New BT skt

talos · Jun 05, 2015, 11:57:51

My connection has been a bit unstable of late, IDnet has got my profile reset and it has improved but I was thinking because my phone connection is very old (I still have the oval shaped connection block) would Bt upgrade my system to the new skt and plug system , and how much are the likely to charge? The previous householder did his own wiring some years back, and its a bodge job at best, perhaps this might help with the instability.
Any advice would be most welcome please

nowster · Jun 05, 2015, 17:31:40

I'll bet he used alarm wire instead of proper twisted pair, too.

My guess is that the visit will be chargeable.

MisterW · Jun 05, 2015, 17:53:38

This https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/How-do-I-get-an-NTE5/td-p/24146 might help...

talos · Jun 06, 2015, 07:34:35

Quote from: MisterW on Jun 05, 2015, 17:53:38
This https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/How-do-I-get-an-NTE5/td-p/24146 might help...

Very interesting, esp the last post, maybe I can get it done a bit cheaper than I thought.

talos · Jun 06, 2015, 07:36:28

Quote from: nowster on Jun 05, 2015, 17:31:40
I'll bet he used alarm wire instead of proper twisted pair, too.

My guess is that the visit will be chargeable.

Personally I wouldn't know the difference, all looks the same to me $:-\$

nowster · Jun 06, 2015, 09:46:37

Alarm wire usually has different colours, eg. red, blue, green, black. Proper BT twisted pair (CW1308) has solid colours with white stripes and corresponding white wires with coloured stripes. (For cables with large numbers of pairs, the white colour changes to something else in the higher numbered pairs).

First pair is blue/white, second orange/white, third green/white, fourth brown/white. The same colours are used in CAT5 cabling. It is perfectly fine to use CAT5 for internal phone wiring -- it's over-specified for the job and more expensive.

The full colour range is, first colour: blue, orange, green, brown, grey; second colour: white, red, black, yellow, violet, pink. (30 combinations in total, corresponding to the 30 B channels in an E1 trunk.)

More useful info: http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

Den · Jun 07, 2015, 16:53:29

The problem is that alarm cable is twisted strands and not suitable for phones. Telephone cable is solid drawn and is great for phone lines but a pain for alarms as I have found out so many times when I have had to update alarms after some idiot has tried to wire his own.

talos · Jun 08, 2015, 07:38:14

Confusion reins

The cable does not have the colours described by nowster but neither is it made up of twisted strands as described by Den, each wire is solid strand and of a single colour. It is most possibly old alarm cable but from many years ago, I think a major re-wire is called for

nowster · Jun 08, 2015, 08:38:44

Old GPO wires (and drop wires) don't conform to the colour scheme I posted.

talos · Jun 08, 2015, 14:57:27

Quote from: nowster on Jun 08, 2015, 08:38:44
Old GPO wires (and drop wires) don't conform to the colour scheme I posted.

That explains it, the Jbox I have has GPO on it