Unused BT line, can I move it/remove it?

[bernardgreen]

Dial a Disc

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/ate/main/ris/16.html

A friend did the string around phone box to hold to ransom the girl he fancied. He said he would release her only if she promised to go on a date with him. She phoned the police,

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Phone lines can be 48 volts which is more than a tingle. It could be dangerous if you were up a ladder at the time and not expecting it.

With an old type phone connected on the line, due to the inductance, it can be much more than the 48/50v. I used to get regular 'belts' from it in the exchange - you come to expect it. I would be surprised if any OR employee didn't anticipate it.

If the joint only carries the OP's one time phone service, which will be obvious as soon as it is opened, then I would suggest the OP can do no harm at all by moving it. If the service has been off for a while, likely OR will have disconnected it anyway and be reusing the pair for someone else.

The best place for a Master Socket, is usually just as near as possible to where the drop wire gets to the building from the pole, if its an overhead line.

 

[SUNRAY]

With an old type phone connected on the line, due to the inductance, it can be much more than the 48/50v. I used to get regular 'belts' from it in the exchange - you come to expect it. I would be surprised if any OR employee didn't anticipate it.

If the joint only carries the OP's one time phone service, which will be obvious as soon as it is opened, then I would suggest the OP can do no harm at all by moving it. If the service has been off for a while, likely OR will have disconnected it anyway and be reusing the pair for someone else.

The best place for a Master Socket, is usually just as near as possible to where the drop wire gets to the building from the pole, if its an overhead line.

Or where the customer wants the phone/router

 

[SUNRAY]

I have an idea, open the box, snip the jelly tots and rip it all out leaving the down wire from the pole and down your house in place. Keep the master in the shed. Anyone asks, the dog chewed it and got a shock. You can always come back later on for advice. The newest wiring colours are the blue ones.

Which blue ones?

 

[danechip]

The blue pair are usually used as a standard into the home.

 

[sparkwright]

I usually see the orange wires used as the standard colours goes into a home, but there you go.

 

[chivers67]

White / Blue With Blue /White are the normal two. Orange / white is the Bell wire

Blues then Oranges then Greens then Browns. I'm Ex BT like Sunray but left in '92

 

[sparkwright]

White / Blue With Blue /White are the normal two. Orange / white is the Bell wire

Blues then Oranges then Greens then Browns. I'm Ex BT like Sunray but left in '92

I mean on the incoming cable, on a line box, terminals A and B.

Round here, BT tend to use the oranges, though not sure about their most recent work.

 

[AndyPRK]

Incoming wires are solid colour.
orange and white as one pair.

Or green and black as another pair (line)

 

[sparkwright]

Solid orange AND solid white - quite right.

 

[SUNRAY]

Incoming wires are solid colour.
orange and white as one pair.

Or green and black as another pair (line)

Yes. Basically the colours in EXTERNAL cable; orange/white is the 1st pair in a cable/layer and green/black is the last. So a 4 pair dropwire or other external cable will be: 1 Or/Wh, 2 blue/brown, 3 Red/Grey, 4 Grn/Blk. To me it's strange to hear it described as 'solid' as that was never used when I was with BT [and TBH still isn't with other people I work with].

EDIT: Following low lighted as probably TMI tor the thread;
Internal colours use the Blue, orange, green, brown [and grey] sequence and in the original cables [now called Cat1] gets very coplicated, however in Cat2 the sequence would be paired with a white [without stripes] for the first 5 pairs then red for the next 5, black for the next 5 and yellow for 5pairs. That take it to 20 pairs using 4 each of Blue, orange, green, brown, grey [B leg] and five each of of white, red, black, yellow [A leg. For bigger cables groups of 20 pairs would be lapped with a plastic tape in the primary colours to 100 pairs then groups of 100 pairs would be lapped again with primaries OR a blue stripe added to the A leg for 20 pairs then orange, green etc

I think the stripes were introduced to the B leg in Cat4.
At some stage purple was introduced to take it up to 25 pairs and pink to take it up to 30 pairs.

 

[john4703]

I had a BT cable coming into my bathroom through a hole drilled in the wooden window frame. The black two core cable went to a junction box and a white four core from there to the master socket. I had Virgin for phone and internet so when the windows were replaced, I snipped the cable outside the window. Virgin's prices went up so back to BT. I drilled a 22mm hole through the outside wall and ran a length of flexible conduit to a metal box in the wall. I put a length of the correct black cable through the conduit. I then ran another length of flexible conduit up the wall to my loft (all the flexible conduit is buried in the plaster so not visible) and a length of trunking down to where I wanted the master socket in my office. I put a length of 6 core phone wire through the conduit, across the loft and down to the master box position. I made the joint between to black and white cables using the old BT junction box and hid it with a blank plate. I then told BT I wanted to return to them. The Open Reach guy simply joined my cable to theirs outside and fitted the master socket exactly where I wanted it. No problems from him about cutting and rerouting the cables.

 

[SUNRAY]

The Open Reach guy simply joined my cable to theirs outside and fitted the master socket exactly where I wanted it. No problems from him about cutting and rerouting the cables.

Just remember that every BT engineer is human and given the option of adding a few crimps [or whatever] or doing a whole installation it's a pound to a penny he'll take the easy way out if the end result is correct. Stick a bit of twin flex in there and he'll run a mile but a proper bit of recognised cable and Bob's your what's her name.

If there is something blatantly out of order such that he says he can't complete the job then it gets reported but there are so many different contractors around now from different backgrounds that some practices which would have never been in the rules have now become acceptable, such as using a metal backbox or pozi woodscrews.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The Open Reach guy simply joined my cable to theirs outside and fitted the master socket exactly where I wanted it. No problems from him about cutting and rerouting the cables.

Why would there be any complaints? GPO/BT engineers are not the same as they used to be, heavily unionised, where touching their lines was a shooting offence. The regulations are only there, to protect their engineers from you doing something really silly, like getting mains voltages into their equipment. Generally if you limit your activities to your property and make a reasonable safe job of it, no one will know and no one would be bothered if you had.

I redid all of mine years ago, to my own satisfaction, moving the drop wire from the pole, swapping the incoming cable from a joint to a new master socket. I even gave the engineer a hand to get the new cable through and connect to the master, when a few years later they installed a new drop wire.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

he'll take the easy way out if the end result is correct. Stick a bit of twin flex in there and he'll run a mile but a proper bit of recognised cable and Bob's your what's her name.

Why the strikethrough?