Advice required on phone line.

[Hainsey]

Hi all,

Our house used to have a phone line installed but when we decorated I cut it off outside where it comes down my outside wall because I had cable and the phone came trough that instead. I wish I hadn't now though because we are leaving cable shortly and need a traditional line again.

BT want £110 to reinstall the cable from the box on the outside of my house (high level) to a master socket inside but they want me to sign up to them which I dont want to do because I want Talk Talk instead.

What I want to do is reinstall the cable from the box outside down my wall again and into my house as before and connect a new master socket, then I will instruct The Post Office to reinstate my line for free and then leave them for Talk Talk (cant go directly from no phone line to cable apperntly).

I was all set to do this, have ordered cable and hired ladders etc until my colleage has informed me that I'm not legally allowed as the wire I had cut and the master socket I removed belonged to BT. Please advise me whether this is the case as I always thought BT's ownership ended where their cable from the pole ended at my house.

Look forward to you repsonses (i hope!)

Many Thanks

 

[cabinman]

BTs ownership ends from the first master socket, from the drop cable on your street. This is the demarcation point... 'legally' your not breaking the law, but you are breaking BT contract and I guess that's 'vandelising' property?

Either way, what you need is an NTE5 master socket from ebay.. with a BT logo on

Then its two wires to connect, very simply. Polarity is important of course, wiring info can be found via google, as to how the drop cable should be hooked up

from memory, I think its orange and white or black and green cables only, that go to A and B points

http://www.buzzhost.co.uk/nte5.php


hope helps

 

[Hainsey]

Thanks cabinman appreciate that the job is back on.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

BTs ownership ends from the first master socket, from the drop cable on your street. This is the demarcation point... 'legally' your not breaking the law, but you are breaking BT contract and I guess that's 'vandelising' property?

Cutting their drop cable on the outside of his house was certainly vandalising their property. I don't see how they can make him sign up to their service, but they sure as hell can charge him to replace the cable he chopped, and probably charge him more or less what they please.

Either way, what you need is an NTE5 master socket from ebay.. with a BT logo on

He needs to replace the external drop cable - what sort of cable do you suggest he uses?

 

[TicklyT]

The cable was probably one continuous length from the distribution pole to the master socket. Any joints in a dropwire are likely to fail when the weather gets at them.

Dropwires usually incorporate both steel wires for tensile strength and copper wires as conductors. Some older dropwires used copper plated steel wires for both functions.

Don't be tempted to move the dropwire fixing bracket to find an extra bit of cable. Re-tensioning a dropwire at the house end is a very good way of pulling yourself off a ladder.

 

[Hainsey]

It may have been misunderstood what cable I mean so I have posted a couple of photos. The cable I need to replace comes from the box on the left in the photo and looks like bell wire, it didnt have any steel in it when i cut it. Intend to replace with black 6CW telephone wire.

Untitled

• Hainsey
• 21 Aug 2008
• 1

Untitled

• Hainsey
• 21 Aug 2008
• 1

 

[plugwash]

ok there is already a BT junction box on the outside of your property, that makes life a lot easier. Get some outdoor grade telephone cable. Try and find some with a reasonable pair count (2 or 3 is probablly ideal, 5 is probablly on the edge of what you could get away with) so it doesn't look too suspicious. BT dropwire would be ideal but if you can't find some scrap BT dropwire something like http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Cable_Index/Telephone_Cable_External/index.html would probablly do.

Whatever cable you buy you will probablly find it contains pairs that are loosely twisted make sure you use the two wires from such a pair.

there are only two cores, in the existing cable so that makes life easy. look at which wires they connect to in the incoming cable and join your new wires to the incoming wires using either the terminals in the junction box (if they appear to be in good condition) or jellies (if they don't).

at the master socket end connect the two wires to the A and B terminals. ideally the positive wire should be connected to A and the negative wire to B (an active phone line always has a voltage on it) but most equipment doesn't care (and if the line is currently dead you won't be able to find out which is which).

theese are jellies btw
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12x-BT-Type-8...ryZ57238QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[cabinman]

Either way, what you need is an NTE5 master socket from ebay.. with a BT logo on

He needs to replace the external drop cable - what sort of cable do you suggest he uses?

As I read it, there is a BT junction box present, so cable will feed from here. Outdoor grade telephone cable, as suggested above

 

[Hainsey]

I have bought 10m of this cable already, is this suitable? http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=66&doy=22m8

 

[JOHNBOY42]

Here is the nte5 off ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-NTE5-A-PHO...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

That cable you bought have you got the black, I say this because openreach would only use black cable outside...

 

[Hainsey]

Here is the nte5 off ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-NTE5-A-PHO...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

That cable you bought have you got the black, I say this because openreach would only use black cable outside...

I've just bought that NTE5 and yes the cable I bought was black originally for the reason that white looks crap though but glad I did now.

Thanks for all the help guys, just hope I dont fall off the bloody ladder now! lol

 

[Lectrician]

Just sign up with talk talk and they will get an eng from openreach to provide service.

They may even subsidise the install costs if you sign up to a package.

 

[Hainsey]

I called talk talk and they said they couldnt because I am currently with cable.

 

[Hainsey]

Does anybody know what cable clips BT would use to fix cable to exteror wall, I'd like black but can't find any black 4.5mm ones anywhere. Any ideas?

Also where my virgin media cable comes thorugh my wall the installers have used some sort off grommet and I would like to use something similar when I drill new hole for this phone cable any ideas here?

Many Thanks in advance.

EDIT - Well blow me down out of Edmunsons, Newey & Eyre, Screwfix, Wikes, Focus & B&Q would you believe only B&Q have these (in this size).
[/url]

 

[Europlex]

But the B&Q ones shown in the link are 5mm NOT 4.5mm as you want!