We can't connect the outer permanently to that socket because the PN-appointed engineer who did the original install and put in the socket chose a telephone point some distance from a power supply and thenwouldn't move it even though he admitted he had no idea if that was the connection where the line came in. We have only used it when testing.
Not keen on booking an engineer - we have had experience when PN charged us for a visit when the engineer told me that the;problem was at the street box! We finally got the fee back after making a fuss but the refund probably had as much to do with PN being on the back foot because you had rmade a complete mess of our switch to fibre (which involved cutting us off completely for more than two weeks, with constant delays because PN staff didn't follow up) and it turned out the idiots at Openreach had connected our new fibre connection to someone else's phone line. It took a week of screaming to get anyone to accept that the problem wasn't at our end and another week or more to get the problem sorted!
Every time we have had a problem the PN automatic response has been that the problem is inside our property - and every time it hasn't been. You'll forgive me if I am more than a little cynical.
We had the same problem as we have today several months ago - constant disconnecting and re-connecting a couple of minutes later. Telephone support were useless and only when I posted here did someone look. They spotted that something wasn't right - a week later everything went back to normal without need of an engineer.
As I say, it is probably water - the box sits on ground with a high water table and we have had several days of heavy rain so the water has probably percolated through.
NB Taken a while to post this as the connection has gone down 3/4 times !
