Telephone line/socket install cost

VAMOS DAN

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Hi guys, not long moved into my new place but have noticed the cabling for various things is all over the place.

The telephone line socket currently is located under the staircase in a horrible place to reach, the old occupants then used a single cable from here all the way under the carpet across the other side of the room to the tv etc

Now...whilst I'm in the process of renovating I was wondering how much it would cost to get this line moved from under the stairs and to a better location on the opposite side of the room

Any ideas roughly?

Part of me thinks just a complete new line from the telephone poll, around the side of the house and then back in where I want it would look a lot neater
 
i think it costs £130 for BT to move a master phone socket, but if you signed up for services from Virgin they'd probably install a seperate one for free (but it wouldn't be bt compatible)
 
Marc said:
i think it costs £130 for BT to move a master phone socket, but if you signed up for services from Virgin they'd probably do it for free (but it wouldn't be bt compatible)

Thanks for the reply mate

Does it HAVE to be done by BT? Or could I pay someone privately to move it?
 
I could be wrong but I believe BT retain ownership of the connection to some extent so you're supposed to get them out to do it, but tbh it's just wires so any electrician could do it easily enough, but if something went wrong, BT would probably charge the earth to get it fixed
 
Marc said:
I could be wrong but I believe BT retain ownership of the connection to some extent so you're supposed to get them out to do it, but tbh it's just wires so any electrician could do it easily enough, but if something went wrong, BT would probably charge the earth to get it fixed

Cheers buddy, just seems a lot to get one socket moved :(
 
yeah, BT's setup costs have always been on the high side, they charge £80 or thereabouts to reactivate a disconnected line, £75 to install a non-master socket.. if you were signing up for some sort of package with them you might be able to try and wrangle a deal, but they're not all that flexible, unlike Virgin who will give you free installation of just about anything if you try hard enough..

you should be able to get a wall plate and telephone wire off ebay fairly cheaply and could possibly do the job yourself if you wanted to avoid even paying an electrician/handyman. Just take the current wall plate off, see how many cores the wire has and get the same cable and connect it in the same way, and then connect one cable (bit coming in from outside) to the other (new bit) with solder, and shield it adequately and it should work.
 
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I could be wrong but I believe BT retain ownership of the connection to some extent so you're supposed to get them out to do it, but tbh it's just wires so any electrician could do it easily enough, but if something went wrong, BT would probably charge the earth to get it fixed

As you are talking about a new wire from the telegraph pole I can't see anyone other than BT be permitted to do it.

If instead, you are happy with a join near your house and then re-routing then it is, as said above, just wires. You are still not meant to touch them but I doubt BT would know\be bothered.

But would you be happy with a join, and then there is also the risk of being found out if you ever have to call out BT for a line fault.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
nheather said:
As you are talking about a new wire from the telegraph pole I can't see anyone other than BT be permitted to do it.

If instead, you are happy with a join near your house and then re-routing then it is, as said above, just wires. You are still not meant to touch them but I doubt BT would know\be bothered.

But would you be happy with a join, and then there is also the risk of being found out if you ever have to call out BT for a line fault.

Cheers,

Nigel

A join wouldn't bother me, aslong as the end product was a socket that was a lot more accessible rather than in the stupid place it is now :(

Just with all the other expenses at the moment £130 to have it moved seems gutting :(
 
You should be able to get any ISP provider to fit a new socket if you take a package out with them, and some will do cheaper than others....

The BT that do the fitting of the socket are BT openreach, who are paid to do so by the ISP that you choose to join.

I would have a look http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker to see which companies can off you LLU, these are generally cheaper than BT or any kind of IPStream product which is a re-sold BT connection. Then call them up and see what you can get
 
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A join wouldn't bother me

It should do, especially if you're wiring is old/long.

ADSL prefers the best line connection to maintain decent and reliable connections, and joins will only intefere with those requirements.

Properly relocating the socket might mean shorter cabling. Bite the bullet and get BT to do it, using an ADSL filtered faceplate in the process.
 
Yes, any join that isn't perfectly impedance matched would result in some signal attenuation or reflection.

Only tiny, but to get the best broadband bandwidth you want as few joins as possible.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
yeah, BT's setup costs have always been on the high side, they charge £80 or thereabouts to reactivate a disconnected line, £75 to install a non-master socket.. if you were signing up for some sort of package with them you might be able to try and wrangle a deal, but they're not all that flexible, unlike Virgin who will give you free installation of just about anything if you try hard enough..
The first time we got Sky was in the mid 1990s and our internet/phone was with NTL at the time. I wanted to cancel NTL and take advantage of SKY's free internet service but we needed a BT landline, no problem, I thought as we were with them before NTL. BT quoted 380 quid to reactivate our line.

VirginMedia in comparison have been fantastic; a couple of years ago we subscribed to their HD service on top of the BB and phone we already had. We started having problems with our BB and TV reception, so an engineer came out and found our old cableling wasn't up to the task and they had to run a new, higher spec cable from our house to the junction box at the end of the road, about 40m away. They also installed a new cable modem and new connector for the phone and TV. Despite them having to dig up the pavement outside so they could run new cables from our house to the junction box, all these changes cost me the grand sum of £0.00.
 
all these changes cost me the grand sum of £0.00.

Which is partly why, I think from what I have seen, Virgin's overall package cannot compete with Sky. No where near.

There's only so much you can offer by not charging for stuff.

OP: Are you getting Sky? When we joined Sky in '08 we went from Virgin and were told we needed a BT line for the BB. We ummed and ahhed so eventually Sky agreed to re-imburse us the full BT install cost :smashin:
 
Well i had sky in my old place so Iv basically told them I'm moving and they've offered me a good deal to stay with them (no contract though)

Telephone and broadband gets activated tomorrow and sky engineer coming to the house Saturday

I'm wondering if I called them up and threatened to cancel before Saturday unless they fit me a new socket whether they would do this for me???
 
I think it's still BT openreach who would have to move the master socket, so even if they do agree to pay for it, it'll just delay your install by however long BT take to come out and do it (possibly up to a month)

have a look where the cable runs outside your house. If the new location is a shorter distance from the point of entry onto your property then you won't have to worry about line noise etc as you won't need to join the cable
 
Marc said:
I think it's still BT openreach who would have to move the master socket, so even if they do agree to pay for it, it'll just delay your install by however long BT take to come out and do it (possibly up to a month)

have a look where the cable runs outside your house. If the new location is a shorter distance from the point of entry onto your property then you won't have to worry about line noise etc as you won't need to join the cable

It looks like the cable is plastered into walls etc, comes out at random places and all sorts, tbh a mess!

The new location is slightly further away too
 
Which is partly why, I think from what I have seen, Virgin's overall package cannot compete with Sky. No where near.

There's only so much you can offer by not charging for stuff.
But Sky's main business is satellite TV and so maybe they cross subsidise their internet service, whilst Virgin is an ISP and can't cross subsidise. If you're not interested in Sky TV I don't think you can get a internet/phone service from them. I'm more interested in having reliable internet than a TV service. As it happens in my area, SKY's internet service is woefully poor compared to Virgin's.
 

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