I’ve registered Vodafone full-fibre 500 broadband. I don’t have any phone-line/landline so new phone line is required. They’ve booked an engineer appointment and said that drilling might be required. But I already have an Openreach master socket (single port) in my house and Vodafone provided the micro-filter with the broadband. Will drilling still be required or I just need to connect the micro-filter to the master socket and connect the internet cable to the router?
A new hole will have to be drilled for the fibre. Engineers have enough on doing the installs, they don't have time to decommission and remove the copper (it's also out of their remit). Besides, the fibre with it's kevlar sheath and it's outer coating needs a clean hole to go through without damage.
You will not be using the master socket or the filter, you will need a fibre connected box (the ONT) and that has to get into the house somehow. Occasionally they can use the same route as the telephone cable, but it's not likely.
If you have a phone master socket the only time there will not be drilling is if there is already suitable conduit in place. The same engineer managed to thread my neighbour's cable through the conduit and fitted the ONT over the backbox for their old master socket, but couldn't manage the same for ours thanks to too many tight 90 degrees turns (with badly fitted rigid junctions) in the conduit (couldn't even get his inspection camera around the corners). It can be done - I'm still puzzled at how little mess the engineer made, I wish my DIY was that neat!
