Line switch / wiring question

Currently have a BT line but getting Virgin installed next month. The extensions and alarm system are wired into the back of the BT master socket. When we switch to Virgin I guess the default would be for the engineer to move the extensions and alarm to the new virgin phone socket? If we then switch back to BT then we'd presumably have to get someone out to undo this, surely there's a limited number of times you can do this before you've cut the wires so many times there's none left?

One better would be for the Virgin line to go to the existing BT 66b, connect their line to the current BT master and install a new virgin socket to which the BT line would be connected, that way if we switch in future it's just swapping the pairs over in the external box.

Even better would be to have a switch in the BT 66B so I can switch which line goes to the BT Master socket literally at the flick of a switch. The closest I could see to this was a BT Switch 2A, but can't find a modern version of this?

Given this must be a fairly common thing for people to have when switching between providers, I'm surprised I couldn't find a decent solution to the problem. Any suggestions? Or is wiring up my own DPDT switch in the BT 66B the best option? Any issues (other than messing with BT wiring not being allowed) with going down this route?

Any advice / suggestions appreciated

Edited by deleted (Sat 27-Aug-16 21:24:03)

You have missed the salient point. The 66 is Openreach's network, as is the wiring beyond up to the NTE.

Also if you went ahead with your ill considered plan, any switch would have to be robust and weather proof.

I have, rather too often, been to installs where Virgin have run a cable from their feed to the 66 leaving the Openreach line dis. If it had been left connected and a separate feed run in as is correct then the services could be run/switched between/run at the same time with no external switching at all.

Your issue with the extension wire becoming too short is easily fixed by extending the wires as and when.

Thanks for the reply,

I'm not sure i'd describe my plan as ill considered, it seems more in-considered for two suppliers to not consider the fact that people are likely to want to switch between them.

Presumably on the installs where Virgin have disconnected the openreach line it's been chargeable to the customer to reconnect?

But even if the Virgin line had been installed to a separate socket, the average user is still going to need a £130ish call out to move the extensions etc back over to the BT socket when switching back. So either way the customers end up paying a lot more than would be necessary to switch provider than they would do if a bit of common sense was used.

Am I missing something? Wouldn't an internal switch (like a modern BT 2A) make it easier and cheaper for people to switch providers, rather than need an engineer out each time?

The logical place to make the switch would be in the external box, rather than inside the property where it's more fiddly and more wires to change over each time

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Aug-16 21:39:38)

In reply to a post by mjl123:

The logical place to make the switch would be in the external box, rather than inside the property where it's more fiddly and more wires to change over each time

The logical place is where the customer owned wiring terminates rather than where it's easiest to hack into competing provider's networks.

And that is a matter for Ofcom to consider in its new unified migration system

We own the wire coming out of the house into the external box. The electricians put it in when the house was built before we had any arrangements with BT or any other provider. While it's nice openreach will take responsibility for looking after it, it's not theirs.

I suspect you don't own the cable. I think it's more likely that the cable was installed by the developers to an Openreach (or, before them, BT) specification on the understanding that it would be adopted by BT on connection.

In your first post you claim to have a 'BT master socket' how can this be if , according to you, you own all the incoming cable ?

New build house 3 years ago, BT just attached the master socket to the existing wiring the electricians had put it when they built the house.

I don't remember anything in the contract stating the developer retained ownership of the wiring until such time that we took out a BT service, but I guess it's possible it was in there. Would seem odd tho, certainly nothing to indicate it was property of BT