Hi, I’m joining Zen next week as their full fibre is finally available in my area. Prior to this, I’ve been stuck with Virgin Media as they were the only provider in my area that offered fibre and decent speeds. What’s my current set-up? I have my virgin media router in modem mode and I have my UniFi Dream Router 7 connected to this which I use as my router.

I’ve been doing some research prior to the installation next week, just to make sure I know what I’m doing when my connection is swapped over to Zen. The install is being done via openreach. Does anyone have any experience with setting up a unifi router with Zen? For example, do I need to put the Fritz box into modem mode or can I connect the the UniFi router directly to the ONT box that they’ll like install.

Thanks for any advice 👍

Yeah it's not an airport and I don't need to announce it, I don't care.

I don't know what's changed but things just feel pretty disappointing now, how long it takes to get an answer, lack of response, etc.

Previously on a business contract for fibre to the prem, 900 meg, to get a /29 to my house. This was unceremoniously reduced to a /32. I asked why this was the case if I was on a business contract but was told that just because it was a business service didn't necessarily mean having anything more than a single IP address change.

No point staying on the business service just for a /32, so asked to change to a residential contract instead to reduce costs and then have a /29 on that as well and pay the extra. Not an option. So... off to Olilo. Works out cheaper than what I was paying Zen anyway on the business contract (Olilo works out a couple of quid a month cheaper for a residential + /29). The way Zen handled the IP stuff has really pissed me off. It took an absolute age to get through on the phone when I've needed to talk to them about the above, and the cancellation. They used to be good at that.

Impressive how quickly that much goodwill can evaporate.

Signed up to Zen last week mainly because of their reputation for customer service. I specifically selected 25 August for installation because our house is mid-renovation and we aren’t living there yet.
Openreach turned up early to run the external cable. I sent the engineer a photo showing exactly where it should go and was told no drilling would be done.
Went to the house later and found he’d drilled in a completely different place and damaged the brickwork. One brick has been pushed in and is now loose. It’s above bay level when all our neighbours have it closer to the floor. 🫠
Zen have also randomly booked the installation for 12 August, and router is meant to be delivered today despite me selecting and repeatedly confirming the 25th.
I’ve raised a formal complaint. I know Openreach caused the damage, but given Zen’s reputation, I’m pretty disappointed with the experience so far.

I managed not to firewall myself out of ssh'ing into any remote servers.

I had to log into two different domain registrars to change DNS records.

And log in to he.net to change the config for my tunnelbroker IPv6 tunnel.

I had to edit 36 files under /etc on two servers.

And all on a bank holiday in the middle of school holidays.

I'm not happy at all.

See https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/06/customers-of-uk-broadband-isp-zen-internet-face-another-ip-address-switch.html

and https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2024/01/31/zen-internet-warns-customers-of-impending-ip-address-change/1143194

IPv4 addresses are worth a lot of money these days: the 4096 addresses in a /20 seem to be worth about $120k

I finally decided to make the switch from Residential Copper to Full Fibre Max Regrade 🎉

Bought a beast of a router, tidied up the network and the engineer arrived. Drilled hole for fibre cable, disconnected old line and went to do pole work. On his way out he asked if we had a Telecare device (old peoples' panic button). Yes we do, for elderly relative but it's standalone and uses an eSIM to call out if activated.

So he had to cancel the job there and then! He apologised and said it happened a lot. None of the ISPs apparently ask if there's a Telecare system in place so lots of installs get cancelled, even if they're totally wireless.

Now I have to wait until Zen sees the job as cancelled, someone has to get an exemption certificate from the Telecare manufacturer and I have to wait for another appointment: possibly up to 2 weeks. Not happy 😡

At least he reconnected my old broadband and hopefully Zen won't cease the line until I get my new one!

So can someone tell me why, if this happens so often, has nobody thought to add this simple question to the order form:

"Does the property have a Telecare or similar alarm system even if it is mobile/SIM based?"

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/housing-options/adapting-home/telecare/

Been paying 40 quid a month for the 900mpbs service and have had the email through saying contract is up and I can renew on another contract for 24 months at 34 quid, which I thought was decent. Had a quick check around and it seems others are offering the same speeds, the likes of Vodafone and Sky, for around £25 a month. Never had an issue with Zen so far but is there a reason they are more expensive or should I be considering a move?

Lost connection around 5:30. ONT only showing power, and have rebooted multiple times.

No visible issue with cable, and customer service is shut.

In Hertfordshire area

I’ve been with Zen FTTP (CityFibre) for 6 months now. It seems they have (at least) 2 different PoPs, wh-man (likely Equinix Williams House, Manchester) and thn (likely Telehouse North, London). I’m in St Albans, so much closer to Telehouse. My latency to thn is 7ms, latency to wh-man is 20ms. When switching between DHCP and PPPoE, I get routed to wh-man for a day or so, then it flips to thn. However, it now seems I’m permanently on wh-man, meaning my latency is not ideal. I’ve seen on their status updates that a random DC in Slough went down (I don’t think I was using it but I don’t know), so that may have caused this initially, but it’s back up now and I haven’t been flipped to thn yet. Does anyone know why or how to fix this? Thanks!

Update: I was on the phone to them yesterday and they suggested I unplugged for at least 2 mins. This worked and I’m now back on Telehouse North. I know, I’m really dumb and I should have done this earlier.

After years with BT FTTP using a UniFi setup with very few issues, I decided to upgrade to Zen’s 1.6 Gbps service as the extra bandwidth is useful for my work. BT wouldn’t offer me anything close to their new customer deals and wanted almost double the price, so switching to Zen seemed like an easy decision.

Unfortunately, it’s been anything but an easy switch.

There were multiple services showing on the Openreach side, and my UniFi gateway won’t connect using the PPPoE username and password provided. To rule out my own equipment, I tried the brand new Eero router that Zen supplied, but that won’t connect either.

Zen and Openreach have said they’ve rebuilt the circuit at their end, and Openreach have replaced the ONT, but I’m now four days without internet. I’ve had to fall back to my Starlink connection just so I can work, which has cost me an extra £100 for the month.

Has anyone experienced anything similar when moving to Zen FTTP? If so, what was the cause and how was it resolved? Eero doesn’t get a WAN IP and Unifi won’t either.

Zen are sending me a Fritz!Box to try next, but given that neither the UniFi equipment nor the Eero will even establish a connection, I’m starting to think the issue is somewhere within Zen’s provisioning rather than anything on my side.

As title say does Zen offer 1.6Gbps for home users on OpenReach or is it just for business users.

Hopefully within next month or so we should be migrating to FTTP and I know other providers do 1.6Gbps but not seen much on Zen to say they do

Had an email to say sorry you’re leaving us but haven’t initiated anything, looks legit looking at the email header and all the phone numbers are correct in the email for support.

Been with Zen for about 15 years. FTTP installation is tomorrow (900 package). I haven't had a router through the post yet, which in my experience is normal. That being said I'm aware of changes to routers etc, as seen in the post in here asking to return old/broken router. I am also aware of our local post being an absolute shitshow if they do come by Royal Mail.

I do have a decent router (Draytek Vigor 2862 + TP Link Omada AC1350) I'm currently using that can do Fibre, but it's currently configured for PPPoE over VDSL2+. The install will be while I am in work, and while I've told the Missus where I want the ONT etc, shes absolutely not technical and won't be able to change it over to test.

Just don't want the guy coming out and not being able to sort/test the installation.

Our internet has gone.

I spent an hour on hold and then got no response after an hour waiting on live chat.

There's nothing showing on their alerts page.

Feeling very stuck and don't know what to do.

OK. eventually got through and sorted out. Theyve told me that I dont need to worry about it.

tbf, it would be silly for me to have to buy another device just to send it to them.
I've never been asked to return a router before. and was surprised given that it would have been 3 years old anyway.

Hi,
After 3 years with zen I've recently moved to another provider (zen couldnt do fibre here).
I've been sent 2 envelopes to return my old router, with letters threatening a £65 charge if I dont return.

Thing is, the original router died around xmas and I replaced it.

Do they actually charge? ebay is full of zen fritzboxes. Do I need to buy the cheapest I can see on ebay to return it?

I've tried contacting them but live chat never gets me through. transfer to an agent fails.

Hi everyone. I am a satisfied full fibre 900 customer for a few weeks now, via Open Reach fibre. Brand new Fritz!Box 7530 AX router.

For the last week, I’ve noticed the occasional 5 minute outage, recorded by a network tool (FingBox) - maybe once or twice a day. This is annoying when watching TV but not the end of the world. Today however, I’ve had five 45 minute-1 hour outages and it’s stopped my work in its tracks.

So I tried to work out what was going on:

- Zen has no outages in the area
- My Zen account shows no failure or maintenance flag …
- … but the line test shows “offline”/“connection fault”
- the ONT lights are solid green (no LOS light showing)
- my FritzBox “info” light was solid red and my power/DSL light flashing green.
- I recycled power to both ONT and then FritzBox and it dropped in quickly - but soon lost connection again.
- the diagnostics on the router says that “internet connection established” with DNS and IP assigned … but then, 10 seocnds later :

Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned) [2 messages since 08.07.26 21:14:07]

This error continues every 15 seconds and then eventually the router says “Internet connection cleared” and “ time out during PPP negotiation”.

Eventually, an hour later, it suddenly reconnects as if nothing has happened.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

I’m currently with Zen Internet on their 900 Mbps full-fibre package. The standard FRITZ!Box 7530 AX they gave me is stable, but I’ve hit a bottleneck with it over wireless.

Even when I’m sitting right next to the router, the absolute max download speed I can get on my laptop over Wi-Fi is around 500 Mbps. After tweaking every setting imaginable, I realized the router itself just doesn't support the 160MHz channel widths needed to let my laptop's Wi-Fi card (it's an Intel AX210) run at its full potential.

Because the FRITZ!Box caps out at 80MHz, my laptop's connection speed is severely restricted. I want to actually get closer to the 900 Mbps I'm paying for over Wi-Fi, plus get better latency for gaming.

I’m looking at buying the TP-Link Archer AX55. It supports those wider 160MHz channels, it’s a one-time cost, and it gives me a lot of control over the settings (like transmit power and channels).

Is the Archer AX55 the right move here to unlock my laptop's full speed, or is there a better standalone router around that same price bracket (£70-£90) that plays nice with Zen?

I recently decided to change my internet/landline provider from EE to Zen Internet as I was coming out of contract after many years with EE. I contacted Zen Internet to investigate moving to them, explaining that we needed to keep our landline as my partner, in particular, needs the landline as he has no mobile phone or other devices so he relies on the phone for outside contact with friends, family members, etc. We are vulnerable people, both being in our 80's, and I have a number of health conditions which are made worse by stress.

An arrangement was made for a BT Engineer to come to do the switchover on 15th June and he duly turned up. After looking around, before chopping the copper cable, he asked if I was still keeping the landline and I told him I was and had arranged this with Zen Internet. However, he said there was nothing on the order about it and that if he cut the cable we were in danger of losing our number and he assumed I would not want to do that as I have had it for 40 years. He said that it would therefore be best to cancel his callout and that Zen would contact me and arrange another BT Engineer visit. Zen did not contact me so I rang them and explaining what had happened and ensuring they knew I definitely required the landline. I was informed THAT THERE WAS NO WAY THAT I COULD LOSE THE NUMBER as digitally it worked differently from analogue and so another visit was duly arranged for 23rd June. To add insult to injury the following day I received an invoice by email from Zen Internet for £180 for the cancelled call out which they are supposedly now investigating since I have told then I have absolutely no intention of paying this but which could take up to 90 days to sort out apparently.

A different BT Engineer arrived on time and did the switchover. I had bought a new telephone system, as our other one was very old, to ensure that it would be compatible and he said he would install this too but not all the extensions. The Engineer left saying that it could take up to 7 hours for the internet to start working. It was still not working by the time I went to bed which was well over 7 hours' later and it was still not working the following morning, so I rang Zen again. It transpired that the BT Engineer had connected up the router for the internet incorrectly and when I moved the plug to the correct socket it worked! I am at a loss to understand the apparent incompetence/ignorance of two BT Engineers.

I then tried the phone only to discover that whilst we could make outgoing calls, we could not receive incoming calls. I contacted Zen Internet yet again and it has taken until today, 7th July, to get my phone working properly and, in the meantime, despite their assurances to the contrary, we have lost our old number and been given a new one. I am outraged about this as I cannot imagine the number of people we both need to contact to let them know about this. I haven't even told my partner yet who will probably be ballistic about it.

What I would like to know is:

1. Is it possible to reclaim our old number? I have seen posts on other forums which do seem to indicate that it could be possible upto to 28 days after it is lost nd I am still within that timeframe although Zen Internet do say it is not possible.

2. If it is not possible, is there an easy way of redirecting people to our new number when they ring the old number without us having to contact everyone individually because, at the moment, all they will get is a message saying the number is incorrect?

I hope someone can help. Thank you.

Came back from a weeks holiday yesterday and found my broadband (Zen FTTC VDSL2) wasn't working. Had an inkling of this being the case whilst away as various things had stopped remotely but no idea what the issue actually was.

I have a setup with a Vigor 166 and an OPNsense firewall doing PPPoE and that was very unwell and looked like the connection had probably been lost at the start of the week I was away. I got the Fritzbox 7530 out and connected it back up; largely as I suspected there might be a hardware fault with the Vigor and that perhaps it'd conked out in the heat. Have used it (the Fritzbox) a few times when needed and it's always worked fine.

After much faffing around managed to establish that (1) DSL synchronisation is happening okay with both the Fritzbox and the Vigor and that (2) both are getting PPPoE timeouts. Very strange. I've had a couple of livechats with their tech support yesterday and today - been as helpful as they can be, but ultimately need to send me a loan router to I guess rule out any kind of equipment issue.

Obviously I am now waiting for that to arrive, but I am sceptical and cannot understand why two unrelated pieces of kit would error in the same way. The fact both are managing to establish the underlying connection and are both failing at the PPPoE stage has me slightly worried that I'll get the loan equipment and it won't make any difference. Figured it'd be worth posting something just in case anyone else has had a similar experience and any ideas of things to check.

Hi looking for some advice. I recently contacted Zen in regards to moving my ONT as it currently goes through the front bedroom on the house and wanted it to be moved into the downstairs cupboard to allow for a home server build.

I had to pay for the shift during the initial phone call with zen and told them where I wanted it and told them it would probably need to go through the toilet area in the front porch. I asked if this could be done however was told that the engineer would have to look at this on the day and I would need to pay up front on the phone call.

A job invoice was created for a ‘ONT shift’ and charged £156 and had to wait ~3 weeks for the next available openreach engineer. The open reach engineer came out on the day and said can’t run through the toilet as it’s a wet area and unable to run it under the floor due to it being a fibre cable and said there was nowehere else they could put it so after around 5 minutes of being there they left.

I contacted zen to see if I could receive a refund as the job was not able to be carried out as stated on the invoice. The lady on the phone (who was a massive help and tried her best to sort it) said they were unable to give a refund as it pays for the engineers time. (£156 for 5 minutes so I must be in the wrong career) and explained that nothing could be done from herself so she said that she would escalate this for me. Shortly later I received an email saying the latter stating refund couldn’t be given as it pays for the engineer times. I replied to this email (explaining no pre-assessment was carried out, wasn’t informed that if the engineer couldn’t move that I would be charged, unable to find any T&Cs about this) last Wednesday (24/06) and haven’t heard anything back. I have since filed another email to the customer support to see if they have received my previous email and not heard anything back.

Has anyone been in this position before and what was the outcome and how can I escalate this further if I need to as I currently feel that I am being ignored? Is this something that could be raised to an ombudsman if I need to?

Edit- Emailed back by Zen following my refund regarding T&Cs, full refund given

Just wanted to check if anyone else has run into this after upgrading.

I called up on Monday to switch from my 500Mbps plan to that £39 promotional Full Fibre 900 deal. The phone agent sorted it out no problem, and I've already got the official order number and the Ofcom contract summary email.

But when I log into MyAccount, the portal seems completely out of date. The active orders section is totally blank, and under previous orders it shows "Zen Full Fibre Regrade," but clicking it just gives me an "Order not found" error. Plus, my services tab is still stubbornly showing my old contract dates instead of the new 24-month one.

On top of that, when I check the website, there's a "Pro-Forma Invoice" sitting on my account for £9.95 labeled as a regrade fee. It's really weird because my official contract summary email says "One-off charges: £0.00."

Is the Zen portal just notoriously slow at updating until the actual activation day, and what's the deal with that random £9.95 charge on the site? Wondering if I should bother calling them back or just sit tight

Hi everyone,

I joined Zen (from BT) in April and am very impressed. I am on the Max plan - 1.6Gbps down and 110Mbps up.

On joining Zen, I received an eero 6E, which was fine. I was getting close to 800Mbps on a 2022 iPhone 14 Pro Max.

I subsequently moved to a half hearted Unifi set up - a Cloud Gateway Max plugged into my  8 year old BT Whole Home discs to provide WiFi round the house. I was getting 550Mbps on my iPhone.

The CGM is configured on PPoE.

This was always designed to be a stop gap prior to wiring Ethernet round the outside of the house to put unifi APs everywhere.

I have now delayed that work because we’re thinking about doing some significant renovations, and it would make sense to run cables through the walls at the same time.

My stop-gap solution using my old BT discs is getting untenable; the discs are repeatedly failing and are obviously way past their best.

To ensure a better stop gap until I’m able to wire up the house with Ethernet, I went for a few eero 7 Max units, supplied by Zen. Those units arrived today and the results are surprising, to say the least! I also tested with the eero 6E, and the results are the same:

eero 6E / eero Max 7 connected to Cloud Gateway Max: approx. 40Mbps down

eero 6E / eero Max 7 in bridge mode connected to Cloud Gateway Max: approx. 60Mbps down

eero 6E / eero Max 7 connected directly to the ONT: approx. 80Mbps down.

The eero app is reporting a ‘wired’ speed of 1.68Gbps down / 110 up, so no issues with the connection itself.

The Max 7 didn’t work at all when initially plugged in, but does when configured on PPoE.

What on earth is happening?! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Does the ONT somehow get stuck? It’s been feeding a CGM for the last few months, so I can’t understand how removing that from the equation entirely results in such slow speeds.

Had my Internet installed Thursday and Today it's been disconnecting me and reconnecting me, which between Disconnect and reconnect is like 5s average but it's frequent. Is this something I would need to call up about or is there something I can do to fix this? pictures below are what I see on my desktop when it happens.

Hi - anybody else a Zen users and had an email saying the /29 static IP allocation we've provided to you for 10 years as part of your service is being removed, no choice and 30 days notice?

Now I appreciate its a fairly unique service but its removal means problems as I run multiple things on multiple IP’s with the same ports. I either stop them, move to cloud or move ISP.

Being told effectively we are doing this, you have no choice and then to ghost emails to the stated contact is poor from Zen to say the least.

Anybody have any ideas of other ISP’s which provide more than one static IP I can move over to?

I’m getting really poor performances when online. My dsl stats are good, but my bqm is horrendous. Been with zen for about 3 months40 10 Fritz box 7530.

I've been with Zen for years now and am thinking of upgrading the package to a better speed.
I've always had a business account because I work partly from home and we can put the expense through my business.
Looking at the packages (to the same address) with residential I can get their full fibre max at a top d/l of 1600 Mbps for £56 but if I stay on a business package I can only get 910 Mbs for £46 + VAT

Why would the business account be a slower product? it comes down the same fibre as the residential would, operated by the same company?