How to resolve issue between BT and alarm company

[MilindPuri]

Not sure what to do next on this one...

We moved into this house and the alarm was already installed. However, intermittently the phone line was very noisy and has gradually got worse. Some BT engineers came out a few months ago and it appeared fixed for a while. This week the problem got so bad we called BT. They said isolate all extensions etc to see if the line is still noisy - it was. So an engineer came round. He said the alarm circuitry was wired in on the wrong side of the BT master and disconnected - hey presto all the line noise went away. That left an alarm panel continually beeping as the phone line was disconnected from the alarm and me with a bill from BT for £55 plus VAT. Before he left I asked him to talk to the alarm company and explain why he disconnected. The conversation that followed was staggering:

BT "You wired up the alarm to the phone in an unapproved way. You have taken the BT line from the BT side of the master socket and wired it to the alarm and then from the alarm into the master socket."

Alarm company "but we have to do that to meet the alarm regulations. If we don't do it if a phone is off the hook in the house the alarm cannot call the monitoring center."

BT "You are not allowed to wire the alarm that way. I have disconnected it and the customer will have to pay the bill for my visit as it is not a BT fault. What happens after I leave is between you and the customer".

Bizarre or what - the alarm regs contradict what BT allows people to do?

 

[Deryck Tintagel]

I'll post a query on a secuity website for a definitive answer but I would have thought that a "line grabber" would be a solution. These will take over the BT line in the event of an alarm condition but you would probably need to move some telephone wiring about

 

[Adam_151]

Wireing direct into the master socket won't allow it to take control of the line when something else is using it, think the 'line grabber' mentioned above must be some kind of contactor that disconnects the phone from the line when the alarm needs to use it, which would be a solution to this issue.

Its normal to not mess with BT's side of the phone socket, and where you connect the extension won't make one iota of diference of availablity of lines.

I agree with the BT guy, BT don't allow you to mess with there side, its so that if there is a problem, on an old style socket you can just unplug, and with a new one, just take the lower front off, and everything that's not BT's responsibity is disconnected, makes fault finding quicker.

Ask your alarm company what the hell they are playing at

 

[plugwash]

yes line disconnect equipment would need to be before any phones but that does not mandate putting it before the master socket.

also it sounds like the fault has been located to the alarm panel considering it wen't away when bt disconnected the alarm.

 

[MilindPuri]

I managed to talk to an alarm company - they weren't the original installers. Apparently the line grabber is on the alarm circuit board. The guy muttered something about how the previous guy had made a real bodge job (not even telephone grade wire is used) and how some rewiring would have to be done considering the location of the master socket. Also thankfully the panel has stopped beeping after he told me the code to enter.

Probably something on the alarm PCB has gone so they are coming next week to fix. Not sure if I'll bother having the alarm connected to the phone though - its not monitored anyway - only advantage is to the alarm company who can dial in to investigate things (I hear the modem on the alarm runs at 300 baud so that must be fun for them!).

 

[plugwash]

300 baud would be just fine for a text based configuration interface.