Removing old telewest/bt sockets

[portuguesejohn]

Wanting to move my front door and replaster the whole area, there are these 2 old sockets for both telewest and bt that I would preferably like to remove.

These have been here since we bought the house and I can't remember if anything was ever connected to them. I seem recall us pulling old cables out and maybe one of them was connected to one of these boxes.

We don't use them at all, we have virgin that is connected from another area of the house and I have no plans to go back to any other provider (even if I did, I wouldn't want the cables running from my front door and into other rooms...)

What can I do about these buggers? Am I OK to obliterate these or do I need to get in contact with separate companies (openreach/bt/telewest) to "properly" sort it out? Probably at some big expense.

I wouldn't care too much, but it's 2 of them and it's just annoying since there is no use for them.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Are there still any wires connected - even inside? (Can't really tell from the picture)

 

[portuguesejohn]

Yes, there are cables connected to the boxes coming from the outside of the house - 1 for each of the boxes. No connections on the inside of the house anymore.

Missus just refreshed the memory: We had two rooms with a BT box that we pulled out before we replastered, these are the old master sockets I suppose.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Might you, or a later owner want to use BT?

 

[portuguesejohn]

Might you, or a later owner want to use BT?

If I do want to use BT, I wouldn't want it connected from my front door. I would preferably have the master socket coming from the living room. Last thing I want is cables running all the way to my living room, where I have setup CAT6 to feed the rest of the house.

But ideally, I would stick with Virgin anyway.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Follow those wires outside. Do they go to a junction box outside?

 

[portuguesejohn]

Follow those wires outside. Do they go to a junction box outside?

As far as I can tell, they do feed into a pole down my street.

 

[portuguesejohn]

Follow those wires outside. Do they go to a junction box outside?

Actually, after further inspection, the BT one connects to the pole (suppose this is the phone line?) and the telewest one connect to another box that belongs to my property - the box that feeds broadband/tv into my living room (the one we use for internet now).

 

[securespark]

So that one will still be "live", probably.

 

[portuguesejohn]

Considering I would never want those master sockets there, even if it means paying Openreach/Virgin to move them somewhere else in the unlikely event I want to change providers, is there an issue with just burying these cables behind the plaster? Any precautions to take in consideration with these wires?

I'm trying to avoid having to call these people out for an expense I might never benefit from.

 

[portuguesejohn]

So it looks like Openreach want £126.72 to move the master socket.
Virgin wants £99 to get rid of the phone socket.

 

[bernardgreen]

A "dead" BT line ( dead in the sense that there is no dial tone ) may still have 50 volts DC on the pair. Not a common thing but has been known when houses change owners.