This topic

What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 20:33:12 GMT

Hi, I’m looking for advice about removing BT Openreach boxes from inside our home which we recently moved into. We have fibre now but there are 3 Openreach boxes in different rooms in the house that are now redundant/we will never use them and want to remove them and the wiring to them.

I attached a photo of the CSP outside the front of the house that has 3 wires coming out of it it, 1 is the fibre but the other 2 seem to go to the boxes inside the house. See attached also.

Could someone please help me understand what I can remove myself and is not BT property ? Thanks in advance

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

imjolly — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 21:18:49 GMT

If you have FTTP then you should have an ONT in your home like this

You need to leave the master socket in your home a that is property of openreach but others after master are your responsibility and can be removed. If you have fibre then then the master will never be used so up to you what you want to do but unlikely openreach will be doing a check

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

iniltous — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 21:41:05 GMT

Although technically the master socket should remain in case you moved out and the next occupant wanted to use a provider that wanted to reuse the copper pair , the reality is that once FTTP is installed, it’s the default method of provision, so any new provider would be expected to raise their order using the FTTP ‘connection’ and not try to reuse the copper pair.
Often , if services are delivered overhead from a pole , the FTTP installation tech removes the copper dropwire, ( unless of the unlikely event that telephony is wanted and is remaining on the copper pair ) with underground service they don’t generally remove that cable.
TBH , if you did remove all the copper pair sockets and wiring, no one comes along and and checks, but obviously care needs to be taken not to damage the optical cables.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

36ULW — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 21:47:11 GMT

That CSP looks busy. Plus given how many NTE’s you have either the last owner/tenant was running some kind of business or was a Telecoms Engineer and thought, ‘Because I know how to, I have to’.

Anyway, if the Coppers redundant and you don’t need it rip it out. It’s your house, you do as you want. I can virtually guarantee Openreach will not care, nor will they want a few old NTE’s back.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 21:59:20 GMT

Thanks @imjolly. Yeah, we’ve got the ONT box in the office that is coming from the same CSP as they other old wires but I don’t know how to work out which box is the master!?

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 22:03:41 GMT

Thanks @iniltous, that was my general thinking too. It’s all coming up from a hole in the ground just below the CSP.
I’m not sure which the master socket is, if it is just 1 of them!? Also do you know if I just open the CSP and disconnect the “old” cables from there and the outside of the house? Thanks

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 22:08:32 GMT

Thanks @36ULW! That’s what I thought and part of the reason we want to get rid of them. Very busy at the front of the house on the outside and “redundant” boxes in the house.
Definitely think I’ll be disconnecting and and removing. Do you know if I disconnect from the CSP properly or is it a cut and hide sort of job!? Thanks

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

Weerab1983 — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 07:07:24 GMT

The box on the outside wall is needed for FTTP, as I had the same box when I got FTTP installed.

When I bought my house, the previous occupant also had about 2 additional telephone lines installed, but I just kept them there and in the 5 years I've been there, I have lived with them.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

licquorice — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 07:15:20 GMT

@andywd7 The copper wires won't go to the CSP, that is purely for fibre.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 09:31:04 GMT

Thanks all for your advice so far. Just to be clear I'm fine keeping the grey CSP box on the front of the house along with all the wires going into it from the ground and 1 of the 3 wires coming out of it that is the FTTP.

What I want to do it remove the other two wires coming out of the CSP that are going to other points in the house that match up with 2 of the boxes in images in my original post. I believe the third box is extended from one of the other boxes as I've found the wire in the loft space being split to another, just phone line, socket upstairs. I've attached a basic image to show the layout of the boxes and connections, red is what I want to remove.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

licquorice — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 09:52:47 GMT

The copper wires shouldn't be going into the CSP, that is purely a splicing point between the external and internal fibres. The CSP housing has possibly been used unconventionally to also joint the internal and external copper lines.

Can you post a photo of the inside of the CSP?

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:19:32 GMT

Thanks @licquorice for getting me to open the CSP! From what it looks like to me is that the old cables have all been disconnected and tied off already (wires to the bottom right of the CSP) and the external wiring just left on the outside of the house. There is actually only 1 wire going in and 1 going out that is attached and that is the FTTP.

So it seems to me that I can just remove everything I want to safely as it's already been disconnected but wires were left where they were as that was easier/not part of the job of setting the FTTP up.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

licquorice — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:42:12 GMT

No, it's as I suspected, the internal cabling has been crimped to the external cable just using the CSP housing to hide the crimps.

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

andywd7 — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 11:47:24 GMT

I understand. So can I just disconnect/"uncrimp" them and remove the wiring that goes into the house? Thanks

Re: What wiring and boxes can I remove from home?

36ULW — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 16:01:09 GMT

The newer CSP, as per the one in the OP’s pics are designed to house both a Fibre and Copper Connection.

Its was only the older CSP’s used for BFT that were for Fibre only.