In reply to a post by MHC:

NO.

It is not your property to interfere with.

I moved/tidied up mine, figured it's in my house so why should I have to pay someone to enter my property and move something they badly installed in the first place.

Likewise, when I ditched Virgin I cut the cable entering my property.

Presumably you would also move/cut the gas pipes? The contract with BT covers this - whether it is in your house or not it is still their property.

Friendly BT engineer's advice to anyone tempted to cut their phone cable for repositioning or whatever: you wouldn't cut a live mains cable in one pass because the cutting blade would short-circuit the two or three conductors therein. Similarly your phone cable contains one or two pairs of wires which if short-circuited may damage the equipment in the exchange.

If you really must perform this illegal operation, strip back the outer casing and cut each wire one at a time. But my friend has seen more than one DIY disaster and strongly advises against it.

Perhaps you would like to experience a 400v shock when touching telecoms equipment where someone had wired up something incorrectly?

As others mention: every service provider has a demarcation point - gas, electrics, water, telecoms and you cannot interfere with anything before that point and potentially afterwards.

"Similarly your phone cable contains one or two pairs of wires which if short-circuited may damage the equipment in the exchange."

LOL no it will not.

Of course it won't, and you know it. It would be just as easy to create the a short circuit in your household wiring as that's essentially the same two wires (and a derived ring line) with the same nominal 48V DC on it. Also, short circuits happen all the time - the equipment is designed to deal with it.

The real reason why the OR cabling shouldn't be tampered with is nothing to do with that, but to define a "clean" demarcation point where the responsibility of the supplier ends and that of the consumer begins. If it was open season on OR cabling, then it could cause all sorts of costs and disputes over who was responsible for any faults in that area.

No I wouldn't touch a gas pipe or the incoming electricity supply. This is just a low voltage cable.

In reply to a post by TheEulerID:

The real reason why the OR cabling shouldn't be tampered with is nothing to do with that, but to define a "clean" demarcation poimake nt where the responsibility of the supplier ends and that of the consumer begins. If it was open season on OR cabling, then it could cause all sorts of costs and disputes over who was responsible for any faults in that area.

So if a house is star wired, where is the demarcation point?

I would argue that Ofcom should make BT provide a master socket with a detachable faceplate FOC.

No I wouldn't touch a gas pipe or the incoming electricity supply. This is just a low voltage cable.

So because you perceive the risk as reduced that makes it OK ?

So If I come round and unplug your freezer, that's OK ? There's little or no chance of me harming myself, a good chance I might not get caught, what harm could it do ?

Your logic is flawed.

I would argue that Ofcom should make BT provide a master socket with a detachable faceplate FOC.

I think the DVLC should make garages come and fit anti lock brakes on all cars without it FOC ...... ?????