Looking to reconnect telephone line, move master socket.

[Tamzaghi9]

I am in the process of moving to a new house (previously owned by my mother in law) and I want to get the phone reconnected and move the master socket as it is currently on a wall we are going to knock down.

I don't want to have to sign up to any products with BT, but they were the provider before my wifes mother passed away.

I am struggling to find any information on who to contact to get these done, as all options either want you to be a customer or to sign up. Can anyone help?

Ta

[imjolly]

you can get a telecom engineer probably from local paper who will move your master socket cheaper than getting openreach but to get an active phone line you are going to need to take out a contract with an ISP.  You need to bear in mind that the existing copper phone line PSTN is due to stop in 2025 and phone connection will then be via the internet VOIP.  in some areas copper lines PSTN are no longer available

[Tamzaghi9]

Thanks so just to confirm, if I call BT and ask them to reconnect the phone line, I would have to take out a contract with them as my provider? I can, however, move my current supplier to my new house, and they will be able to process the reconnection without the need for BT?

[infinitywaiter]

As long as the ITE is trained by Openreach to do this, or they were employed previously by Openreach for example.

You might get some ITE who won't touch it and tell you that is for Openreach to maintain and move any NTE5C MK2 sockets from BT etc.

Also, note that if you tried Openreach directly, they would only do residential if you were going through ISP like BT for example, and as you've mentioned, that route is a no go for yourself.

Talking of yourself, you could do it yourself. However, the yourself route and an untrained ITE route could leave you with more complications and costs in the future, if you have any issues that need fixing by a properly trained ITE.

You would be looking at around £100 to £150 to have it done, some might charge less or more, however make sure that they are properly trained for it.

Finally, make sure the workmanship done is of a professionalism that you would expect, I've seen many through main job where Openreach and ITE leave things in a poor state that need fixing before they departed.

Thankfully, all Openreach and ITE we've had for our own home premises have been ideal.

As mentioned with PSTN, the home phonelines will all be switched off in Dec 2025 and they have already stopped selling in most areas and will end completely in September, hence why the likes of BT do broadband deals with the option of landline or no landline included now.

https://help.business.bt.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55133/~/the-pstn-and-isdn-switch-off%3A-what-it...

However, note that this won't affect yourself as it is only for selling the service, your master socket will still work until Dec 2025, providing it is connected to a provider.

[infinitywaiter]

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If you already have BT and want to move it to the other property, then check out BT Moving page for starters...

https://www.bt.com/manage/moving-home/

If you are wanting to have BT phone line reinstated, it can be free or at a cost, then read here and other appropriate pages from it...

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/getting-set-up/costs-and-charges/how-much-does-it-cost-to-install-a...

If you want to move your existing supplier to the other property, then you should simply contact your existing supplier and they should be able to move it all to the other property.

Although, without knowing what other supplier you are referring to, there might be additional costs added on if anything extra has to be installed etc.

Like if you moved property with Virgin Media, you would need to make sure you could access it at the new property first....

[Devon_Dave]

@infinitywaiter  what is ITE please? 

[infinitywaiter]

ITE / Independent Telecom Engineer

[iniltous]

If you want the existing line master socket moved it could be simple and done by by a  tradesman from the local  paper , or yourself ( although strictly speaking you should only use OR or someone with OR authority to touch OR infrastructure ) and if the line were overhead and simply needs rerouting away from the wall to be removed , that’s one thing , but if an underground cable ( for example ) went directly to the rear of the master socket , then rerouting this external cable may be outside the scope of a DIYer or a person from the local paper .

As far as not wanting to use BT , then why post on a BT Consumer forum ?, if you use Sky ( for example ) surely your questions should be asked of them , whoever you want to use should be able to takeover the existing line but in exactly the same place as it is now , a line takeover irrespective of the provider doesn’t come with a engineering visit , they simply remotely restart  the existing line  with whichever ISP you want to use, moving the socket and taking over service are separate issues.