'Openreach external NTE' box & adding a new separate ADSL line?

LRS

In the days before the new ‘Openreach external NTE’ box if you needed to have a new separate phone line e.g. dedicated business line or ADSL to a room of your house where no phone socket exists, BT would run a cable around the outside of the house, drill a hole through the wall, feed the cable through into the room requiring the new line and terminate it with an internal Master Socket NTE5. Simple…

Now, my question… How is this same simple exercise now done with a house fitted with one of these new ‘Openreach external NTE’ boxes?

• Will BT run a new line directly out of the ‘Openreach external NTE’ box, run it around the outside of the house and bring it into the room requiring the new dedicated phone line in the same way as before?

• Or,will they state that anything beyond the ‘Openreach external NTE’ box is my responsibility, so it’s down to me to run the cables around the house, thus carry out the work that they used to do for installing a new separate line?

I will be placing an order with BT for 3 new lines into our new build house

(Line 1) - Main voice line can use the existing phone point sockets installed by the builder in the house.

(Line 2) – Alarm line can use the existing phone point sockets installed by the builder in the house.

(Line 3) – Dedicated new ADSL line that needs to be installed into a bedroom were No phone point socket has been installed by the builder so a socket install is required. This is the one that my question above is referring to.

Many thanks in advance;

Owain_Moneysaver

Anything beyond the Openreach external box is your responsibility.

They will do internal wiring but you will be charged for it.

iniltous

The external NTE can terminate 2 copper pairs, the cable from here to the existing socket is not Openreaches responsibility but would probably be used to get the second line inside the property where either the existing socket could be converted to a 2 outlet socket or a separate master fitted, but OR will only provide a line within 3 metres of where the line enters the property, so if its required upstairs, then this would be extra chargeable work, and would be an extension socket not a master, if the work is agreed, the OR engineer (on the CP's behalf, its the CP that would bill you for the work) may run internal surface wiring to where the extension socket is required, the cable used isnt suitable for external runs, but individual OR engineers may bend the rules if it makes their life a bit easier, having said that, you could have broadband and an alarm (BT Redcare for example) over the same line, and a wireless router would give service upstairs, so why do you need more than 1 line

Buzby

There is no such thing as an 'ASDL line' - this technology is like the carrier systems of old, it must piggy-back an active phone line - so if you have two physical lines (2 cable pairs) you can also have 2 ADSL connections too, one on each physical pair. THe line to the bedroom (for ADSL) will be a standard phoine extension, so the person there will only need to plug in a phone to hog your line for voice calls.

In your situation, I would keep it simple. Forget about a wired network within the home, use WiFi for any modern-build property, then everyone gets a chance to use it around the home, garden and garage - not just the bedroom. I also doubt whether it is viable to pay for a seperate line simply for an alarm system - the alarm only needs the line to report an intruder, and if there's nobody in using the phone - why waste money on a dedicated circuit? DECT handsets around the home also means the phone is where you need it to be, not where the nearest socket is.

In 1990 I wired every room with a phone secondary and CAT 5, even with a small PABX. Now I don't use any - WiFi and DECT rulke the roost, and the flexibility means major cost savings. My alarm, can access the PSTN, but has a GSM module fall back if required. It's only ever made test calls!