Any Telephone / BT Engineers here?

[technium]

Hope this is the correct place but couldnt find an appropriate area so forgive me.

Outside our back garden we have a telephone pole with several cables coming off it to all the different houses in our street. One cable comes from that pole to my house and comes through a sofit (SP?) in our porch and then connects to a egg shaped connector and out the other end comes a long telephone cable to a telephone point which is a standard socket for pluging your phone into.

Anyway where the cable from outside comes into the connector in the porch its all rusty and the wires inside are snapped so now I have no phone or internet connection in our place.

Does anyone here know how I can redo the wires I can get a picture if someone needs it.

Heres a picture ive found that looks like the connector im talking about

thanks in advance and hope the above makes sense.

Colin

 

[breezer]

you can, but call BT it still belongs to them.

 

[stuartinlancashire]

Hi Colin, if the dropwire is damaged then you need to contact BT to come out and replace it, an ex girlfriend of mine had a similar problem and upon inspection the engineer reckoned that the cable was over 40 years old

I don't think you will incur any cost for this as I understand BT are responsible for maintaining all equipment from the exchange to your master socket, best to get in touch with them and clarify it before trying any DIY.

 

[Pensdown]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like the broken cable is BT's problem because it's before the master socket?

The should attend to the fault and possibly replace the cable back to the pole connection

 

[technium]

thank you all for your very very quick replies./

as shown in the pic in my original thread I think it is the connection box before the master socket so hope bt will fix foc. Ive rang and reported the fault but they say theres a fault outside the property. Ive tried telling them the real fault and they said they would let the engineer know, but these foreign call centers are a real pain.

Anyway ive got a date of the 8th Jan so hopefully they will sort it then.

Many thanks for your quick replies, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Colin

 

[Pensdown]

When BT test the line they test up to the master socket resistor so if the cables broken before the socket all they see is an "outside fault"

 

[cyndi]

looks like bt's problem

as they go upto the master socket ,what your describing is the junction box old type ,sometimes still left in place and the new master sockets fitted ,you should get a new cable back to the pole all at least try to ask for it when the guy turns up ,that way u will have a more reailble interconnection for a few more years

 

[telelec]

If you call your SP(service provider) they will send an Openreach engineer out , as you state that this box has corroded and is inside you porch .. it is now Openreach policy to charge a service provider for problems like this as it is up to the End User to maintain there house and make sure it is damp free , if it was damp free then the connection would not have corroded and snapped , It is not the decision of the engineer that visits as to if you get charged, he/she will automatically charge your SP (BT , Carphone Warehouse , tesco etc......). it is then the decision of your SP ifthey pass a charge onto you , the charges for call out / per hour varies from one SP to another.

 

[plugwash]

otoh a porch even if closed in isn't really a proper part of the house so should an internal grade box have ever been fitted there in the first place?

at least thats what i'd be asking my service provider if they tried to charge me for something like that.

 

[telelec]

A porch is classed as internal if it has a door on it and is not open to weather elements that is why an internal termination box has been fitted. What colour cable feed into it from outside ( if this is grey and thin like speaker wire this is dropwire 3 , if its grey and looks like thick speaker wire this is dropwire 6 ) these are prone to snapping on bends when moisture has ingressed. If it is a black cable then this is dropwire 10 and inside the box there should be 4 wires 2 pairs ( orange / white ) and ( green / black ) . Your dial tone should be on the orange white , this needs to be connected onto the pair that comes from your NTE (telephone point) , if it is a grey 4 wire cable then this would be on the blue and orange just match the orange cable from outside to the blue on the internal cable , then the white from the outside onto the orange on the internal cable.

If it is a white six wire then you need to connect the orange from the outside to the blue/white on the internal and the white from the outside onto the white / blue on the internal , you can do this by means of a good twist joint , or an electrical connector , an electical connector would reduce the quality of your adsl if you have it , so i would advise a good twist joint then tape with insulation tape...

If you see an Openreach or BT van in your area just ask the engineer if you can have some crimps , these work by pushin the cable into them then close them with pliers , this joins the 2 cables together and seals then in a silcone gel.

 

[securespark]

it is up to the End User to maintain there house and make sure it is damp free ,

I agree with Plug here.

The GPO should have fitted equipment suited to the conditions in the first place (just as we have to). The regs apply to GPO as well, don't they?

I'd like to see BT try this on me. They'd get very short shrift indeed!

It reminds me of one of my customers who had a new drive. In scraping up the old surface, they cut the NTL cable. NTL went ballistic & told the customer if he wanted it re-instating, he would have to pay some astronomical fee....

The cable, BTW, was only 2" down. And the customer worked for NTL...