Landline cable and internet cable

[markpaterson1851]

Years ago (I mean years) when BT first supplied ADSL our house was fitted as soon as they could.

at the time the engineer stated that it they had to run a separate cable from a junction box that was in the house upstairs to what can only be described as a small modem looking junction box. Then from there into the bt router.

the landline cable is separate from that so can I just cut that out? I can’t unplug it as it’s hard wired into the junction box but we haven’t used a landline in 20 years???

[WSH]

You need to be careful here.

If you are on ADSL or VDSL/FTTC, aka Fibre 1 or Fibre 2, you still get you broadband through that land line.  Cutting it will not be a good experience.

If you are on FTTP, aka "Full" Fibre then that land line cable is redundant.

If you are not sure, I would leave well alone.  Even if you are converted to FTTP, leaving the copper line in place will do no harm.

[naylor2006]

I think pictures on this one might help if you can upload them and get past the forums super strict size limitation!

The junction box might be a socket with built in ADSL filter, assume you have an older copper based broadband product?

In which case if the phone line is after the filter then yes you could cut it out without effecting your broadband, however i'd personally like eyes on first.

[markpaterson1851]

I will get a couple of pictures when I return home, thanks

[naylor2006]

I only take from the 'years' statement and that you put emphasis on 'years' that you are likely to be on an older copper product, WSH mentions fibre which will bring different answers to the question.

When I moved into my house, before FTTP was available there was an old phone line with many different boxes around the house, but there was also Virgin Cable, so I ripped everything out just having the one virgin cable coming in, all the wires inside and outside were super untidy and I didnt need them so I understand the reason for the question.

[rbz5416]

Assuming that you do in fact have an xDSL service, then the landline can't be a separate cable unless you pay for two services? xDSL & telephony are carried on the same line/cable.

What I'm suspecting you might mean is that there is one cable from this junction box to your router & another going to a telephone. If that's the case then you do away with the cable feeding the telephone if you wish but be careful of cutting it, as you could introduce a short that will kill the broadband.

If you don't have devices connected to the router by ethernet, another consideration would be to have the junction box removed & replaced with a master socket, then relocate the router upstairs. That usually provides better WiFi coverage & will do away with the excess wiring.

But as above, pics are probably the best way forward as well as confirming that this junction box is where the cable comes in. Some older properties have a "star" configuration where the incoming cable goes to an external junction box & extensions come off of that in all directions.

Note that pics need to be either hosted on an external site or be no larger than 330kb to post directly.