Testing a BT line that has no socket

[Deleted User]

Chances are it will be disconnected as lines that don't get used get re-used elsewhere at the pole or street cabinet. When you order a new line they will come and connect you back up again, and they might even swing a new line to the property if the old line has deteriorated in the 20odd years of none usage.

danthemoneysavingman

Brewer20 said:

Whilst I have some knowledgeable folk posting on this thread, can I butt in?
Have the same problem as the OP only just have the cable, no box.
Years ago I mean back in the days of dial up stuff with AOL (that dial tone still haunts me then it doesn't connect) that's for those old enough to remember 😁 Anyways I've just got a three strand grey cable coming into the house, the BT box .....

Seems the charge is £50-£60. I have no line in but am switching away from VM as the TV is useless, 240 channels of nothing, and the price is huge. I can watch nothing for free[view]! I will be reporting back my story on how this goes.
The MSE wisdom suggests (in a roundabout way) that the "new line" request means an engineer will be round to sort it out until there is a working line. Evidence on timescales shows this varies. 

BigStu78

duncanthedog said:

I have been in this house for 28+ years and never had a BT connection, I went straight to Telewest (now Virgin). There is wiring into a blank box for a BT line but no socket on the end of it so that I can check the line. Chances are that it would be well out of date but I would like to check to see if the line is viable so that I may have the option to use it in the future.
How easy is it to connect a socket to the existing wiring? or would it not be worthwhile as the wiring is too old?

I have done a search online but all the results have a socket connected.

As some people have said, even if you connect it to a socket you have no way of checking to see if it's viable. The only way to do that would be to get a service provider to start a phone service for you.
If you do go down that line, even if you go down that line it all depends on what records Openreach have for your property. If there has been a phone service there before (Regardless of how long ago) they will more than likely just switch the line on from the exchange and no engineer will call at the property. Having worked for a service provider for a while our sales guys tick the option that there are no sockets in the property but it gets overridden by Openreach's records. What we usually have to end up doing is raising a fault the day after a line has supposedly been reconnected to force an engineer to physically go out and fit sockets in the property. 

As for the other comments about full fibre (FTTP), there are 2 types of property, Brownfield and Greenfield.
Brownfield are typically older properties where there have been copper lines previously and would have been on either copper broadband or fibre to the cabinet broadband. With these types of property going to full fibre, the preferred method is to provide the phone service down the copper line and the broadband down the new FTTP fibre line. 

Greenfield properties are typically new builds where there are no copper lines and both Phone line and broadband are provided through the FTTP fibre line.

Copper phonelines (PSTN) will not be sold by Openreach after 2025. The plan is to have the majority of the country on full fibre by then but obviously there will be some logistical problems with that.