Can anybody help me please ...

I currently have a telewest phone line and I want a BT phone line.

The dilema i have is that it looks like there was once a BT phone line however it stops just inside my front door with a very old looking box with a single screw in the middle. One very old wire goes in and no wires come out ? The telewest phone wire runs right next to this box and then goes under the floor and around the house.

My question is can i cut the telewest wire and connect it to the small BT box so that a) it will go around the house and b) not have to call BT to reconnect for £129 and c) get re-connected for free.

Can i do this ? will it work any help greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
Jas

Welcome to the DS foums smeg8.

Phone 0808 100 5152 and ask BT whether they will reconnect free of charge. They'll check their records about whether/when your place previously had a BT line and tell you whether you'll have to pay or not.

They'll probably be able to tell that there's no (new style) BT master socket installed but that does not necessarilly mean the installation will cost the £124.99 'new installation' amount.
Last edited by Heinz : 09-08-2006 at 10:56

Thanks Heinz for the reply and the welcome. I have been viewing the forum with interest.

I will give them a call and see what they say. I would like the engineer to re-use the telewest cable as i dont want the cables running around the skirting boards. Do you think this is possible ?

many thanks
Jas

A BT line installation (the free reconnection or £124.99 'new installation' versions) involves getting the line working at a single master socket ONLY.

Anything else is 'at cost' and, last I heard (some time ago), they charged £50 for a single extension socket.

You may wish to consider alternatives to wired extension sockets (e.g. multi-handset DECT phones don't need any extra wiring).

In answer to the question. The old BT point and the TW wiring are not your property(TW might want theirs back, although unlikely) thus you should not interfere with either. BT will install a new socket wherever you want it (usually) sited.
There may be a small charge but as there is already a line present then they may waive any charges. But they will charge for extension points.

But there is always ways round things.

If you have extension sockets coming from the TW master socket, you can always wire them from the new installed BT master socket.

The old socket you describe with a screw in the middle sounds like an old BT/POTelecomms point.
These are incompatible with the newer style Master sockets, so I wouldn't recommend just connecting the wiring.
(The differences are the old wiring had the main telephone and any extensions in parralell, whilst the ring went in series (one uses DC and the other AC current) with a capacitor in just the main phone. The Master sockets has a capacitor in the socket rather than phone, and limits how many phones you can connect, hence the REN number)

As well as that, even if you connect the wiring correctly, it still won't work as BT have to do a connection within the telephone exchange as well.

My suggestion would be to get BT to replace the old point with a master socket. (They used to do this free of charge being it was their equipment they were amending, but that was many moons ago...).

I had my Telewest landline transfered back to BT in June 2005. As it had been a BT line previously I was able to ask BT to transfer the number from Telewest and do all the wiring without any cost to me. The transfer took about a week I think.

The BT engineer was very agreeable to my request to rewire all the extensions I had previously had (Telewest and DIY) to the BT line. I also asked him for a specially good line to the BT exchange so that when i can afford the ADSL2+ up to 24MBps UKOnline connection I would get the best speed. I doubt if there was any selection but I have excellent line statistics that should give me 16-18MBps when I can justify the cost.

Thanks everybody for your replies. Looks like i need to get BT round. BT said that an engineer would come and have a look and quote me the cost. Then a second engineer would do the install. However the lady on teh phone seemed to think its going to be £124.99

Im going to phone again and see if they say the same again ....

Many thanks
Jas

Okay phoned again and the BT engineer will quote me and if im happy with the quote he will immediately do the work.

If he tells me it is going to be £124.99 I will probably tell him to **** off. Wonder if the BT engineer will take £50 cash wink wink .....

Anybody here know how to do it ? Im in Wimbledon ? Cash waiting

How do you propose breaking into the BT exchange to do what's necessary at that end?

Try tea, biscuits and being very pleasant. You never know, he may find it's not a 'new installation' after all.

There is no need for a survey to be done and then another engineer to do the work.

One engineer will come out and it depends on how he chooses to interpret the information if he raises the charge or not.

If the wiring 'is intact' which it doesn't seem to be as I don't think you have mentioned there being a BT phone socket in the property then the engineer will have the option of telling you that the quoted fee is correct.

In most cases though I would suspect the engineer will send back a wiring in existance report and the fee can be removed and the term reduced to 3 months from 12 for a new line.

If you are doing a number port tell the BT advisor you want the extensions swapped across as well. The engineer will do this free of charge if the existing extension wiring is long enough.

Any additional extensions are £45.83 inc VAT, no visit charge is raised if done at the same time as the engineer connects the main socket.