Why would a cat5 cable be in my BT wiring?

Hi,
I've just bought a house that I haven't exchanged contracts on. It is a new build and outside is the telephone socket wiring ready to go through the wall into the house once BT install it.

There are the normal copper cables, but also a standard CAT 5 cable, seperate to the copper wire, but in the same bunch. Are they preparing for the future so they don't have to re-dig up the drive or is it something else?

I can't search for FTTC as my exchange doesn't switch until June and I don't appear to be on the BT Openreach FTTC list.

Exchange: HAMPTON

Edit: Photo - http://imgur.com/a/p8jC5

Edited by mediaguy (Tue 01-May-12 19:33:49)

Openreach is not deploying CAT5. You sure its that, and not a 4 pair telephone cable?
If its a new build, builder may have simply added it thinking it was a good idea.

A photo may help someone ID the cable in question.

Sure, here are two pictures. The cat5 cable is clearly labelled as such and looks like like the ones in our office

http://imgur.com/a/p8jC5

The black cable is the Openreach underground feed cable to your property, it is not cat5.

The grey cable was provided by your building company, it may be cat5.

Thanks for the replies. The builder's reply is below, I'm not sure if it raises more questions than it answers.

Why is there a cat 5 cable protruding at the front of the house?
This wiring is for the future BT connection.

It probably proves the builder doesn't know what a CAT5 cable is!

I suppose the CAT5 terminates in the BT junction box underground somewhere, so when BT find it they can have a laugh .

And of course the big question is, where does the Cat5e cable go to or come from?

I suspect the Cat5 cable feeds the sockets in the house, this would tie in with what the builder has said, CAT5 cable is often used for telephone wiring, and it can also feed the broadband around the house on a different pair to the phone.

I would remove that cover and see if it goes into the house, and if you have access into the house perhaps remove a phone socket and take a look

I would remove that cover and see if it goes into the house

It doesn't, it goes into the ground

The white cable sure is four pair Cat 5E

Who knows what that's for... Magic?

The black cable is stancard CW1308 multi pair cable, used by OR in multi line installations.

Whilst it's not neccessary to have that many pairs for one phone line it adds redundancy in case you want more than one line or needs a pair swap in future. Usually OR would only use this cable for the feed from a DP underground to a DP in a block of flats. Still perfectly fine for use with one line.

So all in, pretty standard fare.

FWIW I have CAT5 running between the DP down in the basement and my NTE5 in my hallway, they just used bog standard solid core UTP cat 5, but hey, it works fine for me, manages a 80 meg sync rate so whatever...

EDIT: Congrats on your house purchase!

EDIT2: Waaaaaaaaaaait. Here's a guess:

The black cable feeds from an underground openreach DP

The white cable feeds from inside the property to the builder installed extension sockets

Chances are Openreach would run those two cables to the inside of the property right there and put an NTE5 in with the black cable connected to the A&B points on the rear and the CAT 5 to the 2, 3, 5 points on the faceplate.

Anyone agree? Or perhaps an XTE outside?

Edited by izools (Wed 02-May-12 18:38:42)