Securing of external cable

[Alan_in_Hemel]

My original underground telephone cable was faulty and after much frustration argument and delay, eventually BT re-laid the cable to my property. At the time and presumably to save money the cable was run outside an external wall.

I am currently having a burglar alarm installed. The supplier has said the cable run makes my property vulnerable to someone cutting this and disconnecting the alarm system from the monitoring centre. They have advised me to get the cabling made more secure.

Any suggestions as to how I go about this?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Alan_in_Hemel 

You would probably have to ask for an external shift of the cabling. It may actually be called an internal shift.

There would be a charge for this and you would have to request it via BT.

You may be able to cover it yourself with metal trunking in the area which is vulnerable.

[Will168]

@Alan_in_Hemel I'm not sure whether this is going to be useful advice to you or not, but I thought it might be worth a mention nonetheless...

I'm currently speaking to my alarm company about the 10 year old system we have. It is monitored and requires an active telephone line for it to work. However, BT are moving us to digital voice soon and the alarm company said the alarm will no longer work as monitored. Therefore, I'm waiting for a call back from them, so that we can discuss upgrade options to their newer smart alarm systems, which are also monitored, but work on wifi and have a backup SIM option in case the wifi goes down. I have the smart version in another home and the cost for it was £800.

I know that I could argue with BT about trying to keep the old copper telephone line for longer, but I feel like it's just delaying the inevitable, as there is a push to decommission the old copper lines and I guess at some point in time, they just won't exist any more.

I mention it because if you're thinking of taking out a new alarm that relies on a copper phone line, you may wish to consider that eventually (whether sooner or later), you may end up having to pay hundreds of pounds to upgrade it at some point.

You might have thought about this already, in which case, just ignore what I said! But it wasn't something I had considered as a downside to digital voice until yesterday.

[Alan_in_Hemel]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The existing cable comes out of the ground at one side of my property and then runs along the front external wall, very visibly, to the other side of my property to then enter and link up with the existing internal wiring.  Metal trunking could be an answer but there would be a lot of it and could be unsightly. A better option from my perspective would be to link up in the street on the other side of the property but I would guess this would be expensive.

The alarm supplier has suggested upgrading to a SIM card back up system. There is an increased monthly fee for this, however it is the easiest solution.

[Will168]

@Alan_in_Hemel Taking the option that doesn’t fully rely on the telephone line is a good option!

After much wrangling yesterday with my alarm supplier, it will end up costing £425 to replace the current alarm with a new system that will work on wifi with SIM backup!

[licquorice]

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@Alan_in_Hemel wrote:

The alarm supplier has suggested upgrading to a SIM card back up system. There is an increased monthly fee for this, however it is the easiest solution.

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And, I suspect, not only the cheapest option but also future proofed.

[Alan_in_Hemel]

Hi @Will168 

It is worth looking around. My existing supplier, who were unable to stop their system giving me false alarms, quoted £1,700 for a replacement.  Three other suppliers quoted £350 to £500 for the same system.  (Not monitored).  I have eventually gone for monitored one with the SIM card back up and video doorbell for £621.  The downside is the monthly maintenance cost of £40, which does include video storage.