What to do with BT connection?

[Weebles]

To anyone who has done a demolition and rebuild, and lived on site, what did you do with your BT phone / broadband supply?

 

can we just strip the BT box off the exterior wall of existing house, recover the internal cabling and somehow connect to a static van temporarily?

or is it going to be more complicated than that?

[Nickfromwales]

That's exactly what I would do TBH. If you get them involved it'll be time, and possibly expense. Oh, and more time. 

Any decent sparky can pull this kit and reinstate it. We can talk you through it if you wish . 

Some pics of the installed line etc at boundary to house may help. Drop wire ( overhead ) or underground at mo?

[Barney12]

+1 to what Nick said. Only involve Openreach if you have infinitive amounts of time and money!

 

I wouldn't get too hung up about saving the internal wiring, unless it's incredibly easy to access and unclip. A length of telephone cable is pence in comparison to mucking about trying to fish out cable. Do save the BT master socket though if you've got one of the modern two part ones but again not the end of the world as they can be easily sourced.

 

If you're going down the DIY route then it's not a bad idea to pop off the covers of the external and internal boxes and take a quick photo of the wiring so reconnecting in the van is easier. Its amazing how quickly you can forget if it was the orange or blue (or other) pair that that the BT line came in on! A quick couple of photos will save trial and error! 

 

If if you don't have one you'll certainly need a punch down tool. Something like:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-punch-Down-Tool-Network-Adjustable-Impact-LSA-Plus-for-KRONE-and-strips-/131936902808?hash=item1eb80d5e98:g:MiYAAOSwFe5X1rdn

 

[dpmiller]

just remember it's live with 50v dc and that they get grumpy if you pop the fuse in the exchange, and you're golden.

[ProDave]

You won't pop a fuse and 50V will only give you a tingle if you have wet hands.  Just make sure you photograph or otherwise note how it connects and in particular what pair of the incoming cable is the live one (it's usually at least 3 pair cable)

[jack]

You could do what we did and come home to find that your demolition contractor has just cut it with shears and left it dangling at the bottom of the telegraph pole across the road (something we only noticed about a week after the demolition!)

 

We tidied it up and left it in the end, then just got BT to reconnect it (via Openreach) as a new line.  Surprisingly all was fine.

[Nickfromwales]

3 hours ago, dpmiller said:

just remember it's live with 50v dc and that they get grumpy if you pop the fuse in the exchange, and you're golden.

Only when it's ringing . 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, jack said:

You could do what we did and come home to find that your demolition contractor has just cut it with shears and left it dangling at the bottom of the telegraph pole across the road (something we only noticed about a week after the demolition!)

 

We tidied it up and left it in the end, then just got BT to reconnect it (via Openreach) as a new line.  Surprisingly all was fine.

Only ok if you don't want a connection on site . 

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, jack said:

You could do what we did and come home to find that your demolition contractor has just cut it with shears and left it dangling at the bottom of the telegraph pole across the road (something we only noticed about a week after the demolition!)

 

We tidied it up and left it in the end, then just got BT to reconnect it (via Openreach) as a new line.  Surprisingly all was fine.

Report it as a fauilt "somebody has driven a tall vehicle down the lane and snapped my line"

[jack]

15 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Only ok if you don't want a connection on site . 

 

"You could do what what we did" was meant to be a joke. Defo wouldn't recommend it as a general approach, but we weren't given any option by the demolition guys!

[Triassic]

I removed our BT cable from the demolition property and rerouted it to our temporary accommodation.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, jack said:

 

"You could do what what we did" was meant to be a joke. Defo wouldn't recommend it as a general approach, but we weren't given any option by the demolition guys!

Yea yea.......

BT have issued a mugshot of the suspect. 

 

[PeterW]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

Report it as a fauilt "somebody has driven a tall vehicle down the lane and snapped my line"

 

Unlike my JCB driver who managed to "find" the cables to the gate sensors last week when he was doing the trenches - and lock himself in !!!!

[Barney12]

7 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Only when it's ringing . 

 

Exactly. As @ProDave says it's just a tingle. People pay good money at LoveyHoney.co.uk (other providers are available) for such stimulation  

[Weebles]

Here's a photo of the set up. Grey BT box on wall of existing house. Grey cable goes off underground and off the property (boundary is only 1.5m or so from the house here, to the left). So we could dig back to the boundary. The problem is that the caravan will be at least 20m from this bit of cabling.  We can't put this external box on the static van as it won't reach.  Does it need to be mounted or can it just be left on the ground (in some makeshift housing).  Or should we splice extra cable before the grey box to enable it to reach the van?  The BT open reach internal box is in the house about 20m from the point of entry of the black cable (that comes out of the grey exterior box). Please could someone walk me through what to connect to what? I assume we need to keep the internal BT open reach box?  Many thanks.

[Barney12]

What I would do is:

 

Remove the lid of the grey box and note the connections (take a photo).

Disconnect the black wire that goes into your house. It may simply be spliced to the supply cable with jelly crimps. If it is cut the black cable to the house not the supply cable. Leave the jelly crimps behind for now. There's likely to be a number of pairs of cables but only two connected to your black cable (unless you have more than one line).

Disconnect the internal box and save it for the van. Again note or photograph the connections,

Do not splice or interfear with the BT supply cable. Just dig it back and remount the grey box on your boundary fence or a 4" fence post if you've got no boundary fence.

Get your self some external phone cable or external CAT5 cable. If you've not got a fence to tack it to then you'll either need to put it in a conduit or get an armoured cable and bury it so it doesn't get damaged. You could also put it overhead but I'll guarantee someone will pull it down at some point! 

Connect the new cable to the grey external box and take it to the van and connect up the internal box you saved. Ideally grab a few jelly crimps from eBay or just charm a couple out of a passing BT man . The wires simply slide in to the crimp housing and your squeeze the connector to make a connection.

 

Post some photos with the boxes removed if you want some more help.

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Barney12

[Barney12]

Here's a useful listing showing a 66B box and some jelly crimps. 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BT-66B-Grey-External-Joint-Junction-Box-Complete-with-10-x-8A-1-Jelly-Crimps-/201427346858?_trksid=p2385738.m2548.l4275

[Barney12]

External cable:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25M-OF-GENUINE-BLACK-BT-TELEPHONE-CABLE-CW1308-2-PAIR-4-CORE-FOR-EXTERNAL-USE-/262243761019?hash=item3d0ef23b7b:g:GzwAAOSw2gxY1BGp

[Barney12]

How to use jelly crimps:

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

Once it's all connected and you pick the phone up for the first time, you'll hopefully have your dial tone back. Then dial 17070. That's the ring-back test facility . Select option 1 and hang up, then it'll immediately ring you back to confirm your line is properly ringing etc and then just hang up again as instructed  

[Bitpipe]

+1 on all of this. We did it the official way and it was a major PITA. Had to register as a house move to the site office  - BT were hopeless, OR were fine when they finally came to site. Did this for two lines one business (voice & DSL) and one domestic voice. Was charged £120 I recall.

 

I spliced some left over drop wire to create another run to the caravan at the back for a voice circuit - worked fine.

 

For the reverse I just requested a new line to the house and had the old one disconnected - that was free

 

 

[Weebles]

Brilliant guys - thanks.  Not about to do this just yet but wanted to set my mind at ease that it was going to be OK to do ourselves.  Will be sending photos when get this bit started. Now got to buy a caravan, think about SAP calcs, sort out finance.....  There is alot to do isn't there?  As my boss says "eat the elephant bit by bit" (bit weird but feels appropriate).