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Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

sean70 — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 22:03:50 GMT

Having just had fibre-to-premises broadband with Digital Voice installed, I find that my two wired phone extensions no longer work. I had specifically raised this concern when discussing my order for fibre with BT sales, and they assured me that my extensions would be fine.

I called BT fault-reporting and the advice I got was to buy some BT digital voice phones and connect them wirelessly to my Smart Hub. However one wired extension phone is outside the WI-Range of the hub, being at the opposite end of the house.

I checked out the online phone troubleshooter at My BT and it led me through a series of steps including bringing my extension phone unit up to the router, plugging it in the back and checking that it worked. When this proved positive it offered me a Wired Extension Re-Enablement Kit at the click of a button.

Has anyone obtained one of these kits, what does it contain and does it work? Another thread on this site explored fixing the problem by DIY, which apparently involves disconnecting the old incoming copper wires at the master socket, and plugging the internal house phone wiring into the back of the Smart Hub using a male-to-male phone cable. Several members vouched that this works. If so why does BT not offer to do it for us? Any comments or advice most welcome. I want to keep my wired extensions, if possible.

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

jac_95 — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:02:39 GMT

Hi sean70,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

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Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

iniltous — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 06:41:41 GMT

If so why does BT not offer to do it for us?

Extensions and associated wiring are not your provider or Openreach’s responsibility, even extensions that were originally provided by ‘BT’ are not maintained by them , so why does BT not offer to do this voice reinjection , well for one thing how do you estimate costs , the time and effort will vary widely, from a single wired extension in a small property to many extensions over a large area , so any ‘offer’ to do this would need a paid for estimate and then the actual charge , I’d wager once the actual cost was known ( if BT used their own employees ) most wouldn’t be happy with the amount being asked.

You can of course employ your own tradesperson if the not particularly difficult job was not to be done on a ‘DIY’ basis.

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

licquorice — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:19:35 GMT

As already stated, your home wiring is your responsibility, not your provider's.

A double ended BT431 cord to connect the master socket to the hub phone socket is all that is needed.

Simply disconnect the incoming wires and connect socket to hub, a 30 second job.

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

sean70 — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:04:12 GMT

The “not particularly difficult job” shouldn’t be too expensive for BT to offer at fibre installation time then. The number and distance of internal extensions is irrelevant. They all come back to the Master socket !

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

sean70 — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:20:13 GMT

I look forward to trying that, but I’d like to know if anyone has seen one of the Wired Extension Re-Enabling Kits referred to by the BT online Troubleshooter robot. The human GUIDE I was eventually referred to in the fault-reporting process, cancelled my online order for the kit and advised me to buy some more Digital Voice handsets to cover my wired extensions. I have confirmed that the ‘wireless’ connection between the hub and my furthest extension location doesn’t work with the DV handset.

Elsewhere on this site, I learned that the connection between the Smart Hub and the DV handsets is DECT, not Wi-Fi. If it had been Wi-Fi, I could possibly have made use of a Wi-Fi extender. Is there such a thing as a DECT extender ? Anyway I hope to re-connect the extensions by wire as suggested. Just like to know if the aforementioned BT kit for the job is real and has anyone managed to get one ?

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

licquorice — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:26:40 GMT

Can't help regarding the kit, but as far as DECT extenders are concerned, yes they are available but anecdotally they don't work with BT's implementation of DECT!!

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

imjolly — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:27:00 GMT

As posted you just need double ended BT431 cord to connect the master socket to the hub phone socket and can be bought in DIY store or bought on amazon

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

iniltous — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 13:12:57 GMT

it’s not a particularly difficult job , but sometimes easy jobs can be time consuming, but to have a standard charge, an average time/cost would be used , decades ago , an official extension being provided ( if memory serves correctly ) was over £100 ( that’s not one fitted at the same time as the line but on its own to an existing line ) so today , ballpark , £100 extra to connect your legacy extension wiring to DV ( this on the basis on having FTTP installed and getting DV rather than DV being supplied over ADSL/FTTC ) .

For some this may be a reasonable, the FTTP ONT fitted no where near the existing copper wiring so a considerable amount of work ( time wise not technically difficult ) , but what about those that get the ONT fitted next to the NTE , then it’s £100 for less than a 5 minute job , would you be happy with that .

If it’s beyond your DIY skill set , no one is stopping you getting it done , it just won’t be by BT or Openreach , if it were on offer from BT no doubt you would baulk at the asking price .

Lastly , all extensions go back to the master socket , only insofar that they should be ran in series ( daisy chain ) but there will be many DIY extensions that are not run in the ‘correct’ way .

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

sean70 — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 14:26:30 GMT

I went back to the online fault checker on MyBT to try and find the offer of a Wired Extension Re-Enabling Kit, but I kept going around in circles and couldn’t get to the same page again. I remember being asked to bring my (non-working) extension handset to the Smart Hub and see if it works when plugged in there, and it did. When I clicked ‘Yes’ indicating that the extension handset was capable of working on DV, then it threw up the page which said “You need a Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit”, please click here to order one. I ordered it, but a BT adviser subsequently cancelled my order. Has anyone else found that page.

When I try to re-trace my steps it asks me what product is faulty and I click LANDLINE and the next page has a number of questions relating to broadband e.g. “Have you difficulty getting online?”, “Is your connection slow?”.

I’d just like to know if the Wireless Extension Re-Enabling Kit is real and has anyone ever got one and what if contains e.g. a male to males phone cable and a 2-way splitter for the back of the hub?

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

licquorice — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 14:49:15 GMT

It will be grossly overpriced whatever it consists of. 😀😀

Re: Wired Extension Re-enabling Kit

sean70 — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:28:32 GMT

Well it cost me just under a fiver (£4.99) for a good quality male to male phone cord and a half hour’s fiddly work with screwdriver and wire snips. And it works. It should have been a lot faster, but my multiple extension wiring is complicated, for historical reasons. The phone line comes into our house to a connector box from which one extension is fed directly (it is very far away at the back of the property, beyond DECT range and the cable runs around the outside of the house). I’d never have got that one working without this fix.

From the incoming connector box, a cable runs to the bedroom phone socket which is wired as a master socket and feeds 2 telephone extensions both of which also have Openreach 5C Mk4 Master Sockets (They put them in, not me!) I removed the incoming wires at the first (bedroom) Master socket and plugged my router into the convenient phone socket in the hall (which is technically an extension although it’s a 5C box). No joy.

The two extensions I need to re-enable were silent. I guessed this was because they were wired from that first Master, so I reconnected the incoming pair into that little clip marked A and B and instead snipped the blue and orange wires as they come into the house at the connector box by the window in the bedroom - BINGO !

I now have two working phone extensions remote from the router and, via a two way phone splitter, I also have a hall phone plugged into the Smart Hub. Thanks to the phone gurus in this forum who spelled out how this can be done. Shame on BT for pretending that there would be no problems with my extensions, in order to get a sale. Good luck to anyone else who wants to try this and get those extensions working. I hope the detail I have given helps. You really have to remove those incoming pair of wires at their first connector.