Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Daveyp1471]

Hi, I have been struggling in my new house to get above 1.5 mbs broadband and whilst checking tips etc I removed the front plate to reveal the test socket. Curious to see behind it I removed the panel. Only 2 wires come through the wall and into the box. Is this normal or old school ? The cable runs from the roof (overhead cables) can I get the wire replaced? Cheers

[roseway]

Hi and welcome,

Two wires are all there should be (known as A and B in BT terminology). Commonly the incoming cable will have two pairs, but only one pair is used, with the second pair available for a second line if needed. But I believe that BT are now saving money on new installations, and using single pair cable. It doesn't have any performance implications.

[Daveyp1471]

Thanks Roseway, it just appeared strange as extensions etc have multiple coloured wires.

[burakkucat]

That is just a quirk/throwback to the standards of the early 1980s. 

Back then, it was possible to see the incoming pair of the service cable connected to the master socket (the predecessor to the current NTE5/A) and up to six wires in a cable leaving the master socket, which were then carried to each extension socket in a daisy-chain fashion.

[Daveyp1471]

Thanks, will this old style single a and b have any impact on my line and can I
Speed it up

[burakkucat]

I sense a spot of misunderstanding. Please let me clarify.

Right from the earliest days to the present, there has only ever been two wires per telephone line. One hundred years ago your telephone line would have had a pair of wires (hence the usage of the word "pair" in a telephony environment) known as the A-wire and the B-wire. Today, your telephone line still has a pair of wires, the A-wire and the B-wire. (For completeness, the A-wire will be carrying about -1 V with respect to a good earth and the B-wire will be about -50 V with respect to earth.) 

As long as any extension wiring, connected after the NTE5/A, does not use more than two wires (connected to terminals 2 and 5, respectively, on the removable faceplate) then there will be nothing else (wiring wise) to do to ensure that your broadband service is optimised. Do you actually have any extension wiring connected?

As for your question "The cable runs from the roof (overhead cables) can I get the wire replaced?", the simple answer is yes. However you will have to agree to pay the full commercial value of the items fitted plus the time related charges for an Openreach engineer's time. (If you have the money and are prepared to pay, the BT Group will do almost anything you want -- within reason!    )

In return, I have to ask the obvious question: Why would you like to have that cable replaced?