Telephone junction box

[Jimbo]

Hi,

The telephone system in my house has at some point been upgraded to use a modern master socket. The new socket is located some distance away from where the original gubbins used to be, and the phone cable has been extended to reach the new socket using a rather ugly connector block that sort of dangles in mid-air. Nice.

I want to replace the ugly connector with something a bit nicer, that I can fix to the wall and generally tidy things up. My question is: am I safe to handle the wire that comes in through the wall, or do I risk shorting out the telecomms of the whole road or causing some other catastrophe? What precautions (if any) do I need to take?

Thanks

Jim

 

[Adam_151]

Don't touch anything before the master telephone socket, if it is new, as you say it is, you can unscrew the front, this unplugs from the rear part, you can thread a cable into the box, and connect it to the back of this front plate, then plug the front plate back in.

It is done like this, so the telephone service people can easily diconnect you extension sockets in case of a fault, to trace whether it is on their side or not

 

[ryanj]

Yep, the master socket and anything before it, is the property of BT. Illegial to tamper with it.

 

[plugwash]

its a bit like pulling the service fuse

you aren't supposed to do it but lots of people do it anyway and you don't hear of people getting in trouble for doing it

also the fact you say this connector is dangling off the wall makes me strongly suspect that this wasn't a BT job in the first place

photos of this dodgy connection and your maser socket would be appriciated

in particuar does your master socket have a bt logo on?

 

[breezer]

its NOTHING like pulling the service fuse at all,
BT master sockets are designed as such (as mentioned) so the end user can remove the front cover connect their wiring onto it, also as mentioned if a fault you undo master remove front plate if fault goes its customers problem

 

[securespark]

I think he meant messing with GPO wiring prior to master/linebox was a bad idea, Breezer.

 

[plugwash]

from his description it sounds like it has already been messed with

 

[Jimbo]

The Master socket does have a BT logo.

I'm not too worried about the legality of it to be honest, unless there's a danger I'm likely to cause damage. I have no intention of trying to rig up the wiring to cheat BT (in fact I don't even know if such a thing is possible!) - I just want to tidy up the wiring and don't see why I should pay BT just to undo two screws and do up two different ones!

As I understand it, the phone system works on ~5 volts, so I can't see that I'm putting myself at risk. I just want to make sure I'm not going to somehow stop my or my neighbours' phones working!

I'll try and post some pictures tonight.

Thanks

Jim

 

[IanDB]

By the time the line gets to you it's an individual circuit so you won't take down your neighbourhood by shorting something out!!

Just make sure you take a note of where everything goes so when you tidy it up it all goes back in the same order. I've found that you can get problems if the insulation hasn't been cut through properly when you insert the cores into the conection block so check this area if you find you have a noisy line afterwards. Should be a doddle really.

I thought the voltage was greater than 5v but still well within the safe range (i.e. under 50v) but I don't know what the exact figure is.

 

[ryanj]

The voltage is about -48v, between the A and B terminals (orange pair). Supplied at around 150mA.

Shorting it will simply cut the line of for a few seconds, no harm done.

 

[trowelhead]

can you not move the nte5(bt owned) on the cable coming through your wall,terminate the incoming into it and then run a normal extension to where you actually want your socket.Dont worry about bt,they have absoluteley no idea who has fitted the sockets and i have never heard anyone getting in 'trouble' for tampering with them.Unless you make a complete pigs ear of it bt will never know(and the engineer probably couldnt give a fig either!) and you can only bugger up your own line ,it has no effect on anyone elses line.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You can use any junction box you like to join the cables, it isn't dangerous, and you can't affect anybody elses phones. You might as well use a small phone JB though.

And as for BT knowing or caring - when they came to do my broadband, they found their incoming cable cut and extended with choc-block and 1mm² flex. The guy didn't bat an eyelid.

 

[raychem]

When ever anybody moves to a new property they should check the telephone installation and report anything not fixed or dangling ,as in jimbo's case,to BT.Nowdays the engineer is supposed to visit the new customer when the line is taken over,but this does'nt always happen.I would not recommend tampering with any wiring on Bt's side of the NTE5.It might look simple enough but I have been to faults where it is obvious the wires have been tampered with ie. reconnecting wires by pushing them into the IDC with a screwdriver which usually splits the terminal rendering it useless.Also engineers a few years ago devised their own short cuts with regards to wiring ext sockets and bells ect.Many homes will still have these set ups and once somebody starts pulling wires out without noting where they go they end up calling BT out to repair the phone and the engineer is forced to charge the customer for the time it takes to do the repair.This does not come cheap.

 

[securespark]

Around 120 sovs.

 

[Damocles]

Ah, that would explain why I found such a crazy set of extension wiring. Bt must have done it.