In 1990 BT installed a Norstar phone system into our office building and used a Krone IDC box to join the incoming cables from the local cabinet to the cables running to the wall outlets. I believe that this box is called a distribution point (DP).
In 2001 we had the phone system replaced and Cat5e flood cabled throghout the buliding to RJ45 sockets where we needed to provide data or phone connections. The old telephone cables were ripped out and the recessed wall outlets filled in and painted over. But the IDC box, located on a wall in the staff kitchen remained.
Earlier this year, we ordered a fibre broadband provision to this building from TalkTalk, in order to provide a fast internet connection for WiFi. Openreach turned up unannounced and proceeded to put a new (non-DSL) wall socket next to the Krone IDC box. I asked the engineer to move the new box to a more convenient location but he told me that if it was more than 2m from the DP then we would be charged £150. So I let him continue.
A week later I had an email from TalkTalk telling me that the fibre I ordered was not available to this address, so I would be supplied with standard ADSL instead! I told them that this was not acceptable and that they should cancel the contract. This they did, and the wall outlet went dead with no charge to us.
Fast forward six months and I found that Vodafone could supply this address with fibre broadband so I ordered it. (I checked with TalkTalk and they still cannot - weird). On the due date, I expected an engineer to attend and was going to push more strongly for the wall outlet to be moved, but instead Vodafone advised me that Openreach had installed the line and activated fibre broadband "without needing to send an engineer". So the damn wall socket was just reconnected.
Testing after the line went active showed that we had fibre broadband working but our management decreed that the wall outlet could not be used where it is. It is in a staff kitchen, many metres from the position we wanted to site the Wifi-enabled broadband router. Running a cable to the router location will be a major pain due to the construction of the building. So I cancelled the Vodafone broadband and waited and now the line is dead once more.
Openreach have a redundant DP in our building, with the number 679 stuck to it in large numerals and inscribed "Property of British Telecom". It terminates three multi-pair cables, all unused. I have already disconnected and binned the BT wall outlet connected to the DP. The next fibre broadband I order for this building will definitely require an engineer to attend. What I would also like to do is remove the DP itself, shove the incoming cables back into the cavity wall, fair and paint the wall it is screwed onto and forget it.
To get broadband into this building needs just one pair to run from the local cabinet. I want Openreach to do this without using the DP; if it is disconnected and the cables buried they will have to run their incoming fibre broadband provision via a different route and do it to suit us, not themselves.
My question is: Can I do this? Do BT/OpenReach have any legal control over what I do with their now-unused DP?
In 2001 we had the phone system replaced and Cat5e flood cabled throghout the buliding to RJ45 sockets where we needed to provide data or phone connections. The old telephone cables were ripped out and the recessed wall outlets filled in and painted over. But the IDC box, located on a wall in the staff kitchen remained.
Earlier this year, we ordered a fibre broadband provision to this building from TalkTalk, in order to provide a fast internet connection for WiFi. Openreach turned up unannounced and proceeded to put a new (non-DSL) wall socket next to the Krone IDC box. I asked the engineer to move the new box to a more convenient location but he told me that if it was more than 2m from the DP then we would be charged £150. So I let him continue.
A week later I had an email from TalkTalk telling me that the fibre I ordered was not available to this address, so I would be supplied with standard ADSL instead! I told them that this was not acceptable and that they should cancel the contract. This they did, and the wall outlet went dead with no charge to us.
Fast forward six months and I found that Vodafone could supply this address with fibre broadband so I ordered it. (I checked with TalkTalk and they still cannot - weird). On the due date, I expected an engineer to attend and was going to push more strongly for the wall outlet to be moved, but instead Vodafone advised me that Openreach had installed the line and activated fibre broadband "without needing to send an engineer". So the damn wall socket was just reconnected.
Testing after the line went active showed that we had fibre broadband working but our management decreed that the wall outlet could not be used where it is. It is in a staff kitchen, many metres from the position we wanted to site the Wifi-enabled broadband router. Running a cable to the router location will be a major pain due to the construction of the building. So I cancelled the Vodafone broadband and waited and now the line is dead once more.
Openreach have a redundant DP in our building, with the number 679 stuck to it in large numerals and inscribed "Property of British Telecom". It terminates three multi-pair cables, all unused. I have already disconnected and binned the BT wall outlet connected to the DP. The next fibre broadband I order for this building will definitely require an engineer to attend. What I would also like to do is remove the DP itself, shove the incoming cables back into the cavity wall, fair and paint the wall it is screwed onto and forget it.
To get broadband into this building needs just one pair to run from the local cabinet. I want Openreach to do this without using the DP; if it is disconnected and the cables buried they will have to run their incoming fibre broadband provision via a different route and do it to suit us, not themselves.
My question is: Can I do this? Do BT/OpenReach have any legal control over what I do with their now-unused DP?