Moving from BT to Zen Internet

FlatFour

littleboo said:

You could consider porting your number to A&A. That will be a one of charges of £12 for the port then ~£1.50/month to keep the number. Which is a cheap solution for incoming only although a little more complex to achieve

You would need a way of receiving the calls - a suitable phone, an ATA or a client on your mobile

Thanks.  Hopefully I can just port the existing land line to Zen without issues... it just concerns me that you can get quite deep into the "switching to Zen" process yet there's no mention of a landline.  I will do some more digging when I have a moment...  switching to BT (from TalkTalk) was fairly straight-forward a few years back, and that was ADSL broadband to Fibre, with Copper Phoneline to Copper Phoneline.  Phoneline later went digital of course, but it was effectively two products as far as BT were concerned.

Stompa

About a year ago we switched from BT FTTC to Zen FTTP (CityFibre), and transferred the landline as well (our landline with BT was still analogue) . It all  went very smoothly, Zen dealt with everything and we didn't need to contact BT.

FlatFour

AstonSmith said:

Hey so I've been with Zen for DSL for 15 years, but had the landline and calls with BT for even longer. The reasons for the separation are complex but a couple weeks ago I asked Zen to port the BT number and line over to make a complete package.

So the answer to the question in the quote is "about half way through the phone call", before they ask for money. They asked me for the number I wanted to port to VOIP and then asked about what calls I expected to make etc. Peculiarly BT/EE "texted" the landline with a message saying the number was being moved to Zen, while I was talking to Zen on the mobile.

The move date is next week if you want me to report back with my experience?

Thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate it.

It'd be good if you could share how things go, I plan to do the same once the process is complete - though I'm yet to start it lol.

Stompa said:

About a year ago we switched from BT FTTC to Zen FTTP (CityFibre), and transferred the landline as well (our landline with BT was still analogue) . It all  went very smoothly, Zen dealt with everything and we didn't need to contact BT.

Oh, BT to CityFibre is different core infrastructure isn't it?  For me, I effectively stay on the same Openreach hardware.  Also, you managed a copper phone line transfer too.  This is encouraging.  Thanks.

I suspect (or at least hope) that I'm anticipating issues that likely don't exist.  The process should be straight-forward as I'm essentially remaining on Openreach hardware.  Just a router change (Fritz!Box... what a name!) and plugged in to the same Fibre Box on the wall in my office.

In such situations, I doubt Zen would even need to arrange a house visit.  Even if they did, it'd be an Openreach Engineer anyway.  As nothing has actually changed, I'd hope my speeds would remain unchanged too.  The Zen "estimate" speed seems like it just runs a speed test as it matches my own speed test results on a given day.

One quick question though @Stompa did you manage the entire process online with Zen, or did you need to speak to them at any point?

flaneurs_lobster

FlatFour said:

Just a router change (Fritz!Box... what a name!) and plugged in to the same Fibre Box on the wall in my office.

You'll be gobsmacked to hear that they are German! 

armith

I don't know about other companies routers but the FritzBox has a nice feature in that it's (amongst other things) a DECT base station. This means there's no need for a physical connection to the router if you've got DECT cordless phones and no need for a separate ATA box.

For what it's worth Zen is probably the 10th ISP I've had in the last 20 years, never had a problem with any of them until I tried to switch to FTTP with Sky. The switch failed over and over again, Zen just sorted it all out painlessly, arranged everything with Openreach (which needed temporary traffic lights in the road!). People say that their customer services have degraded over time but I found them to be excellent in the install - which is the only time in the 3 years I've been with them that I've needed to call.

I'll probably stay with Zen, they're much the same price as the other ISPs, maybe a little dearer but not much. The price never increases in the contract period, the router is excellent, the service never drops and there does seem to be more of a personal touch to their customer services. 

FlatFour

flaneurs_lobster said:

You'll be gobsmacked to hear that they are German! 

I was actually aware they were German, though I thought the term "Fritz" was sorta considered an insult.  I've watched enough WW2 Movies over the years (and read comics as a kid) to conclude it wasn't a term used with warm and fuzzy feelings lol.  That said, if someone released a "Tommy Router" that sorta does sound quite friendly...

armith said:

I don't know about other companies routers but the FritzBox has a nice feature in that it's (amongst other things) a DECT base station. This means there's no need for a physical connection to the router if you've got DECT cordless phones and no need for a separate ATA box.

For what it's worth Zen is probably the 10th ISP I've had in the last 20 years, never had a problem with any of them until I tried to switch to FTTP with Sky. The switch failed over and over again, Zen just sorted it all out painlessly, arranged everything with Openreach (which needed temporary traffic lights in the road!). People say that their customer services have degraded over time but I found them to be excellent in the install - which is the only time in the 3 years I've been with them that I've needed to call.

I'll probably stay with Zen, they're much the same price as the other ISPs, maybe a little dearer but not much. The price never increases in the contract period, the router is excellent, the service never drops and there does seem to be more of a personal touch to their customer services. 

We've just got the regular digital handsets from BT.  I don't think they support DECT as the base unit is wired.  So the base unit plugs directly into the VOIP port on the current Smart Hub 2.  I'm hoping that the Zen Router has the same socket, the one I looked at seemed to have the correct port, but I'm not sure (yet) exactly what model they'll provide.  Good to know though, as we'll likely replace the handsets at some point... though if they kept working the next 10 years without fault I'd be fine with that too lol.

I was with Talk Talk (internally called "Scam Scam" in my head now) prior to BT.  Talk Talk (AoL at the time) were the first (and only for a while) to offer any sort of ADSL service in this area.  Still on dial up before then - rural here, we tend to get everything late - so it was a big deal.  However, their sales staff would constantly lie about things, such as cost etc. and would totally deny there were mid-contract price increases, even when directly challenged.  They then promised "the cheapest" Fibre broadband when it got rolled out here - total surprise to see Openreach digging up the verge along our dead-end road one day - but they delayed, delayed and delayed again.  Finally, they launched the product, a little cheaper, but tied with various restrictions and the loss of the phone line.  Moved to BT for full Fibre retaining Copper phone line for a bit.  Expensive, but the only viable option at the time for what we required.  The forced migration to VOIP happened far sooner than expected.

BT have been ok for the most part, but their price inflation is silly.  They're like 40% more expensive like-for-like product.  They've also made a few problems for me with their mistakes, so I don't view them as favourably as I once did.

For me, as long as Zen can give the same speeds I get now - still on Openreach hardware, so no reason not to - and don't apply any silly limits they should be fine.  Cost is the main deciding factor though, with BT being totally unwilling to negotiate when I last spoke to them, they don't get the chance now they want to speak to me.

Being a bit of a computer nerd, I do rely on solid internet more than others

molerat

My daughter moved from TT ADSL to Sky FTTP and the phone number moved problem free.

armith

...  I'm hoping that the Zen Router has the same socket, the one I looked at seemed to have the correct port, but I'm not sure (yet) exactly what model they'll provide. 

Yes, we have an answer-machine plugged directly into the router and a separate DECT phone in another room. (the Fritzbox has a built in answer machine but it's not the best).

QrizB

FlatFour said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

You'll be gobsmacked to hear that they are German! 

I was actually aware they were German, though I thought the term "Fritz" was sorta considered an insult.

I quite fancy a FritzBox (not just for the DECT base station, but for the other features) even if "being on the fritz" is slang for something that's not working!

FlatFour

armith said:

Yes, we have an answer-machine plugged directly into the router and a separate DECT phone in another room. (the Fritzbox has a built in answer machine but it's not the best).

My BT base station actually has a built-in answerphone.  Plus there's an answerphone service with BT too - both turned OFF currently.

QrizB said:

I quite fancy a FritzBox (not just for the DECst base station, but for the other features) even if "being on the fritz" is slang for something that's not working!

I'd actually forgotten that use of the word lol.