlike (say) the PSTN switchoff, there's no benefit to getting people off GPON, and a substantial up-front cost in all those engineer visits.

OTOH, I would expect new installs to provide an XGS-PON ONT by default, even for lower speed services, so that future service upgrades can be done without an engineer visit.

Yeah sadly on the contract they have you, you already paying their top tier and are locked in, what you have over Zen is the packet loss issue.

Dont know what to say other than good luck. I know the feeling when a company doesnt act like they value your custom.

I think they have you cornered because both Zen packages have the same name (well at least publicly). You will probably find that the ONT upgrade cost would never be paid to CityFibre nor would you be asked to sign a new contract so that is something to consider.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Ad_G:

Long term CityFibre want everyone on their XGS-PON network so they can turn off the GPON kit.

I don't think that's true, unless you're talking decades away. The OLTs will remain combo GPON/XGS-PON for many years, and unlike (say) the PSTN switchoff, there's no benefit to getting people off GPON, and a substantial up-front cost in all those engineer visits.

In the main CityFibre don’t use combo cards, they use co-existence elements and two OLTs hence the 1:32 split on GPON and 1:64 split on XGS-PON.

Just got this email from zen today...

Not sure whats going on over there but I am getting the speed I should be lol.

Hi ,

Thanks for contacting Zen regarding your performance issues. We're sorry that you're experiencing an issue, rest assured we'll continue to work with you and our suppliers to resolve the problem.

The issue has now been passed to our Fault Management team who will aim to contact you within the next working hour to discuss the details and provide some initial timescales for the fault progression.

In line with OFCOM guidelines, as your service is performing below the 'Guaranteed Minimum Download Speed' we provided in the confirmation email we sent to you, Zen now have 30 days to investigate and resolve the issue.

If the issue can't be resolved within the 30-day period you may seek to exit our agreement without penalty, though of course we'll do all we can to resolve the performance of your service as soon as possible.

Kind Regards,
Zen Technical Support

Was looking into this again and having re-read some things, I noticed this line in the email from them:

"Our Product Portfolio Manager has confirmed that there is a £120 charge associated with the second engineer visit beyond the initial activation installation. The first visit was covered by Zen and CityFibre, so no cost was passed on to you. However, any additional visits are chargeable."

First visit? I migrated from Yayzi. So Yayzi paid the install cost for my line/ont not Zen. So does that mean Zen are £120 better off having not paid for my line install/activation....

I still think CF should be doing this for fee or a minimal cost. (£120 for a quick 2 min job is insane) The ONT is not mine to own and keep afterall!

To be fair to CityFibre its more than 2 minutes, they have to drive to you, remove old ONT, clean the fibre, check it, then install new ONT.

I think Zen are making a margin on it as I believe the wholesale rate is lower than £120. But if I remember correctly, they have you by the balls on contract so have little incentive to give you any goodwill on this.

I am considering asking for a move to either 1200/1000 or 1200/1200 (will need ONT swap) myself so I have that bigger 200mbit buffer for QoS reasons, I would assume AAISP will do the former for free, but might charge me for ONT for the latter, but the ONT swap fee seems to have vanished from their website. O_o

In same boat by the way, except with me its about half the price as AAISP arent going crazy on the markup like Zen. I got told its a ONT swap even if I were to go 1200/1000.

Zen still refuse to upgrade my ONT without paying £120 so I have ordered with a new ISP.

Not the only thing I am unhappy about with Zen but toodles. You used to be a good ISP now it just seems like they want to squeeze every penny they can out of its customers.

The next challange is the £55 x 12 months remaining. AKA £600. Yeah sure theres a contract in place but Zen wont be providing the service any longer and again, Most other ISP'S reduce the amount. EE do, Virgin do, Talktalk do SKY also.. and so on. But might have to just fork it over.

If it means never dealing with them again, So be it!

Edited by Seansmit17 (Thu 04-Dec-25 01:26:26)

So you'd rather pay Zen £600 than £120 ??

Oh well, each to their own.