Rerouting internal telephone cable

[tony55]

Hi

I need to reroute the internal telephone cable to hide it behind a bath panel. This involves disconnecting the wires inside the BT supplied NTE5 master socket. This appears straightforward except for one thing..... the 2 wires are live and there is no obvious way of isloating them (i.e. 'turning off the power'). Can I simply disconnect each wire, protect the bare ends with insulation tape and then reconnect after rerouting....or am I in danger of damaging the system and suffering dire consequenses from BT ( the latter want to charge £150 + vat for the work!).

Thanks

Tony S

 

[saxondale]

Don`t worry about it

 

[tomy]

You dont need to isolate them the voltage is 50v but will only give you a tingle , nothing dangerous and even if you let them touch it will not do any damage to phones , sockets or the phone line itself .

 

[Space cat]

By "two wires" do you mean the ones that come to the socket from outside? Strictly speaking those are BT property and you're not supposed to touch them. Listen carefully because I'm not going to say this even once --

Stuff BT!

As Tomy has said, there are only 50 volts on an idle phone line but it goes up higher - I think to 100 volts - when somebody rings you. Either way the current is limited so a short circuit won't do any damage. The old pulse dial phones worked by putting shorts onto the line. With a bit of practice you could dial a number this way!

The only way you will do any damage is by putting your own voltage onto the line, eg by accidentally connecting it across the mains supply. You're not that stupid. Take the wires out one at a time and insulate the ends. Reroute the cable then put the wires back in. Job done.

PS: The open circuit end will look like a phone on the hook so if anybody tries to ring you while you're working they'll think you're out.

 

[tomy]

leaving the wires open circuit will not look like a phone off the hook it will let anyone trying to call you hear a ringing tone but obviously your phone wont ring as it isnt connected , to give an engaged tone to a caller loop the wires together shorting the line out this gives the impression of a phone off the hook .

 

[bernardgreen]

, to give an engaged tone to a caller loop the wires together shorting the line out this gives the impression of a phone off the hook .

This will work that way for a short time but may create a problem if the short persist for a long period.

A modern exchange can tell the difference between OFF hook and shorted pair. A shorted pair may be "parked" as a faulty line (parked = disconnected until manually or automatically tested and found to be back in good conditon )

 

[tomy]

normal pstn phone lines dont get "parked " in the ex , an isdn might but normal pstn or dsl lines dont