I tend to use Zen internet for ADSL and FTTC and never really had any issues. Zen have informed me that the engineer install with the VDSL modem is stopping on Dec 17th 2015.

This means that a 2830 with a BT VDSL is no longer an option unless I can get a BT modem from somewhere.

This means now upgrading to a 2860 which is fine but it is not on the modem approved list at Openreach. Apparently it has to be SIN 498 complient and have passed the BT Modem Conformance Testing.

Anyone have any news on this?

Thanks

Rob

2860 works fine with Zen fttc at my location, although I've now gone to using a separate 130 on WAN2 with it. Could you not do the same with your 2830?

Yes I know it works fine, but I am just concerned that moving forward with the lack of a BT modem and with the 2860 and Vigor 130 not on the 'approved' list that I could run into a situation of finger pointing if something stops working etc etc.

Rob

A little more information on this subject is required as I believe Zen isn't giving you the full picture...

The company I work for have had some more information through, however doing a little google-fu has revealed that many other people have had the same marketing BS.
http://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/index.php/support-pages/guides-a-manuals/fttc-installation-q4-2015

The gist of this is:

Under the new process the customer must supply the device that connects to the BT phone socket.

BT use a technology called “OAM Loopback” to perform diagnostics on FTTC services and identify the CPE connected
Detection of unauthorised CPE may result in the following:
[*]Request for removal of unauthorised CPE
[*]Limitation or disconnection of Service
[*]Lack of support when troubleshooting faults
[*]Abortive Visit or SFI Customer Misoperation charges when engineers find unauthorised equipment on site.

--

The list of "approved" devices spreads a massive 4 manufacturers which range from very expensive (Cisco) to utterly shit (Huawei && Technicolor).
So the real question to Draytek would be - Do the Draytek VDSL routers and modem support OAM Loopback and if not, will this be made available via a firmware update?

Thanks very much for the info, interesting read. Lets hope we can get a response from Draytek about this.

DrayTek are going through h testing currently - it's expected that it complies with all SIN498 requirements (DrayTek have been working on it) so the testing should just be a formality hopefully, and no hardware changes are expected so if new firmware is needed, a quick download and you'd have a compliant device.