Can I get broadband with no Mastersocket?

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Can I get broadband with no Mastersocket?
I'm looking to get broadband. However the phone wiring in my house pre-dates the mastersocket days. I have a little grey box which I think is an old 'junction/protection' box. It takes the BT line cable (old grey figure-8 cable {like think speaker cable}) in and then standard extension cable comes on the other end goes off to the hardwured extensions in the house. It all looks a bit too old for my liking. I have a ADSL business line that has been disconnected - installed 2 years old and uses new multi-core cable and has a decent master filtered socket with user installation plate.

How can I get BT to update my existing or get them to move my current line to the other wiring - free of course?

krishna

As long as you have standard extension sockets there should be no problem. You will still need an ADSL filter on each socket to which you attach equipment (phone, fax, answering machine, etc.). But that is the same for everyone.

codetown

When you require ADSL services to a provider they will contact BT for line checks (and activation if necessary). It is very likely that your line will support basic ADSL even if old. The problem might be if you want packages beyond 2 Mbit/s.
I am not sure if they have any obligation to lay new cables for you. After all you pay for line rental for voice services, but maybe talking to them will bring up some opportunities for free upgrades of the line.

Welliesorter

Are you really saying that you have old-fashioned dial phones that can't be unplugged? That's extremely rare nowadays! If so, how do you plug in your modem to connect to the net now?

If your set-up really is hard-wired, you will have to have a new socket and that will need an engineer to visit. I'd mention it at the time you order ADSL.

Just to explain about extension wiring: BT is responsible for the main socket in your house but nothing else. It's up to you whether you get BT to install extensions, get someone else to do it, or buy a DIY kit. If you get BT to do it, they sell you the wiring rather than renting it to you. It becomes your property and, apart from a year's warranty, it's up to you to get it repaired if it goes faulty.

In the days when your wiring was fitted, the Post Office (as it then was) had a monopoly. You had to have extensions fitted by them and you paid rental for each one. If your old-fashioned extensions were to go wrong now, BT wouldn't repair them but would disconnect them so that you were left with a working line. This would involve fitting a new main socket, with no extensions, free of charge.

I don't think you'll get anything free out of BT unless BT Wholesale has some sort of agreement with the ISPs to update to a socket where necessary. You definitely won't get extension sockets out of BT without paying for them to be installed. You can find the BT price list on line somewhere. After reading it, you'll probably decide that you're better off with cordless phones and a wireless router!

If you just have an old-fashioned master socket (see the 'line jack units' part of the way down the page here) then you probably have nothing to worry about. It should all work and you don't need your sockets replacing until they actually go wrong. There are still plenty of these around.