Changing old style telephone cabling and sockets

[MattLaw]

Hiya,

My girlfriends mother has just moved into a bungalow that's a bit stuck in the past.

It still has the old style telephones (the pulse dialling ones with the dial ) and all the older style cabling. There are no sockets for the phones, just some sort of connection box that has the main lead coming from outside the house and into the telephone via a box.

She wants to get it all changed so that she has proper sockets etc to use a new phone and get her broadband working.

As the cabling is totally different (it's a thin round cable instead of the flat cable that's normally used), I take it the whole house will have to be re-wired with new cabling from the main junction box?

Is this a job for BT or can any other company do it?

Cheers
Matt

 

[johnny_t]

You'll need BT for the new Master Socket. Beyond that and you are best off doing it yourself.

Sell the old phones on eBay.

 

[MattLaw]

So BT would just cable to the house?

Do they fetch good money then?

 

[johnny_t]

BT will cable around the house as well if you want, you can just save money by doing it yourself.

When eBaying, stick Retro in the Item Description and they'll be eating out of your hand. If you've got the time, jolly the phone up a bit and put a new lead and plug on for the best price.

 

[MattLaw]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks

I will contact BT now, thank you.

 

[Albert]

You'll need BT for the new Master Socket. Beyond that and you are best off doing it yourself.
Sell the old phones on eBay.

Yep, ask BT to do the first/master socket, it is a bit different than the others. It is not hard or complicated, buy as many slave sockets you need, I just done this, 100m cable will cost you about £9. Check the cable colours and use them the same way for your sockets.
If you do it I would recommend to get a tool to insert the wire to the connection, you can find a plastic one which will cost a few £ or the BT one which will cost more. If you are lucky you might find sockets that the wire is not inserted by pressure but with screws so you will need only a small screwdriver
You can go to the BT site or search for telephone wiring colours and you will find all what you need to know.
Good luck

 

[MattLaw]

Thanks, if that's the case then I will probably end up fitting the rest of the sockets!

Do you have any idea how much it will cost for BT to fit the Master socket?

 

[Albert]

Thanks, if that's the case then I will probably end up fitting the rest of the sockets!
Do you have any idea how much it will cost for BT to fit the Master socket?

I think I paid £55, I am not sure but it can't be far from this price. In any case the calculation is simple; find how much will cost you to get the sockets, cable, tool etc. and ask BT how much will cost to add this number of sockets to the house.

 

[MattLaw]

Thanks very much, I'll get it sorted asap.

Matt