BT Openreach question

[stevie_b]

I've got some friends who have recently moved into a new-build house. When it was being built, the builders fitted telephone sockets in several of the rooms.

 

There's a downstairs cupboard where the BT fibre optic comes into the house, and into a BT Openreach modem/switch thing. The modem has a telephone socket "tel1" that you can plug a phone into, and that works fine.

 

The problem is that the phone only works when plugged into the modem. All the other phone sockets in the house are dead. This means their landline phone needs to be in a cupboard, and that doesn't seem right.

 

BT support have told them that the extra sockets around the house "are in case you want to go back to copper wiring", and they couldn't offer them a solution as to how to use the other phone sockets around the house. This doesn't sound right.

 

As well as the Openreach modem, the cupboard also contains an unused standalone phone socket in the wall. This is currently dead. But assuming the builders connected the phone sockets to each other (they wouldn't just fit unconnected phone socket plates around the house, surely), then is there a way of connecting the modem to the internal phone socket network so all the other sockets can work?

[wile e coyote]

Don't sound right

Who they using as there supplier

Try calling them

 

 

HD

[Wez]

Are you sure they have Fibre all the way into the house, normally with BT its Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and then copper to the house where you have normal looking phone socket and filter, one plug for the ADSL / VDSL Modem and the other is your phone socket that all the other extensions could be plugged into.

 

If you do indeed have Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) then there should be a copper port for your phone.

[ibby]

Probably wired wrong.

 

Pull a facica off one of them. And look at the connections.

 

 

[RobUK]

Call the house builder if it's new build they should sort if they wired it up.... otherwise as above unscrew the faceplates and start tracing wires

[stevie_b]

Don't sound right

Who they using as there supplier

Try calling them

They use BT as their broadband supplier. My friends have tried calling them, but they just got an explanation about "reverting back to copper", which doesn't make any sense.

 

Are you sure they have Fibre all the way into the house, normally with BT its Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and then copper to the house where you have normal looking phone socket and filter, one plug for the ADSL / VDSL Modem and the other is your phone socket that all the other extensions could be plugged into.

 

If you do indeed have Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) then there should be a copper port for your phone.

I *think* it's FTTP, but I can check with them. The house is only about 8 months old on a brand new estate, so FTTP is plausible. The modem/router is the large flat square box in the middle of the photo. To the right is the power supply. Bottom left of the photo is the box where the data pipe (whether it's copper or fibre) comes into the house.

 

I've only ever tinkered with copper BT master sockets, and this set-up looks nothing like any master socket I've seen.

 

Probably wired wrong.

 

Pull a facica off one of them. And look at the connections.

 

/QUOTE]

None of the other sockets work though, not even one. They could all be wired wrong, but it seems unlikely. Could also be caused by an early socket in the daisy-chain being wired wrong. If it was my house, I'd pop the fascia off one of them to make sure it has any connections at all.

 

But somehow, the internal extensions will need to be connected to the modem.

** edit: I've just found this: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/42641/~/connecting-your-phone-service-to-bt-infinity-(fibre-to-the-home)

Seems to suggest a cable is needed to connect the fibre modem to the primary socket (I bet the primary socket is the one below the modem)

 

Call the house builder if it's new build they should sort if they wired it up.... otherwise as above unscrew the faceplates and start tracing wires

Good shout, they should at least know what they intended the extension sockets to be used for. I think the buck will be passed between the housebuilder and BT blaming each other, but we'll see.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. Does anyone have a similar set-up in their home, with working phone extension sockets elsewhere in the house?

 

My friends will also ask their neighbours, to see if they have a similar issue.

[Annabella]

If you google fibre to premises those boxes Openreach have put in are fibre to premises ones. Reading further down this:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/broadband/how-get-broadband-without-landline-save-money-on-line-rental-3606231/

That definitley suggests that you can just have the fibre connection coming in without copper for traditional phone line. Their calls will be routed via the broadband/fibre network at the moment. If they can cope with just the phone base station/charger near the openreach boxes and have the portable phones where they are then sounds like BT are right. Looks like you'll need a copper conn setting up as well if they want traditional landline too.

[Tsia]

I've got that same box at my home with FTTP - my phone plugs directly in to the box and my remaining sockets do not work either

[Action Jackson]

Same here RE fibre - I don't have a house phone any more as I do not need one, but my house no longer has a copper wire into the house.

I only have a fibre line, thus none of the other phone sockets could work as the phone calls come through the fibre internet box thingy (that is the limit of my understanding unfortunately).

[berg]

If its FTTP then thats the issue

 

If its FTTC the all the extra sockets in the house are classed as "extensions" and need to be wired into the back of the faceplate on the bt main master socket

 

Chances are they either havent been wired up so they are dead

 

Unscrew the faceplate from the socket and see if there are any wires crimped into it

 

OR

 

The builders who ran all the cables have routed them to where they "thought" bt would install the master socket, and its been put in a different place

[Ric]

it looks like FTTP.

 

So the only socket that will work is the one in the openreach box. 100%

 

The others will not work as they are copper, they dont have the fibre to copper conversion, that only happens in the openreach box.

 

It's not a mega issue? just get them to use a Cordless phone, place the main unit in the cupboard and use power only dect phones around the house.

[Hitbox Junkie]

it looks like FTTP.

 

So the only socket that will work is the one in the openreach box. 100%

 

The others will not work as they are copper, they dont have the fibre to copper conversion, that only happens in the openreach box.

 

It's not a mega issue? just get them to use a Cordless phone, place the main unit in the cupboard and use power only dect phones around the house.

 

I'd do this, or run the phone outside the box using a extention cable and then wireless phones around the house as said above.

 

Have they asked there neighbours if they have the same issue?

[Wez]

Any reason you cant cable the phone outlet on the Openreach box to your house wiring making all the wired extension work

[Chris Wilson]

Any reason you cant cable the phone outlet on the Openreach box to your house wiring making all the wired extension work

 

 

That would seem the logical way to have proper wired phones in proper sockets

[Digsy]

Any reason you cant cable the phone outlet on the Openreach box to your house wiring making all the wired extension work

 

I was wondering this also, and on the face of it, it would seem possible.

 

The only thing that bothers me is that "regular" BT master socket facplates have a removable section specifically to allow you to easily connect the extension wiring, so it seems odd that the fibre mater sockets do not. Maybe there is a reason why you shouldn't?

 

I would probably just give it a go, though. If you do it right it will be no different (electrically) to plugging in a multiway adaptor. If the magic smoke comes out you can always remove it and plead ignorance

[stevie_b]

They could probably run a cable from the phone outlet of the Openreach box and splice it into what I suspect is the master socket. The socket is flush with the wall, so the cable will either need chasing in, or it'll look like a dog's dinner (and be prone to getting knocked when things are moved in the cupboard). A quicker way would be to get a cable with a male BT plug at both ends - surprisingly hard to find. Maybe that's the cable that BT refer to in the link on post 6.

[Bobbeh]

Are you sure they have Fibre all the way into the house, normally with BT its Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and then copper to the house where you have normal looking phone socket and filter, one plug for the ADSL / VDSL Modem and the other is your phone socket that all the other extensions could be plugged into.

 

If you do indeed have Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) then there should be a copper port for your phone.

 

We have fibre to the house and there is no copper wire from the street at all. The Tel 1 and Tel 2 can support 2 lines, but default Tel 1 will only be enabled.

 

Depending on how the building developer has wired up the rooms, Tel 1 will be the only live connection and Tel 2 has to be enabled at extra cost, for example for a seperate line or fax (do people still use them) etc.

 

As long as the green light is on Tel 1, typically the front room / Lounge, and upstairs bedrooms will connect to it sharing the one line / connection.