Can BT External NTE Box provide 3 Separate Phone Lines?

THX

Joined
30 Jan 2011
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Berkshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi All

I have a new property with one of these new OpenReach External NTE boxes fitted. The house has been internally wired by the builder with 6 core wire phone cable.

I need to have (3) separate phone line pairs coming into the house from the External NTE box. I plan to use all 6 wires in the internal wiring to avoid having to run extra cable, as follows:

• Blue/White & White/Blue pair - for phone line (1)
• Orange/White* & White/Orange pair – for phone line (2)
• Brown/White & White/Brown pair – for phone line (3)

*I’m using the Orange/White Bell Wire as one of the pairs as the ADSL and modern phones do not require the use of the bell wire anymore.

Now the issue; from my understanding the External NTE box can only support feeding out of it (2) phone line pairs, thus only giving me 2 separate phone lines.

In my previous house – without this new type NTE box, I had 4 separate lines at one point being feed from the BT cable that ran up to my house with no line limitation issues.

Am I missing anything here or got my wires crossed (excuse the pun) regards this requirement? Will BT have to run a separate additional line out of the External NTE box to give me the 3rd line?

Any help on this wound be very appreciated.
 
Sponsored Links
You might find that the external NTE has only been configured for one circuit as this is the normal for domestic installs.

http://www.sinet.bt.com/STIN470v1p0.pdf

They are a way to make OpenReaches work easier, they provide easy access to your phone line from outside the house for OpenReach technicians. They provide the same access for people other than OpenReach technicians

The builder will probably have used 3 pair by chance having had a reel of it for another job.

Contact BT and ask about having 3 circuits installed as the normal cable used to domestic properties is only 2 pair ( two circuits ).

Best to have BT supply three internal NTE 5 ( one per circuit ) to give you the ability to have the circuit with your ADSL filtered at the NTE 5 to separate internal phone and ADSL wiring for best ADSL signals to the modem.
 
You may have a problem if the ug cable feeding the house is only two pair.On the rare occasion that a residential property has three lines and is fed ug and has a external nte fitted you can crimp the third line inside the external nte to the internal lead in and fit a nte5 inside the end users house .Not your problem if you order the line then openreach will sort it.
 
You may have a problem if the ug cable feeding the house is only two pair.On the rare occasion that a residential property has three lines and is fed ug and has a external nte fitted you can crimp the third line inside the external nte to the internal lead in and fit a nte5 inside the end users house .Not your problem if you order the line then openreach will sort it.


Thanks bernardgreen & simonpolly

The underground BT wiring cable that came up to my previous house of only 10 years old, had more than enough wire capacity for 4 separate lines to be installed into the house. They simply ran a cable around the outside of the house, brought the cable through the wall and terminated it with an internal NTE5 box - nice and simple. The 10 year old house was also internally wired with 3 pair – 6 wire core cable, so it looks like this is now standard in new houses. Why a new house would only be wired with 2 pair – 4 wire core cable is beyond me, unless the new External NTE boxes are now driving this choice?

I will be very annoyed if the new BT External NTE boxes are designed to only ever allow a home to have a maximum of 2 separate lines. How completely arrogant of BT to decide that I will only ever need a maximum of 2 lines…! If the BT engineer shows up and says “I cannot fit a 3rd line because you’ve got an external NTE box” or “I can run a 3rd line at an extreme £££ cost” will p**s me right off…!

simonpolly; do you have a wiring diagram that explains your suggestion?? I'm not sure what is running underground up to the Ext NTE - 2 pair or 3 pair?

Have ether of you or anyone else successfully had 3 separate lines installed from an Ext NTE box???
 
Sponsored Links
I cannot really answer this. Its just some input about BT
Just moved and they want £130.00 to put in a NTE5 and drop line.
Not forgetting having phones in all the properties I have rented or bought previously. And never misssing one payment.
They have now said if I take their broadband at a prefferincial rate they will install for free.
Bit of arm twisting there ( and there is one clown here who would say ha ha) But it is not the same context.
So I`ll still have to pay ~Orange for my not used broadband until the contract ends.
Was cheaper to carry on paying rather than the penalties for shortend closure. Still will be !
As it was before I moved.
Got to remember to ask for the free 2 months line rental now!
 
The ug lead in from the dp in the pavement to the end user is normally 2pr or 5pr like i said if you order the line it will be sorted,if there is a 2pr cable from the pavement to your house they will have to pull in a new 5pr cable,most modern houses when fed ug use ducting so this will not be a major problem.
P.S if two of the lines are not adsl broadband they could use a internal dacs to supply two pstn lines down one pair of wires.

P.P.S Im pretty sure there is no such thing as a external nte capable of supplying three lines,like i said they would just install the third nte internally.
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: THX
I will be very annoyed if the new BT External NTE boxes are designed to only ever allow a home to have a maximum of 2 separate lines. How completely arrogant of BT to decide that I will only ever need a maximum of 2 lines…! If the BT engineer shows up and says “I cannot fit a 3rd line because you’ve got an external NTE box” or “I can run a 3rd line at an extreme £££ cost” will p**s me right off…!

If they can't fit a third line into the NTE box they'll fit a second NTE box close by.

If they need to run a new drop wire from the pole that will normally be included in the standard fee.

But have you considered using VoIP for additional phones instead?
 
I will be very annoyed if the new BT External NTE boxes are designed to only ever allow a home to have a maximum of 2 separate lines. How completely arrogant of BT to decide that I will only ever need a maximum of 2 lines…! If the BT engineer shows up and says “I cannot fit a 3rd line because you’ve got an external NTE box” or “I can run a 3rd line at an extreme £££ cost” will p**s me right off…!

If they can't fit a third line into the NTE box they'll fit a second NTE box close by.

If they need to run a new drop wire from the pole that will normally be included in the standard fee.

But have you considered using VoIP for additional phones instead?


He is underground fed with a external nte,the third nte will be fitted internally
 
There is a way to check how many lines your existing cable can provide - simply open the external NTE box and count the number of wires attached to the black cable, and divide it by two.
 
There is a way to check how many lines your existing cable can provide - simply open the external NTE box and count the number of wires attached to the black cable, and divide it by two.
Oh, the obvious, apart from asking for what you want & letting Openreach do their job of course.
 
There is a way to check how many lines your existing cable can provide - simply open the external NTE box and count the number of wires attached to the black cable, and divide it by two.
Oh, the obvious, apart from asking for what you want & letting Openreach do their job of course.

What can be provided depends on what is available at the far end of the cable. There may be no spare pairs in the main cable to the street cabinet where the 3 pair ( 6 wire ) cable to your houses comes from.
 
There is a way to check how many lines your existing cable can provide - simply open the external NTE box and count the number of wires attached to the black cable, and divide it by two.

The black cable(ug lead in)is behind a plastic cover with a tamper proof screw,on the cover it says "property of openreach keep your medaling hands to yourself"or words to the effect :LOL: ,this will also only tell you the amount of pairs at that end it wont tell you that it then goes into a 10pr cable that is blocked(no spares) .
All this is not your problem order the line and openreach will make it happen
 
Simon

Do these external NTE enable 10 pair cable to be looped in and out of a series of NTEs each NTE taking service from one of the pairs. A simpler (?) way to supply 10 houses using just one cable from the street cabinet instead of ten individual cables.
 
Simon

Do these external NTE enable 10 pair cable to be looped in and out of a series of NTEs each NTE taking service from one of the pairs. A simpler (?) way to supply 10 houses using just one cable from the street cabinet instead of ten individual cables.

Its not something i have come across and am pretty sure the answer would be no, most new developments now just run the ducting and cable to the front of the houses from the distribution point in the pavement and fit the external nte next to the front door.i have worked on housing estates which for some reason of other have a block terminal on one of the houses and all the other houses are fed from that, this is usually when there is a problem with feeding the lines overhead e.g getting the minium clearance across a road
 
Thanks again everyone for your valued help.

My next challenge is to get an Openreach engineer visit with a lead time of less that 5 weeks...! 5 weeks! Why on earth can it take soooooo long to get an engineer line installation appointment? It used to always be a maximum of 2 weeks and even then most lines were installed in less then a week. What has gone so wrong?

Anyone know of anyway to shortcut this time? e.g existing customer, new house with no phone line, ....
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top