BT16A Junction Box

Can someone give me a potted history of how on earth BT ended up using such an awful design junction box ?

I recently moved house, and I noticed the front of the junction box had fallen off. As part of a refurb (I took the whole roof off and put on a new one) I took the drop wire down, and put it back up again, and replaced the BT16A with a new one obtained on ebay.

Last week I noticed the same had happened to my mother's BT16A. I replaced it this morning.

In both cases the plastic hinge had decayed, presumably through UV exposure, and then it's only a matter of time for the lid to fall off.

Googling the matter, there also appears to be some poor soul who noticed theirs had suffered a similar fate, and Openreach charged them 144 quid to replace it ! Eh, isn't it upstream of the master socket, and therefore no concern of the end user ?

Anyway, GPO/BT plant is usually well designed, and bomb proof, so what went wrong with this item ?

Edited by broadbandjockey (Sun 08-Mar-20 17:29:57)

They were rolled out without testing the plastics ability to withstand UV.

They haven�t been in use as new for many (10+) years ...

Not really surprising yours from eBay was pants, its archaic.

An under eaves closure or a BT66 are what is used these days.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

They were rolled out without testing the plastics ability to withstand UV.

They haven�t been in use as new for many (10+) years ...

Not really surprising yours from eBay was pants, its archaic.

An under eaves closure or a BT66 are what is used these days.

It's a shame they don't make a white BT66, or a smaller version of it. I toyed with replacing mine with a 66, but it would have been a shade too obtrusive on my facia. Perhaps when the lid falls off again, there'll be something smaller and more suitable. The ebay boxes I bought had the 1980s BT 'T' logo

The �preferred� method is a closure cable tied to the dropwire clamp.

Sorry to say, the best place for a BT16A is a museum.

Can you "see" a BT66 when testing with a reflectometer from the Master Socket? If so, is there any impact on VDSL compared to an unjointed dropwire?

Cheers!

No, the BT66 is just a housing for the joint(s) inside ....

If the crimps are good, and there�s no change in conductor type size, then a TDR shouldn�t see the connection. To that end, there should be no impact.

(yes, I�d prefer a dropwire to be straight from DP to NTE, but that is an ideal, rose tinted view)

Many thanks Zarjaz.

Cheers!

Zarjaz - do you know which junction box this is as it doesn't seem to be a 16 or 66?

How do I upload a pic?!

https://imgur.com/a/I8LFkuK

Looks like a joint rather than a junction box/block terminal

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Looks like a joint rather than a junction box/block terminal

If you look closely above the joint you can see some cable clips so I suspect it was done as a make do job, it also looks like there could be two cables coming from the left end although my eyes could be playing me up

Line comes straight from the telegraph pole into the black 'box' and out the other side is the white cable that goes straight to my master socket.

Ignore what those two previous posters said ... that is a purpose made under eaves �sausage� closure ... it is even (correctly) mounted horizontally to further stop the wet getting in.

Those have now been superseded, but only by a similar product from a different supplier..... that looks fine and dandy to me.

Thanks for your input everyone. Thanks zarjaz for confirming it's a proper job.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Ignore what those two previous posters said

I stand corrected and always willing to learn from the master

Is this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KAUDEN-IP54-Rated-Above-G...
the old type or the new type?

From the picture there does not seem to be much of a seal for the cables, whereas I have seen one where there were soft rubber seals.

IP54 does not seem sufficient to me (waves over the bow, howling gale force wind etc, been there done that) for UK weather when it gets severe.

Cheers!

Those are still current, and an improvement on the previous �sausage� model ... they actually DO keep the contents pretty dry.

The very latest version looks similar, but has the addition of the void in the middle being full of a very soft gel, so it�s all watertight. (well as watertight as possible. I used to do short steel piling, coffer dams and such, water will always find a way, eventually)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Those are still current, and an improvement on the previous �sausage� model ... they actually ......, water will always find a way, eventually)

A bit like when I was on the P&O Nedlloyd Rotterdam http://www.seapixonline.com/nsphoto.php?pid=666&hit=... when she was less than 3 years old and there was water trickling through a crack in the hull beneath the waterline into the engine room.....

Cheers!

Not much room for a game of deck quoits on that is there ?