Installing New Phone Socket

[#1]

@chimicherry Cable colours as promised:

Use	Master Socket	1st Secondary Socket	2nd Secondary Socket	3rd Secondary Socket etc.	Pin
1	Not used §	Green/White	Green/White	Green/White	Green/White	1
2	'B' wire (-50V to earth)	Blue/White	Blue/White	Blue/White	Blue/White	2
3	Bell wire	Orange/White	Orange/White	Orange/White	Orange/White	3
4	Earth (PABX use only)	White/Orange	White/Orange	White/Orange	White/Orange	4
5	'A' wire (0V to earth)	White/Blue	White/Blue	White/Blue	White/Blue	5
6	Not used §	White/Green	White/Green	White/Green	White/Green

Full detils here: http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

[#2]

To avoid any confusion, @chimicherry advises having the more normal 4 core cable. Over the years the colours have changed. The key is to see if one end goes to the master socket.

[#3]

I assumed the OP would do that anyway, @Baldrick1

[#4]

Internal extension phone cables (e.g. with white sheathing ) can contain 2or 3 pairs. A pair is a circuit or line used for a phone . 

For an extension line to another socket you will only need to use one pair. Pairs are twisted together to help eliminate interference  . Typically for an extension you'd use one pair e.g.   the blue/ white and white /blue pair that are twisted together. A third cable , taken from another pair, is sometimes used as a "bell wire"  but is nowadays more or less redundant as the necessary electronics to surpress unwanted bell ringing is built in to modern phones. Don't bother with it anyway as the bell wire will interfere with broadband  Any other wires in the cable are just spare and should not be connected. 

If you do have a new socket fitted by bt Openreach it will most likely be a new nte 5c with mk 4 faceplate. 

https://goo.gl/images/gUFu43

extension wiring can be connected quite easily to the nte5c master socket  without any need for any tools.  There are just two terminals to use, 2 on the master socket and 2 on the extension. use the same colour pair at each end of the extension cable.  Also you could use a new nte5c mk4  as an extention socket for your router . They are easily available on eBay.  Google videos on this device and you'll see how simple they are to fit. 

Btw an Ethernet cable is only fractionally bigger in diameter than standard 3 pair internal phone cable and would be very easy to route in a newish property if you're decorating.  Using a  Ethernet cable could save you £££'s  and hours of time fiddling about . 

Good luck!

[#5]

As promised, here is the cable:

I didn't have time after painting today to check in the loft to see if it connected through to anything on the other end. I appreciate that it's better to plug it into the master socket etc. etc. but I am unable to. The cable would need to fit under two closed doors which isn't very easy when there's next to no clearance between the door and the floor. I've also got my current broadband plugged into a 20m extension cable coming off of a secondary socket and have no performance issues (77MB).

If I know that I can use this cable to put a socket on my wall I'll be more than happy.

[#6]

Don't mean to be rude but It's a bit of a grotty rather old looking 2 pair extention cable! Even if it does lead to your master socket personally  I'd replace it lock stock and barell with decent quality copper single stranded conductor cable from end to end to avoid any doubt that there are no cracks or damage to any of the conductors or insulation, if there is any damage it will impact on performance. 

(But there's no way I'd use an extension that old and expect it to provide reliable internet connectivity. Also I doubt you'd get a bt engineer to hook up any sockets to it because of its age and poor condition . 

if you were to order an extension socket to be fitted the the work will carried out by a BT Openreach engineer and you are looking at a bill of £165 for the first hour and £65 for each subsequent hour.... unless as others suggested you can persuade the engineer to do it for nothing . BTW Plus net publish these rates for fitting customers extensions on their web site.)

If you do the work ourself and make hash of it then you'll still be looking at paying for engineers  to check out and repair your handiwork as internal wiring on the customer side of the master socket is not BT property.  

But we don't know for certain where your cable goes or how long it is , but we do know it's old and in poor condition.  It might not even be a phone cable - it could be an alarm system.

A long extension cable will impact on performance. You've not said what performance you expect from your connection in your new house . Lower speeds will be affected to a greater degree  by long extention cabling.  

I think it will be quicker simpler and easier to use an Ethernet cable even if you have to drill a few holes in your door frames to get the cable through!

[#7]

I agree with @runhare, @chimicherry - I certainly wouldn't use that old cable for broadband (either ADSL or fibre), and having seen it, I doubt any sensible engineer would agree to use it, either - sorry.

[#8]

@chimicherry

Did you take the front off the master socket and have a look to see if the other end of the cable ended up there? If so there's no need to go grubbing around in the loft seeking out the route.

Yes, the cable looks a bit old but copper doesn't wear out. If the other end does in fact go to the master socket then it would cost you next to nothing to just put a socket on the end and try it, you're not going to break anything!

At the end of the day if you need to rewire then do go the for CAT5E Ethernet cable, you don't need the screen in CAT 6 and CAT5E is not significantly larger diameter that bog standard telephone cable. If this is the course of action that you need to take then you may be able to use the old cable to pull a new length through the same route.

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Hi there. I've left notes for the engineer to install a new telephone socket at the location of your choice, if possible.

I can't guarantee they'll be able to do this, but fingers crossed.

[#10]

Thanks a lot for all the help - broadband went live today and the engineer did install a brand new socket for me.

Still no idea what the other wire is for, though...