Old BT Junction box problem

We move into a new flat and the main telephone socket comes from a really old little oval junction box. The junction box is loose on the windowsill with bear wires coming out of it and is easily reachable by our children. It'll last days if that in its current position/state.

Our provider says theres nothing wrong with the line so they won't get an engineer to replace/move it and OR won't do anything without the provider booking it.

Heres the box: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xKXfLIBgzT1uM1g42

I seem to have no options but to move it myself or get someone to do it as they've left me no choice.

Anyone?

Is provider willing to book Openreach if you accept the costs?

Nope. They won't do anything unless they find a fault on the line.

Just to be clear: is this junction box between the external wire coming in and your master socket? Or is it between the master socket and some internal extension wiring you have?

If it's internal - you are quite within your rights to go ahead and fix it anyway.

If it's external - I would be inclined just to fix it yourself. Or if not, then when your children pull it off the wall then there will be a fault you can report

You can get your SP to order a master socket move - but that will set you back £160 (I think).

If you have not yet ordered FTTC, and you have an old style master box, you *might* be able to get an engineer install to update the master box. I don't know if that still happens, or all FTTC is self-install these days.

FTTC is pretty much all self install, £99+VAT wholesale cost for managed install if you find a provider who does it.

Wow, name and shame your pants service provider ...

In reply to a post by candlerb:

If it's external - I would be inclined just to fix it yourself. Or if not, then when your children pull it off the wall then there will be a fault you can report

That could be a chargeable repair - even if before the master, damage that can be attributed can be billed. So junction box pulled off - chargeable; wire ripped out - chargeable; lose screw inside creating intermittent fault - not normally chargeable.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Wow, name and shame your pants service provider ...

Thing is though they can�t push it through as a damage report due to it being internal.

They could create a CDTA job, but Openreach would raise a TRC.

That is a really old socket isn't it? Isn't it these that used to be fitted when BT owned the equipment, before the days of the plug in socket? From what I remember, you are not permitted to do any work on these sockets (legally), only BT can fit a new master socket to the premises. I wouldn't have thought a provider would allow a fibre/ broadband order to progress with this type of equipment still in place.

"I wouldn't have thought a provider would allow a fibre/ broadband order to progress with this type of equipment still in place."

Why? Junctions to join internal to external wire have no real impact on the DSL side of things unless a screw or IDC is not made properly.

The cable behind the UPVC is probably external and the other seems to be heading off with the required pair to what is probably a master. High chance it was all ok until some windows were replaced.

Its before the master socket. I think when we moved in it was outside the window with just the wire coming in through a hole but then the landlord had the windows done and its been left loose on the window sill inside.

@discuss this is my problem. Neither my provider nor Openreach will do anything about it unless there is a fault on the line s I'm stuck with this really old kit in a really inconvenient place.

Provider should be able to raise this as a chargeable visit, they are your conduit to doing all these sorts of jobs.

Openreach will stone wall as they have no financial relationship with you.

As others have suggested some diy to tidy up will fix it, but you don't have much cable on the incoming run so don't cut that side at all

Post deleted by TheInstaller

It�s not a socket. That is an older style BT80 junction box, allowing for the change from exterior grade dropwire to interior grade cable.

Inside there are possibly screw terminals, but these may have been bypassed with crimps. There is nothing essentially wrong, but aesthetically the pairs are hanging out. As the OP said, not ideal with youngsters about.

.... and that�s as it should be.

But if the customer is happy to pay, why would the CP decline to raise a task ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

It�s not a socket. That is an older style BT80 junction box, allowing for the change from exterior grade dropwire to interior grade cable.

Inside there are possibly screw terminals, but these may have been bypassed with crimps. There is nothing essentially wrong, but aesthetically the pairs are hanging out. As the OP said, not ideal with youngsters about.

I remember those boxes with the bell phones directly connected via fork crimps, such a long time ago

Paul

There's always the Chernobyl solution - build a sarcophagus around it

Yep, but then it would have had a larger square opening at one end to house the gromit.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Yep, but then it would have had a larger square opening at one end to house the gromit.

Yeah, but those openings are snap offs (on the shell that is) and if you look at the OP image you can see the cut out.

If I recall they had GPO written around the screw and then later on was changed to BRITISH TELECOM.

Paul

And, for correctness, they are BT52As . . . which first appeared in the late 1950s, when the original type 706 telephone was introduced.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

.... and that�s as it should be.

But if the customer is happy to pay, why would the CP decline to raise a task ?

They wouldn�t. But I�m not sure the customer is happy to pay.

In reply to a post by burakkucat:

And, for correctness, they are BT52As . . . which first appeared in the late 1950s, when the original type 706 telephone was introduced.

I can only dream of the modernity and sleek lines of a BT52A. My line comes in through a BT20/4

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

I can only dream of the modernity and sleek lines of a BT52A. My line comes in through a BT20/4

Which just goes to show that the older infrastructure was built to last.

Yes, I can't complain as I get 80/20 FTTC through it - and previously leased lines without any issue.

When our house was being lived in by my parents-in-law, they had a Protector Box No.1.2/2
Although only about a mile from the local exchange, when I visited I was lucky to get 13kb/s from it. Whereas at home about 3 miles from the exchange I could get around 50kb/s. BT came out and with a new drop wire and NTE5 managed some improvement. Main problem being aluminium cable to the DP. Now with FTTC which is about 500 metres away, https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15214870493...

Looking back to pre-internet email etc, I used to use dial-up access to Cable & Wireless Link7500 either via the ship's satcom (so long as it was an analogue satcom, ie Std-A) or my trusty Ericsson GH388. But what always got me thinking of the interface between systems was the fact that for simple telephone calls from New Zealand to UK, how did they convert the rather strange pulse dialing of a NZ telephone to everyone else's standard? A NZ dial being back-to-front https://www.firstscene.co.nz/product/1624912 Must have been something to do with coriolis in the southern hemisphere

Cheers!