BT cable extension/sockets

[Lieutenant Columbo]

I'm currently a Virgin Media customer but want to leave because of the contant price hikes.
My problem is that every other company uses the BT master socket for the phone line and broadband.
I have Bt master socket in my front room but it's in the worst possible position. It is impossible to plug my router or phone into it.
I have 2 Virgin Media phone socket boxes installed, one in the other side of the phone room (where the phone is) and one in the master bedroom.

A friend of mine tells me that the Virgin telephone and BT line use the the same technology and that instead of running new BT cable from the BT master socket through my loft to the two phone locations I could wire a cable from the BT master socket to Virgin Media phone wiring.

I'm not sure that this would be the best thing, perhaps it would be better to run new and seperate cbales from the BT master socket to new phone point sockets that I could install next to the existing Virgin ones.

Which would be the best cause of action?

 

[ericmark]

I know nothing about Virgin but the Open Reach / BT / Post Office telephone socket has two or three wires, the centre two contacts take the main twisted pair, the polarity matters where used with phone with not power, the third wire is only used for ringing bell and the polarity only matters for ringing bell so with cordless phone you only need the centre pair, same with router or modem. The master socket has a capacitor in it connected to third wire for bell, and some spark gaps etc.

The BT system runs on 50 volt, some systems have a lower voltage, so to connect a router to BT system it needs a built in volt dropper or isolator with some cable systems this is not required. As a result there are two types of router, also with fibre optic for some reason the dropping of voltage and the routing are done in two separate boxes.

But if you are using cordless phones then the two centre wires do not matter which way around and you don't need third so simple. Polarity only matters for bell and third wire only for bell.

 

[Lucid]

If these are just phone line sockets then it shouldn't be too much of an issue to transfer the wiring and make use of the cabling that VM put in place.

There are plenty of online guides about wiring to extensions: http://www.davefrydoes.co.uk/install-an-nte5a-bt-virgin-openreach-etc-master-socket/
http://www.davefrydoes.co.uk/install-an-nte5a-bt-virgin-openreach-etc-master-socket/
Of course, if you're not comfortable tackling this yourself then get a professional in. This doesn't have to be a BT-employed installer though. There are plenty of telecoms trained engineers working independently.

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[winston1]

I know nothing about Virgin but the Open Reach / BT / Post Office telephone socket has two or three wires, the centre two contacts take the main twisted pair,

Wrong. The main twisted pair go to terminals 2 and 5. Bell wire is on 3.

 

[Astra99]

You are correct in that both BT and VM phones use the same technology. If you remove the bottom half of the faceplate on the VM master box, you should find a blue/white cable in terminal 2 and a blue cable in terminal 5. (Think I've got these the right way round LOL) (If a bell-wire is needed this is normally orange/white in terminal 3.) These are the cables which feed your slave socket in the bedroom.

Now look at the BT box. Remove the bottom half of the faceplate and look to see if there any connections to 2 & 5. There should (hopefully) be none. You can now run a length of CW1308 cable (standard telephone cable) to a new slave box adjacent to the VM box. When the BT connection becomes live, then the pair can be removed from the VM box and connected into the new slave box to extend the circuit to the bedroom. You CANNOT use the VM Master box as a BT slave box!!!

However, if the BT master box does not have a split faceplate (NTE5), that is, you have an older one-piece Master Socket, then BT should upgrade this when the line is re-activated. If they don't, then you can always bend the rules and buy an NTE5 socket and replace the original older type. (Everything up to and including the master socket belongs to Openreach.) The two incoming wires go to the two screw terminals A & B on the very back of the NTE5

Only buy good quality CW1308 cable. There is a great deal of cheap copper-clad aluminium about; buy only 100% copper. Costs more, but well worth it! Also, if you don't have one, buy a Krone tool to insert the cables into the insulation displacement connectors. Trying to do it with anything but the right tool is a right P.I.T.A.

HTH