Cost of installing a replacement line in a Victorian property

[#1]

Our phone line (possibly 70s) has an old GPO junction box where it comes into the house, which is prone to dampness/corrosion, and I think it is affecting our phone/broadband performance. Ideally, I would like to abandon the line and get a brand new one drawn from an outside source (cabinet?), with an up-to-date master socket installed at a new location within the property. It would involve drilling through one end-of-terrace wall, either at the ground or first floor level. I assume we would get to keep our current number. How much would it cost? Thank you for any info/advice.

[#2]

To do this you need to move your master socket I believe the cost for this is £160. This should get you new wiring from the pole to where you want the socket.

When arranging it I wouldn't say you want a new line as this suggests you want a complete new line (with new number etc). All you want is the existing line wiring moving.

[#3]

I don't think there's any simple way to get what you want done. If you ask for a master socket move, you would probably get a new master socket installed at a different location but still wired back to the same GPO junction box. Even if you ordered a "new" line it would very likely be made using a spare pair of wires in the existing cable going to the GPO junction box.

[#4]

Personally I’d report a fault which will likely entail an engineer visit to investigate the performance problems with your phone and broadband. 

The engineer will renew your master socket and/or the line if deemed necessary to fix the fault. Most it’ll cost you is £65 as well.

If you want the master socket moved after, that can be done at a cost of £160 but that likely won’t mean you’ll get a new socket or line, it’ll basically be a shift of what’s already existing, so going down the path of a fault may be better 

[#5]

Thank you to everyone who posted a reply here. Well, there has been a development. After reporting a broadband speed fault (excruciatingly slow at 0.2!) online, apparently Openreach came around a few hours later without our knowledge, identified a corroded drop cable outside and requested an appointment to replace it. A very friendly engineer visited us yesterday, replaced the old drop cable and gave us just what we had wanted (ditching the old GPO junction box, feeding the new cable through a newly drilled hole in the wall, and installing an up-to-date master socket). We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was all free; however, sadly there has been no improvement on our broadband speed.

[#6]

Nice to see some work was quickly done to renew the master socket and drop wire, even though it hasn’t made a noticeable improvement.

You may need to request another engineer visit to investigate further but before you do try posting up your router stats here, you’d normally find this by logging into your router settings at 192.168.1.254 then going to the troubleshooting/helpdesk

[#7]

Hello Thrall! Thank you for talking an interest in our case. Bad weather has always affected our broadband/home phone performance. We even lost a dialing tone for a while about 11 days ago, and I think the broadband service started to deteriorate around that time. Anyway, here are the stats:

1 - Product name:	Plusnet Router
2 - Serial number:
3 - Firmware version:	7.275.11_F2704N_Plusnet
4 - Board version:	F@ST2704N
5 - Mode	ADSL
6 - Uptime:	0 days 11:03:44
7 - Data rate:	1256/283
8 - Maximum data rate:	1260/14952
9 - Noise margin:	6.7/36.9
10 - Line attenuation:	16.0/32.0
12 - Data sent/received:	47.3M/194.4M
20 - Broadband username:
21 - Wi-Fi network/SSID:
22 - Wi-Fi connections:	Enable(802.11 b/g/n(up to 144 Mb/s))20 MHz WPS enabled
23 - Wi-Fi security:	WPA2
24 - Wi-Fi channel:	Automatic (Smart Wireless)
25 - Firewall:	Default
26 - MAC Address:
27 - Software variant	Version 1.0
28 - Boot loader:	7.275.2

[#8]

@kittyinbath Small wonder that your broadband is so poor.

Downstream data rate is 283 kbps, indicating that the line is 'banded', so will not improve until Plusnet/BT give the DLM equipment in the exchange a poke.

Do you still have an open ticket?

[#9]

I suggest asking someone like @Gandalf to see if he can arrange for a SNR reset.

[#10]

Hello and thank you so much for your diagnosis, 198kHz! I have just quoted it in our open ticket.

[#11]

YAY, very pleased to report that our line speed has jumped from 0.2 to 21! Thank you, and everyone else, for your kind help. I quote the reply I received through my ticket below.

"I’ve tested your line and can see that you’re staying connected to the internet. However there are some automatic settings on your line which are limiting the speed you’re able to get on the line.

I’ve arranged for the line to be reset to try and fix this. The reset normally takes 4 hours to complete. After 4 hours your router will need to be powered off for 10 seconds and then turned back on. When it reconnects we’d expect the speed to be normal again, but it can take 24 hours before everything fully updates.

As part of resetting your line, this also starts a fresh ‘training period’ on the line. This lasts for 10 days and you may see your speeds vary a little as the line tries to work out the best balance between speed and reliability for you. You may even see that your broadband connection drops a little over this period, but this is perfectly normal."

Whilst in this training period, please make sure that your router stays plugged in and powered up continuously. If you don’t then you will receive a slower speed than your line may have been able to support."

[#12]

---

@kittyinbath wrote:

YAY, very pleased to report that our line speed has jumped from 0.2 to 21! Thank you, and everyone else, for your kind help. I quote the reply I received through my ticket below.

---

Great news!  Thanks for update.  😎