Moving your master socket and getting a bill. Sadly, it’s quite easy. Moving your master socket is easy. Your service arrives via two wires, and all you have to do cut, extend and re-joint your cable. Well, in theory, that is…
The Official Line
However, first of all I have to make it absolutely clear that any cabling from the socket back towards the exchange is the property of BT Openreach, so you shouldn’t really be touching it. They are within their rights to charge you for any repairs they need to make due to someone creating faults on it. That could be you.
But, What Happens in The Real World?
Many, many moves are made by independent telephone engineers (usually well), as well as by customers (occasionally well). Openreach engineers come to the house and either ignore the situation or don’t find out. No-one gets thrown in jail. More about this here.
So, How Might I Get Charged?
Having made the official line clear, I thought I’d share how someone could possibly end up being charged for moving their master socket. My story is based on a number of situations I’ve had to face myself as an engineer.
“Hello! How Can I Help?”
A customer called me to say that his line had become noisy, internet slow, then dead.
The house was a delightful combination of two small cottages, made into one large, rambling and characterful home.
At some stage, the master socket had been moved from one former point of entry of the cable to the other end of the building, via cable along the outside wall.
A careful inspection of this cable revealed a point where it had been jointed. The joint had been made by twisting each wire together, taping around each, then taping the two parts into one bundle. Experience told me that this arrangement often works, but only for so long.
The joint was made on the west side of the house, where prevailing winds drench the house with rain, and the sun shines for most of the day. The tape hardens,the glue dries out, the plastic expands and contracts. Water gets in, the shiny copper grows corrosion very quickly, and this makes an excellent insulator, cutting off the signal. See the naked truth in the photo above. Neatly twisted cable, but thoroughly corroded and causing big problems.
What Would Openreach Do?
Now, if the customer had not called me in, and reported the fault to their service provider, who had sent Openreach to repair, what would have happened?
As the rest of the customer-installed cable was beginning to break up (it was interior-grade cable, not designed to be weatherproof) the Openreach person would have had to re-cable. So, who pays?
Moving Your Master Socket and Getting A Bill (Ouch!)
Well, if the Openreach person was having a bad day, harassed by your vicious, sabre-toothed Dachshund, and fed weak tea with cheap, soggy biscuits, then a bill would surely be coming your way. Perhaps £130 or more. He or she are simply doing their job to the letter; their network has been tampered with at your house, and it needs to be repaired to clear the fault.
A Cunning Plan
On the other hand… If you’ve charmed the engineer, made decent tea with expensive cookies, and confined psychotic Fifi to her dog basket in the farthest spare room, then they may be able to employ their creative reporting skills and put the repair down to “natural causes”. Yes, it can be up to their discretion. I’ve spoken to several Openreach engineers on this subject, and they’ve all said more or less the same.
But, It’s Not Fair, this “Moving your master socket and getting a bill” – I Didn’t Move It!
Now,you might plead “well,the previous owner did it, not me”. Sadly, it’s no defence. Openreach need to send their bill somewhere, and they aren’t going to track down the previous occupant. Once again, I need to stress that the exchange-side of the master socket is their property. If anyone fiddles with it, and it causes a fault that Openreach needs to attend, then the charge for repair needs to go somewhere.
Time is Money (Yours, Actually)
There’s one other significant factor in all this – Openreach have been mightily stretched in recent times, and their staff are under significant time pressure to clear faults. If it’s quicker and easier to charge you, they will. Sorry.
Any Recommendations?
Well, you could possibly do the job yourself, but you’d need to know what to buy, then find a reliable supplier, and do the work. This kind of work looks deceptively easy, but isn’t. Waterproof joints seem like an over-technical solution – they aren’t. They were designed to last for years, and usually do. Anything less won’t work.
Here Come The Good Guys…
You could also call on the services of an independent engineer if you suspect that your line has been fiddled with by persons unknown. We’re much cheaper than Openreach, (but still expect decent tea and biscuits.)
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Of course, if you’re in the North East of England, I might even be able to help myself. Please drop me a line. Further afield, I have a network of contacts across the UK. However,if I do find you a friendly chap, please leave me some kind feedback on Facebook or Google so that I can continue to justify supplying free advice on moving your master socket.
Moving your master socket and getting a bill. It’s avoidable!
Hi,
Would you have some advice on how to meter out the AB incoming pair so that I might present this with the correct polarity to a new NTE5C I’m planning to install?
I’m concerned the junctions in street cabs may have ended up reversing the assignment, so any help with how to establish the correct polarity would be helpful. Noting, I realise Services will likely work either way, I’m just wishing to be detailed.
Finally I have one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CrazyFire%C2%AE-Multifunction-Telephone-Networking-Tools-Yellow/dp/B018NVB9AW
Oddly if I plug the Receiver into a POTS port on a Cisco ATA LED 5 lights up, and LED 4 lights up on the sender which seems odd to me 🙂
Thanks, Craig.
Hello,
Polarity ceased to matter many years ago on the BTOR network! I encounter both configurations daily. Just for the sake of good order, if I ever replace a socket, I always leave the polarity the way I found it. However, I have a test phone that will tell me instantly which way round it is via red and green lights.
A useful link giving more here
For the record,it’s -ve 48 to the B, 0v to the A. There’s much more on the ‘net.
Astonishingly, ADSL will work on one leg only, albeit slowly. The first time I encountered this as an engineer, it really did throw me. There will be no dial tone,but functioning broadband.
As to the query on your tester, I really can’t comment as I don’t know how it works. It gets good reviews on Amazon, though!
I hope that this helps!
Rob.
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If this is helpful to you, would you be able to leave some feedback on the following social media pages, please?
This helps me to continue giving free advice.
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Thanks!
Rob
Hi, I don’t want to move my Master Socket – but upgrade it. The socket was installed in 1996 in the house that I have just bought. It is an NTE% but has the Voltage Resistor fitted. This is a killer viz broadban speed. I want to replace it with a NTE5c with VDSL faceplate. I am a retired IT Engineer with over 30 years experience, much with Cat5 cabling. I have been told by a supplier of this kit that BT/Openreach have relaxed the rule re changing the NTE5 if one is competent to do it. Is there any truth in this or is mereley a sales pitch for business? Cheers
Thanks for the comment. It’s the surge arrestor that kills the speed, the silvery barrel-shaped thing.
I’ve not read of any official relaxation, but neither any positive enforcement. In fact, I have read that the NTE5C was designed with “self-fit” in mind, as it minimises tools required. The Master Socket Police won’t call,so I’d just go ahead. Rob.
I wonder if you would so kind as to offer a bit of advice.
I am having intermittent broadband problems. My isp has said they need an engineer to visit. Not usually a problem I know, but I know the connection into the house is a mess left by the previous owner. The incoming wires are not in a box (like a bt66) but covered in insulation tape, I know by removing this rather horrible old tape that the wires are though actually joined using old blue style jelly like crimps.
I think that I can be pretty sure they will charge me, so my question is if I replace old connections like for like with some new dexgreen crimps and then house the wiring in a bt66 box is it likely I will get away with a charge, and will it make a difference to line quality.
I know it will be difficult for you to answer with the variables involved, but any advice would be most appreciated
Hello,
You may find that the Openreach engineer would be happy to replace this as part of the work, but if you get one that is very procedural, he may wish to charge you.
If there is enough slack in the cables, and you are confident to do the work, then I would recommend getting a BT 66 from eBay, along with some crimps, and doing the job yourself. Even of here isn’t enough slack, then you could always splice a piece of decent CW1308-spec. cable in, and hide it in the BT66. You may also find that it cures any problems. Corrosion on cables can make a significant difference to performance, and if these cables have been jointed with a non-weatherproof joint, then this is most likely.
If the blog and this response have been helpful, could I scrounge some social media feedback, please? It helps me to keep justifying the time to give out free advice. Links below. A “review” is always appreciated, rather than a Facebook “like”! Thanks in anticipation. Rob.
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I can see that this is anongoing conversation and there will always be folks like me trying to make the internet work better some how.
would just moving the patress box from one side of a door way to the other count as moving the master socket? no new cables, just moving the box location to make it easier to install the internet router.
It’s a vague and grey area, plus I have been candid about the official viewpoint on this topic. However, I have not known of anyone being charged because they moved their socket unless they caused a fault and Openreach had to come out and diagnose it. It’s very hard to cause a fault with two wires which are not polarity-sensitive! I don’t see a problem in your situation. No records are kept. I hope that this helps!
Hi Rob! No questions to ask – just a comment on your blog! Retired electrical engineer here (not specifically on telephony) but over the years, for myself and others, I’ve carefully researched ‘phone connectivity and, with knowledge in hand, successfully installed various extensions, master socket replacements/shifting etc etc. I only arrived on your blog since a mate of mine (another sparky, but again, not familiar with ‘phone wiring, different master/incoming sockets and related exchange types) asked if I could help. I said I was happy to do it, but he’s keen to learn and, get it right first time- so – I thought I’d do a search and point him to some useful info. Well, sir, you get a 10/10 from me! Well done, awesome blog, full of detail, brilliant! Keep up the good work, and, as they say, more power to your elbow!!!! ^5s, Bill
Thanks so much for the words of appreciation, which are much-valued. I keep adverts down to a minimum on the site, and much information is shared with folks outside my immediate geographical area, so the direct commercial return is minimal. Most do not reply after I have provided detailed advice. Hence, a cheeky request:- if you are able to leave a very short Google review, that helps to improve the website’s local “searchability”. Simply Google “Telecom Green”, look for the five stars on the right hand side of the results, and the link “write a review”. I’m trying to get this up to one hundred, so any help is appreciated. Thanks, once again. Rob.