Hi,
The bt phone line terminate outside the house in what looks like a junction box, cable then runs to my inernal master sockek. A builder has damaged the cable post junction box on the wall prior to entering the house.
Q Will BT repaire it and will they charge ? if not what cable should i use ?
Thanks for your time.
Did you get any compensation from the builder on this ? Or did you tell him it's OK you'd deal with it ?
For accidental damage, BT will probably put it right free of charge. Just tell them you did it when inspecting the builders work.
I put in my own master socket years ago and had plasters in who must have got the socket wet & it corroded sufficiently that phone stopped working. BT arrived and noticed non BT socket but replaced it free of charge.
C
Yes and, they might and they might not!
BT often seem use normal 3 pair house wiring cable for the short run from the external junction box to the master socket. Its easy enough to fix yourself - but it does help if you have some of the same type of crimp connectors they tend to use for making the join between the cables (assuming your junction box is simply an empty box with no terminals of its own).
AFAIK BT 'own' the cable up to your internal master socket. You could repair the outside cable yourself, but then you would be liable if something happened that damaged any equipment on the BT side and they traced it to your repair. BT will most likely charge you to repair the cable, so maybe you can have a friendly word with the builder to bear the cost?
I've not seen BT use this cable as it's not really designed for outside use - it's not nearly strong enough to withstand any knocks etc and I doubt it's UV stable.
The normal stuff they use is two pair shiny black which is very tough.
Up to the master socket is BTs responsibilty. The damage was accidental so BT *should* repair free of charge. They may not be particulary interested until your phone line develops a fault though.
If BT do decide to charge I'd pass it onto the builder. Inform the builder first that you will be passing any BT repair charge onto them though.
Must vary by area then - the houses round these parts have a exterior grade cable that goes underground to the exterior JB, but then they seem to switch to normal house wiring cable which they just surface clip round the outside of the building as required. I must admit to being a little supprised at this myself.
On our place there is a 5 meter run of the stuff along an ledge under a bay window at the front of the house. Surface cliped, in full glare of the sun (south facing). Having said that, the cable still looks ok from a UV degredation point of view (and it must have been there 15 years or more now) - but it must have been mechanically damaged at some point in the past, because when they installed an extra line for me a few months back they found one of the pairs were shorted.
In article , Craigy writes
Yes & yes
You can get some here, 42p per metre
Nice length of two pair CW1308 is draped around the front bay of my parents house.
This has been in place since my parents got a phone about 25 years ago, I don't think it has ever been replaced. The bay is generally south facing as well. Maybe they made CW1308 of better plastic 25 years ago. B-)
Dropwire, wonderful stuff tough as old boots but has a life of it's own when it comes to handling.
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