UK Telephone Wiring, Sockets, Cabling, ADSL / VDSL Filters, Extensions.

Overview of UK telephone installations, master and secondary sockets, ADSL/VDSL filtered sockets, connecting wires to sockets, joining wires together, which wires are actually required and colour codes normally used.
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[@vwthings]

Said this before John but you'd make an EXCELLENT radio dj with your dry approach to items that are clearly not up to scratch. John Ward, the John Peel of the electricians world. "Hello, I'm JW"

[@readmore4342]

John Peel...showing your age there lol Great comment .

[@duci71k]

Well John..that was the best description of how the to understand those 2 wires coming into the house that I have seen on the internet. Superb, very well spoken with a touch of humour that had me laughing for hours after I viewed it. You are a true professional and that was a masterclass not to be missed. Thank you sir...

[@rcortland]

Even though a good deal of your content is UK-specific and perhaps not terribly relevant on my side of the Atlantic, it's presented well and is still very interesting. I enjoy understanding how things work and differ in other parts of the world.

[@Agent24Electronics]

Actually all this is very similar in New Zealand too, but we don't have those master sockets with the removable test plate, and maybe the wiring colours are different.

[@Ivorbiggin]

Agent24 Same in Australia But having said a lot of people are moving away from home phones now

[@Danechip]

@@Ivorbiggin Don't you have a boomerang on string? Worked for Mick Dundee :D

[@alexcantley9137]

Britain is now going IP starting this year 😃

[@dlarge6502]

@@alexcantley9137 oh god no

[@lylewatts6370]

Very interesting and I always learn something new, as an electrical contractor in Canada we do have some things in common. Thanks for the informative video.

[@Bin216]

In that micro filter, one of the capacitors generates a new ring wire at the BT socket, presumably to minimise noise coming from the upstream ring wire.

[@Danechip]

It does ! Nice one Bryn. (what a Welsh name you have there sir)

[@BrianG61UK]

Yes. And despite having acquired a large collection of DSL filters including several different types I have never seen it done any other way.

[@g0fvt]

Quickly reverse engineering from a freezeframe at 26:53 you can see that the ADSL/VDSL port is a direct connection to the line and there is a low-pass filter to the phone port. Nevertheless an interesting video, those jelly crimps look damn useful.

[@Graham_Langley]

Correct. And there's a bell ring cap after the filter.

[@JohnnyMotel99]

I love the way you keep saying, not "supposed" to be moved.

[@Graham_Langley]

Some corrections and further info typed as I watched the video. 1) The spark gap has been deleted from modern NTEs as it apparently was found to adversely affect VDSL signals. 2) The 470k resistor is called the out-of-service resistor and is there to permit remote line testing when there are no phones connected. If it's not there the automated exchange test equipment will flag it as faulty. 3) The jelly in crimps is petroleum jelly. 4) The filters work the other way round to that which you state. The ADSL/VDSL modem is connected directly to the line, the voice/phone connection is filtered. You can clearly see this on the PCB of the Sky filter. 5) The Sky filter needs only the two line connections as it has its own bell/ring capacitor - the big red/brown one - after the voice filter and you can [see] its connection to the voice/phone socket. A phone connected to it will ring as normal. Many phones have a two-wire connection and don't use the master socket/NTE bell wire. 6) I'm afraid you've got it wrong about extensions with a filtered NTE. Because of the filter on the voice/phone connection any extension wiring causes no problems with the ADSL/VDSL side. Here there's a filtered NTE. The unfiltered ADSL/VDSL connection goes off to the remote modem via some 2-pair Cat5 (BT spec) and the filtered voice connection goes off to multiple sockets around the house with no effect on the VDSL side.

[@Graham_Langley]

Twelve hours later and no corrections - that's encouraging 8-)

[@g0fvt]

Graham, I found your contribution interesting, I had not dissected a faceplate so assumed the VDSL port was high pass filtered and the phone circuit low pass filtered, I have learnt something! FWIW I put a common mode choke in the VDSL cable and it seemed to gain me about 0.5dB of noise margin....

[@Graham_Langley]

@@g0fvt I've got a spare last-generation NTE filter faceplate here somewhere that I could pull apart for 100% confirmation. As for the CM choke and 0.5dB noise margin gain, what download speed increase did that give, assuming you're not on one of the services like PlusNet where the speed is capped to 40/80Mbps instead of being limited by the noise margin.

[@NeneExists]

@@Graham_Langley the maximum speed available from the VDSL DSLAMs used by openreach is 80Mbps downstream sync, but if you pay less the equipment can be set on a profile to limit the sync speed to 40 Mbps. If you're really lucky you really can get the full 80 Mbps. By the way, the gel crimps now seem to have silicone based goo instead of petroleum.

[@g0fvt]

Graham Langley, sadly I could not get any speed increase, the noise margin is still not much above 6dB. Currently my wife pays the utility bills and I am not sure which package we are on, I suspect we have hit the 40Mb/S ceiling.

[@6A8G]

Thank you so much for explaining this - I could never get my head around how/why the ringer terminal was derived. The primary/secondary sockets are the same in NZ:)

[@Equiluxe1]

Before it was BT it was the General Post office,they owned all the line including any inside your house and they had the right to enter your house at any time to inspect any apparatus connected and the wiring. Most phones were hard wired but there was also quarter inch phono sockets if you wanted to be able to move the one instrument allowed around the house.

[@stevecraft00]

My grandmas new bungalow has a master socket with gpo on it.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Steve Craft - Back when it was the GPO, the ringing capacitor was typically in one of the phones. Then all the bells in the phones were wired in series.

[@Blade-420]

same here in the US when Bell telephone ran things. you had to use THEIR phones, and if you messed with the wiring, and it caused a problem down the line you could be fined. SO glad those days are over 😅

[@paulgrimshaw6301]

Even on the example DSL filter circuit board you can clearly see that the modem connection is wired straight through to the incoming line. The filtering is between phone and line, to prevent the phone interfering with DSL and vice-versa. That's why you require a filter on every phone sharing the line (or multiple phone sockets sharing a master filter), and conversely a socket with just the modem connected doesn't need a filter at all. The reason most filters have a modem socket as well is (a) to avoid you needing a separate line splitter where you want both phone and modem on the same socket, and (b) to allow you to use an RJ11 connector for your modem instead of using an RJ11 to BT adaptor cable.

[@actorzone856]

I worked in the telecommunications industry in Australia we have come a long way in a short time, now we have the NBN, I have Optic Fibre to the my home, copper network is still used in the country but they are still upgrading that network, optic fibre solved lots of technical problems and maintenance,

[@protectiongeek]

Interesting video as usual, John - thank you. Was amused to see that you use the 'jellies' for cable jointing. I stopped using these years ago in Scottish Power for network protection pilot cables (7pr, 12pr, 19pr, 27pr, 37pr, etc) as we found them to be VERY unreliable.We still used good old-fashioned 'twist-and-tip' using soldering of cores and then wrapping each soldered joint in VR sheeting to insulate it. It was/is my understanding that BT/Openreach stopped using these jelly crimps many years ago but I could be wrong about that!

[@martinda7446]

PS. Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers. I only just noticed. Amazing.

[@Danechip]

I'm sorry, I am loving this video JW. I was pausing the video to comment on what has been posted and my own comments on the video. I did not watch it until the end before answering other comments. Lesson learned. Jelly 'tots' as we called them, I would bite them down lol.

[@123mikeyd321]

Excellent simple explanation, especially about the ring conductor and the second pair. If could make one comment though, and it's really insignificant. The old-school microfilters (like the sky one) are low pass to block high frequencies. Sorry for being a nerd but at 24:35 I was getting worried but the diagrams all made sense. As you no doubt know, (and I know it's not a filter tutorial so again, sorry but I can't help myself) ADSL routers (AKA Modems) always have a high pass filter at the front end anyway.

[@frasercurrie7267]

Very informative. Also your voice helped put my child to sleep so thanks for that.

[@andrewchurchley5705]

Thanks JW, very clear and de-mystifies all the cut and try amateur hacking I've done over the years!

[@mxgrmn]

John you are a legend, I'm up and running again

[@wrdcc01]

John, great work as always, may I add that the incoming cable (standard drop wire or lead in has 2 pairs, green/black and orange/blue. Green black are spares or line 2 and blue orange are the primary a and b to the NTP (Network Termination Point) or internal point. White/blue and solid blue then become the a and b internally on terminals 2 and 5 of all the sockets. Orange is used for the bell balance wire (term 3) if required and the greens are used for earth, old hat earth recall to summon operator, pull dial tone (earth loop recall), hold line or to activate Star Services. Regards Dean

[@timbo19]

small correction - the incoming drop wire has green/black and orange/white, not blue.

[@rarbiart]

It's a joy to see all those speciaties from the era before q993 became an international standard. (And yes, i remember the introduction of CRT21/TBR21 in the late 1990ies.)

[@gazgano]

When you need a brush up. 1st class John. Thanks.

[@AndyK.1]

Dear John! The internet router is connected directly to the external line. It’s the phone sockets which are filtered to stop voice interference with the data.

[@peterhurst]

Sometimes, but the better filters isolate both. Some early modems had problems with some cheap telephones generating hf noise affecting the signal

[@Danechip]

Uhm, No it is not. Never has and never will be unless A. You hard wire it yourself. B. You have Fiber To The Home (FTTH). Think lightning strikes Dear Andy.. Just sayin'

[@peterhurst]

@@Danechip tbf it can be and I've seen it done but its not good or normal as you say

[@AndyK.1]

Lightning strikes. You replace router. Suppressor unlikely to protect against all strikes anyway.

[@peterhurst]

@@AndyK.1 from what I recall it was originally in there as a replacement for the one in the 706

[@dj_paultuk7052]

Re Colours. Openreach just use regular CAT5 now, with the primary line always using Blue/Blue-White. I work in construction and spend alot of time moving tel lines. OpenReach can now install "Temporary Site DP's" for certain industry's, such as Construction. With these you have permission to add lines yourself, or remove / move lines around.

[@mark123655]

Was wondering about that.. using Cat5/6 and RJ11 or RJ45 has been standard in Australia for most internal wiring for 5-10 years. Means that former phone wires can be quickly reused for data to serve PCs, TVs or WiFi APs fairly easily. All our voice is going VOIP.

[@maximusg88]

Do you think a house built in 2008 would have that in the walls? Wouldn't need the telephone extension socket - but wouldn't mind using it as an ethernet port

[@tomschmidt381]

Interesting discussion about land line telephone wiring. Here on the other side of the pond, telephone implementation is similar but slightly different. 1) Since US deregulation in the mid-1980s the phone company installs a NID, network interface device, very similar to the UK master socket. Modern NIDs use gas tube surge suppression, which replaced the old style carbon block. Being sealed present a very high impedance until the breakdown voltage is reached. The suppressor is connected to both phone wires and ground. This helps reduce both differential mode and common mode voltage spikes. Graham Langley’s comment surprised me because here in the US gas tube suppressors are very common. 2) NIDs often contain a half ringer: Zener diode, resistor and capacitor circuit for the same purpose as the RC network in the UK master socket. They had to be removed in the early days of DSL with pre ITU SDSL. Modern DSL is design to operate in the presence of a half ringer but it does represent a small load so may degrade marginal DSL. 3) In the US the capacitor needed to activate the ringer has always been in the telephone instrument. 4) US homes are normally wired with two pair, because as you mentioned single pair cable is not readily available. 5) The second pair can be used for a second telephone line, very common in the early days of dialup internet access. It was also used in the early days to provide an Earth ground for party line ringing. A party line parallels multiple customers on a single pair of wires and the ground allows selective ringing of each of the two parties. In very rural areas even more customers could share a single expensive phone line. Lastly in the early days of illuminated telephone dials that used an incandescent bulb a small AC transformer sent power down the second pair to illuminate the light. Not that function is performed by a low current LED powered from the phone line. When DSL is used customers have the option of installing a microfilter at each non-DSL device. A better solution is to use a whole house POTS/DSL splitter. Calling it a splitter is somewhat of a misnomer. The DSL modem is feed directly but the splitter has a low pass filter that prevents the high frequencies used for DSL and VDSL from interfering with voice equipment. Not sure how common home alarm systems are in the UK. In the US they are connected ahead of any residential telephone equipment. That way the alarm is able to disconnect an active call if it needs to dial out. Alarm Cell interfaces have become very common for alarms as folks move away from land lines.

[@imark7777777]

Wow thank you for reading my mind. Also on the same side of the pond as you got bored after I learned everything I could and moved on to foreign phone systems. The UK decided that they wanted to mount their ringers on the wall and have lighter phones so they separated out the ringer line to make wearing that easier.

[@peterk75a]

You've taught me something I was always unsure of and that is the bell circuit. A very clear and informative lesson. Thanks very much.

[@petehiggins33]

Fun fact - When you lifted the handset to dial, the phone shorted the bell wire so that the bells in other phones in the house wouldn't tinkle. It was common to hear phones tinkling because the person who had added a second phone extension didn't understand this and hadn't connected the bell wire.

[@Danechip]

@@petehiggins33 And the first word was 'hello'

[@wisteela]

@@petehiggins33 Reminds me when I used to hack connections together at my parents' house 😋

[@norfolkhall]

This was when the phones has dials, and the ringer was a bell. From what I can remember, the circuit was called a "bell shunt circuit" and was activated when you picked up the handset, and the auxiliary spring set operated, and literally shorted out the bell circuit to stop bell tinkle.

[@Danechip]

@@norfolkhall You could also make calls hitting it quickly in succession.

[@Aaron-jk9zj]

Pretty similar to Australia but we don't have the third conductor. We have the cable coming straight in and star-wired from either the first socket, up in the ceiling space located at the furthest point from the man-hole, or a combination of the two, which makes ADSL and especially VDSL run poorly from signal reflections and stuff, and you have low-pass filters on every phone. But most places that are done correctly have a central filter outside in a junction box on the side of the house where there's also lightning protection going from both tip/earth and ring/earth and two pairs (Cat5e) going inside the house, one for XDSL (going to only one socket) and the other for phone which can just be star-wired no worries.

[@paulconnolly9414]

Great video ! thanks for taking the time to make it 👍

[@michaelsimpson6603]

Great explanation, as always, many thanks.

[@peteb2]

Hailing from New Zealand we for many years had the system virtually identical to that in the UK for telephone domestic installation. The advent of various ISP services in the last decade saw many changes culminating in an option for Fibre connection at the home. An Optical Network Terminal (ONT) is installed which is mains powered converting Fibre to copper in the home. You are then obliged to lose your old copper telt setup & rely on the Fibre. The only problem is that the instant mains power fails you have no landline telephone as the ONT has no power supply backup. Too bad in an emergency, the belief being your mobile phone will always work!

[@wwsxa39]

Most new new build estates are now only provided with a fibre connection requiring an powered ONT. These initially had a battery backup unit connected to provide a brief period of phone connection during a power outage. Lately the battery backup is not being provided as most telephones require power to actually work so will not work during a power outage anyway.

[@dlarge6502]

@@wwsxa39 thats their convenient excuse

[@Mike_5]

Nice video JW as usual and if i can just add to your comments that the origin of the 3 wire bell ring arrangement goes back to the days when we had dial phones which pulsed the line and the setup was to suppress bell tinkle as you dialled each digit but also incorporate the OOS (Out of Service) resistor so that remote line testing can take place and more common now so automatic DLM (Dynamic Line Management) can perform tests on your Broadband line and adjust the transmission characteristics of the telephone circuit even as you rightly say nothing is connected (e.g. new builds).

[@millomweb]

Had an intermittent fault on our line for years - it might even still be there. The fault was/is the line tester - or at least the contacts that disconnect the line from the service in order to test the line.

[@signature50]

Very useful video and very entertaining too, many thanks. I needed to re-think the location of master and slave sockets for various reasons, and watching this answered all of my questions. Also nice to see the Hammond organ in the background on the final scene, hard to see which model but I suspect an L100 / T100?

[@williamsjm100]

Amazingly useful video, many thanks.

[@twocvbloke]

A note about GPO telephones, in an "unconverted" state, they contain the ringing capacitor, and therefore work as a 2-wire phone, breaking out to 3 or 4 wires at the hard-wired terminal block and going into the phone where depending on its' configuration will send the appropriate voltages to the ringer when on-hook... :)

[@Graham_Langley]

Good point - I don't think anyone's mentioned that the external ringing cap only appeared with the introduction of the master/secondary socket which allowed multiple phones on a line so bell tinkle suppression had to be handled differently.

[@warrensmith7321]

Brilliant Video very clear and easy to understand.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Had to unplug cable 3 on ours some years ago. People told me it was the "bell" wire. Internet got better after unplugging.

[@lelandclayton5462]

Here in the states we don't have POTs lines anymore, it's all VoIP and Cellular. The old Analog was Christmas Trees and Bumble Bees (Line 1 Red/Green and Line 2 Black/Yellow). Now we use Cat 5e or higher with the Blue and Orange Pairs. Kinda miss the old Analog systems.

[@patrickwigmore3462]

What a charming mnemonic!

[@imark7777777]

You must be one of those lucky people in a city out on the other side of the states there's still a lot of copper. At least until Frontier loses all their customers to Comcast going from pots and DSL to coax cable and VOIP.

[@PaulSteMarie]

Interesting. The UK "master socket" looks equivalent to what we call "demarcs" in the US. The old four wire cable in the US is red/green/black/yellow, red/green is the primary line, black/yellow the secondary. More modern wiring uses the structured color code which handles up to 25 pairs. Your two pair matches the first two pairs. The pair themselves are called ring & tip, which dates back to old switchboards. US ring voltage is typically 90V square wave and isn't broken out to a separate line.

[@imark7777777]

I've heard 90 volt sine wave but other areas might have been different. The separate ring line was I believe to move the bells off the phone and make the phone lighter and the bells would get mounted to the wall optionally with a switch another historical fact. Fascinated with phones in the US I ran out of things to research in the US and moved on to foreign phone systems.

[@Mark1024MAK]

In the U.K., the separation out of the bell / ringer line was (1) so that the telephones did not need a ringing capacitor (2) to limit the ringing current and (3) to simplify the wiring when more than one socket / phone was in use. The earlier method if you had more than one phone (but same line) was to have fixed connections (no sockets and plugs), one phone had the ringing capacitor connected, then the bells in all the extension phones were wired in series.

[@brianleeper5737]

The old four wire cable in the US was only ever intended for exposed installations on baseboards. It was never intended to be used for in-wall pre-wiring, but that is what it ended up being used for. Pre-wiring installed by Bell would have been either 3-pair or 6-pair, but after the breakup of Bell, pre-wiring was done by electricians who didn't know any better and used the wrong type of cable. This despite the correct paired wire being available at the same supply house where they likely bought the incorrect cable.

[@Mark1024MAK]

Reading back my earlier comment about the U.K. telephone wiring, I should say that four wire is only generally used within buildings. The line from the overhead pole is one pair/two core drop wire (that uses steel wire) or one quad/two pair/four core external cable if it is a burred/underground route. And I did not mention the fourth reason that the bell/ringing signal was separated out, it is less relevant these days with dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling (dialling), but when BT introduced this system, loop disconnect signalling (dialling) was still common. This could cause bell tinkle on the other telephone(s) if there was more than one telephone and more than one “master” socket (will bell/ringing capacitor) connected to the same line.

[@Puckoon2002]

I always have at least one corded phone, cordless phones won"t work if there is a power failure in your area, the cordless base unit will stop working but the corded phone is powered from the exchange.

[@Graham_Langley]

Agreed. you should always have a simple wired phone in the house somewhere. The one here is by the bed and not fixed to the wall - someone I knew had a stroke during the night, fell out of bed and couldn't reach the wall-mounted phone...

[@pingumcping]

Just use your mobile like a normal person...

[@dlarge6502]

@@pingumcping I got rid of my mobile years ago. Much better lifestyle now.

[@richardlaszcz6047]

Thank you. Very clear exposition

[@PlasmaHH]

Rather interesting differences. Around here each house gets usually at least 4 or so twisted pair cables that terminate into one of these boxes where you need an LSA tool to connect your wires to. Also since we largely are forced to switch to VoIP DSL splitters are mostly a thing of the past.

[@wwsxa39]

BT are phasing out PSTN service and are planning to migrate to fibre optic service. This is going to take quite a while, so in the interim they are planning on closing the exchanges and providing VOIP service from the road side RDSLAM cabinets.

[@mistermartin82]

I'm pretty sure the explanation for the ASDL filter at 25:00 is wrong. The ADSL signal isn't filtered (its just a straight tap), the phone part is filtered to filter the high frequencies out (allowing low frequency to pass). The reason being is that the phones predate ADSL and are unpredictable in how they will react(often producing interference), the ADSL modem on other hand expects the phone signal and deals with it no problem

[@Graham_Langley]

Agreed. A lot of modern phones have a common-mode choke on the line connection, presumably to help prevent problems with ADSL/VDSL signals on an unfiltered line.

[@g0fvt]

@@Graham_Langley I agreed with your previous point, however the common mode chokes are mostly to deal with RF line imbalance, this reduces the interference to radio from the line and also the lines vulnerability to radio transmissions. Re-reading your post I agree, damn I hate it when that happens :-)

[@Graham_Langley]

@@g0fvt And now I look at my post I realise wasn't thinking clearly about this. I'll have to dig out the circuit I was trying to recall - I used the line filter components from scrap phone for a line audio monitor I needed a few years back.

[@Danechip]

Another one JW. Pin 3 is needed to be connected on the other extensions for that bell to ring. Since if you have a broadband in use, you need to use microfilters on any other phones used on those extensions. Those extensions do not need a pin 3 connection as the microfilter will take care of this. Pin 3 will LOWER the data speed if still connected tests have proven. I could only get 368 ish of my 512 until I cut this link. (512k people, back in 2000) .

[@wwsxa39]

Later NTE5s had a bell wire filter fitted to the extension plate so that the bell wire didn't need to be connected.

[@28YorkshireRose12]

Quick and dirty ringback test if 17070 doesn't work in your area - dial 123, wait for the speaking clock (At the third stroke, the time from BT will be. . . . . . ), press 'R' and wait for the dial tone, then replace the handset - if you have access to the speaking clock, you should also be able to get an automatic ringback. When the phone rings, pick up the handset, hear the voice, then replace the handset.

[@millomweb]

We had 6 core cables on our old phones (pre cordless) as we had a 4+1 system in the house. Terminals 1 and 6 are used for 'recall' - i.e. features to control the exchange - such as hold, call divert, conference call etc.

[@AndyK.1]

Thought pin 4 was for recall.

[@millomweb]

@@AndyK.1 If so what are 1 & 6 for then ? Can't seem to find answers on internet - all too old ;)

[@wwsxa39]

1 & 6 are used for the extra functionality of a PBX system (for offces etc) whch use system telephones and not standard phones.

[@millomweb]

@@wwsxa39 Does that include recalling the PBX ?

[@wisteela]

Very informative and interesting

[@imark7777777]

I'll give you credit for a very good video but the filter filters out the high frequency from The Voice side of the jack and usually just passes straight through to the DSL modem unaltered. Essentially flip flop from your diagram this also prevents picking up a voice line and breaking the high-frequency connection to the modem and knocking off the internet. I am very fascinated with telephones to the extent that I have research UK telephone wiring even though I live in the u.s. for some strange reason.

[@garybrownlee6537]

Looks like you drew an "exchange only" line. Most folks have at least one cab between them and the exchange. There will normally be a bunch of pairs between each so there is some redundancy incase one pair goes bad, each join also causes issues with reflections etc.

[@GrahamDenison]

Gary Brownlee as you say nearly all lines come via a “street box”, these can contain the modems in the case of FTTC lines, line boosters and all sorts of monitoring kit (for line loop back tests etc)

[@Blade-420]

up until 5:56 ,everything is exactly the same here in the US. except your phone jack connectors are different. we use RJ-11 which has a smaller tab on the bottom opposed to the larger one on the side of yours. and is used for both phone and Internet connections. our phone system does not have a master jack with all the circuitry.just punch down , or screw terminals on the cheaper varieties. using the Green [Tip] and red wire [ring] for line 1 and yellow and black for line 2. we also have an optional inside line wire maintenance. service, in which the phone co. comes in and repairs any faults, problems at a ongoing monthly cost, or you can DYI , if you are familiar with the wiring.

[@AE-mu1jc]

Thanks for this Video! But Anno 2019 the should use VoIP in UK same in the other parts of this world. So the most phone part things now are different to this video. BTW: I love the phone sockets from UK. Good idea and very good changeable!

[@dlarge6502]

In the UK when we are forced onto VOIP we will still use all the same sockets and connections and phones.

[@naimsaby9473]

Can you please explain house alarm wiring and where to in stall end of line resistor thanks love your videos

[@bostedtap8399]

Excellent tutorial, I think the latest master socket has changed though. Thanks for sharing.

[@peterhurst]

As a time served telephone engineer I expected to pick you up on something but pretty much spot on John. Worth noting there are variations on the sockets and plugs with all pins in which were often used for private circuits. Many 17070 services can do quiet line tests to allow you to listen for crackling caused by wet or bad joints. You're right about the resistor/capacitor arrangement for bell wire and testing but for many many years we didn't exactly use AC to test but a DC tester with a line reverse switch (spring loaded) so generally we did test for any stray battery or earth conditions then rapidly flick the reversal switch to make a rough AC signal to activate the cap. The best engineers could tell you whether the kick was the telephone cap or a faulty pair.

[@Danechip]

It has Tap, but is more relevant to most customers supplied by post with micro filters send in the box.

[@TavsIsAbout]

If one were wanting to do a simple socket fascia change, what precautions would be needed beforehand? Power, etc..

[@FarukAli-fu1ug]

Most completed blog ever!

[@Graham_Langley]

John, there's no disgrace in admitting you got it wrong about the filtering and a phone connected to the Sky filter not ringing.

[@rhiantaylor3446]

You make the point that most UK houses are served with wires owned by Openreach where you can buy service from a variety of providers. Even houses that have access to Virgin will normally have these Openreach wires, though you may not currently be using them, they can often be brought back into use without major cost. On new estates however, the cable provider may not be Openreach and in this situation you are effectively locked into your current contract - typically for fibre-delivered broadband plus voice (VOIP). I daresay you could retrospectively ask another provider to give service (possibly via Openreach) but I suspect a large one-off charge would then apply. Something to be wary of, perhaps.

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks John

[@drivewasher]

John, Iv'e just had a Virgin Media telephone installed. They now only provide VOIP phone lines via a modem/router. Engineer said ALL new installs are VOIP and some of the origonal wired ones are being replaced with VOIP area by area as soon as they can

[@imark7777777]

LOL that was one of the original modes of DSL which never came to play along with TV but they couldn't get the marketing around it in the US. The ideas was that they would send you a digital circuit and then you would have a box that would break out the signals essentially and everything would communicate digitally over the backbone. Edit another words there a bit late to the party. That must be one of those fancy fiber areas that he was talking about where it's not actually fiber although it does ease the client-side set up for later bringing fiber.

[@dlarge6502]

@@imark7777777 is a Virgin Media line. They are a mix of optical cable or coax cable, mostly coax cable. Most of the video is talking about the old copper lines that BT have, much bigger network but the VM network beats it for speed and capacity being fibre/cable

[@michaelcostello6991]

great info

[@samfarhadi573]

Many thanks Sir 🌺🙏🌹

[@mlight6275]

back in 1995 worked for mercury and bt owned all exchanges but mercury ran admin and service cheaper so rented out lines cheaper, mobile companies used same system... then went on to installing and managing premium rate call centres and fitting exchanges... a you tube channel called my mate vince is run by an ex telephone engineer and is very interesting..

[@thpxs0554]

Very good info you’ve e done your homework. I was 30yrs BT and you’re just about spot on with this, but I’ll add a bit to it.... the resistor is used to deduce whether there’s a phone plugged in. The capacitor is charged up and then reversed and the size of the kick back on the meter tells a lot. The resister damps the kickback if no phone is in, if one or more is in then the R is disconnected and the meter gives a much bigger kickback. There should never be anything teed in before the 1st master jack aka the NTE 5 - network terminating equipment number 5A,B or C. Or the broard band B.B. will really error badly. If a master socket is used as an extension then you can just connect 2/5 either way round but if using a secondary and number 3 for the bell then they have to mirror each other end to end if 2/5 is reversed the bell will ring continuously. But eliminating the bell wire 3 keeps the capacitance balance, hence the series of NTEs that had a bell wire coil in them if you had to use a bell wire on an extension. You can use a secondary jack and just 2/5 and a B.B. filter to allow the ring, which keeps it all simple and reduces B.B. faults. The AB designation was for polarity conscious equipment like the old WB900 carrier shared line systems, if they were reversed the local battery went flat and required a service visit. Some PBX and many other things like alarms and private wires needed lines presented correctly. Number 4 was usually for a functional earth on PBX, for recall and hold but that’s going back decades really. It’s all been timed-break hold and recall for years. A NEGATIVE battery is used, was from wet battery banks in the exchange but now it’s from power banks. Never ever split a pair. That will unbalance the cable electrically and upset the B.B.. lots of B.B. faults and overhearing are caused by split prs in the network ( and splits in the house wiring cause B.B. faults ) and can be a real pain to find. The twist repels electrical interference by having a balanced field around it, if a pr is split over a distance say in a joint outside then 2 ccts will have unbalanced fields and the B.B. will error. It may not show up on a test if the distance is not far but it can ruin the B.B. Unfiltered Extensions in the house or redundant wiring or old mag bells can cause ‘reflections’ that ruin the B.B. so best to use one master, disconnect the rest and use cordless handsets. Unfiltered Sky boxes were awful for causing issues and resulted in a charge to the customer. The neighbours crappy Chinese gadget or even a failing washing machine motor or suppressor on the same mains phase as your house can ruin the B.B. RF ( radio interference) from poorly suppressed mains devices cause many issues. What appears to be simple in theory can be very complicated in reality. I’ve seen lines with earth and battery contacts and unfiltered handsets and the B.B. was working fine and the complaint was noisy speech and others that passed every test but couldn’t carry a B.B. signal. The theory doesn’t always hold up. And never use alarm wiring for phones, it’s not twisted pr, and it’s multi strand and many a householder has paid a sparky to wire out their new house only to find they can’t get internet over the internal wiring, 😃

[@wojciechkonowrocki37]

It may be funny, but when renovating my house I actually used CAT5e to run telephone signal, also the blue pair is used because when you run telephone signal over CAT5e to RJ45 socket you can actually plug in any standard phone cable (in Poland, we use RJ11). In one place I have my master box where everything comes in and btw 100MBPS ethernet only uses green and orange so i ran ADSL over blue pair and backed the Ethernet signal over orange and green, works flawlessly!

[@alerighi]

I would have used two cables, first because ADSL signal can be interfered by ethernet signal and vice versa, second because you would had the option to upgrade to gigabit ethernet more easily. For what it costs a CAT 5e cable better running two just to be future proof.

[@Danechip]

We have RJ11 on the phones but the other end is terminated in 431A that plugs in the wall (Domestic phones). I have not come across any phones that connect to RJ45 without an adapter). As A1eR says, You need all 8 wires for gigabit+ or you will be stuck at 10/100 with just 4. As also mentioned, the 50 Volts CD then the phone would be fine, but anyone ringing changes shit. You then have around 80 volts AC which would play havoc 'cross talking' with the data lines. The very same you do not run data lines parallel with mains power. That will be 100 Sloty please sir 😁

[@H4zuZazu]

@@alerighi Here in DE sometimes the Price for CAT 3 (telephone cable) is often higher than for CAT 7 Cable. So no need to use a CAT.3 and a CAT.7 when you can use CAT./ for everything.

[@Danechip]

@@H4zuZazu I have ran extensions using twin bell in the past. (no pin3 for them to ring though)

[@dexwhitmore]

@JW - Can we get a tear down of a linemans handset? I imagine they're not much different to a standard handset, save for having preprogrammed numbers like 17070 etc?

[@marklittler784]

Like going back to school 😊

[@garethl665]

Hi John, Will you be doing any updates on your Electrical testing playlist in the near future?

[@lewistempleman9752]

Wow you guys love phone sockets

[@Rosscoff2000]

You're wrong about the extension wiring of a filtered socket. The socket has 2,3,5 terminals that have passed through the filter so the extension wiring has no detrimental effect. For some years the better ones also have low pass filtering to terminal 3 so the bell wiring has no significant effect. Also there are A and B terminals that do provide a direct line connection if required for some reason (typically for alarms). Modern NTEs also use clamp down connectors that don't need the punch down tool.

[@BrianG61UK]

You mean "You're wrong". The extra bell wire can have some detrimental effect since it makes the wiring a little asymmetric so that one side may pick up extra interference or have extra capacitance to earth.

[@APSuk2]

Great video as always John, when using the external cable you show at 19:35 which colours do you use for terminals 3 & 5?

[@jwflame]

Doesn't matter as long as it's the same at both ends.

[@itsthesteganthat]

The people that downvote these videos must hit that button by accident. Brilliant as always JW!

[@BrianG61UK]

@John Ward: DSL filters do NOT in general do anything to stop the audio and ring voltage reaching the socket for the DSL modem.. There is typically no filtering at all for the DSL modem connection except, in many combined DSL filter / dual socket master sockets there is a common mode choke to remove any high frequency interference arriving down the line in common mode rather than differential between A and B as the wanted signal will be. But when that common mode choke is present it "filters" the incoming line (phone and DSL) and not just the DSL connection.

[@stephenlounds1385]

Had problems when I moved into my current home as the internal wiring was/is aluminium and that stopped my broadband working. Made up a slave box to connect my telephones through a micro filter plugged into the master socket, modem also plugged into micro filter. Result is only one filter in use, good telephone service good internet.

[@Graham_Langley]

External aluminium cabling installed some years back is causing all kind of problems. With internal wiring, look out for and avoid CCS or Copper Clad Steel cable - it makes for poor IDC connections. [Edit] Ditto CCA - Copper Clad Aluminium - cable.

[@_Steven_S]

@@Graham_Langley Especially when the sub-contracted "fiber broadband" installer jelly crimps extension wiring together to save time on the data extension install.

[@imark7777777]

Copper clad in other forms of non copper wiring is also a problem with CAT5 X cable from cheaper sources

[@Graham_Langley]

@@imark7777777 CCA - Copper Clad Aluminium - and is usually described as something like "Economy C5 network cable" as it doesn't comply with the Cat5 standard, along with "Not recommended for POE" as the resistance is higher than copper.

[@QUIX4U]

Ahah - so ? At 20:42 you bring into view a delightful weird set of "pliers".. jaws ground in a way that allows the finished jelly crimp - to be set hard down, without squashing the connector itself. Great - except for this. Not that many people have access to purchasing one of those, whereas almost everyone has numerous "spare" general purpose pliers. I can see myself rummaging around for my oldest (still usable) set and actually bench grinding the jaws to get the same "shape" of not together "jaw set" - to allow me to have a cheapish jelly connector crimper.

[@millomweb]

You mention Virgin - but what about Hull (Kingston-upon) Gawd - 'Kingston Communications' even springs to mind. Did BT buy them out ? Oh good, you've now answered that question ;)

[@Mark1024MAK]

You’re be wanting him to chat about Mercury communications next!

[@Danechip]

If you do not have that punch down tool/IDC/Krone tool, use a stanley blade from the outside of the terminal and snip. I have done this in dozens of your homes when I lost/misplaced/can't be arsed to get it from the van (we used them on the roadside to 'jumper' your line to the network) and I forgot it.

[@SeanBZA]

I have a special screwdriver ground to work on them as well, plus the reason I made it was because the Quante connector blocks ( do not buy them, though they seem to have vanished, but the old ones are still there from the period the incumbent telco used them) had insane tooling prices, so special thin blade screwdriver and a bit of care solved that.

[@Danechip]

@@SeanBZA I have not failed yet on telco. Fitting an RJ45 plug with a screwdriver was fun, worked most of the time. Just don't bang the pins too hard. Who needs tools eh? :D

[@johnclarke2997]

Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) on Virgin, the telephone connection is on the rear of the Virgin Superhub unit. Downside of this system is the power for the telephone is provided locally, rather than from the exchange.

[@alerighi]

In new 100 or 200Mbit/s FTTC (Fiber To the Cabinet) lines here in Italy they use the two conductors only for the internet, while the phone service is provided via a VOIP service. The line goes to the modem without any filters, and they recommend you to disconnect all the other sockets that can create interference, and remove eventual capacitors/fuses that were installed in old lines (basically the two wires that enter you home needs to go straight into the modem). You can plug analog phones into your router if the router has that facility, or use directly VOIP phones. This has the downside that if the power goes out you cannot use the phone (but still if you had only a cordless you already had this problem, since the cordless base is powered from the mains and not the line), and also if internet doesn't work you cannot make phone calls. But who uses landline phones anyway, I disconnected mine since I received only advertising calls.

[@patdbean]

So with FTTP do you have any phone service in a power cut? Because here I often have no mobile service when the power goes, I would not want to be without landline as well, just when you are most likely to need it.

[@johnclarke2997]

@@patdbean The FTTP box is powered from a 12 volt PSU inside the house. There is NO telecoms wire running alongside the fibre optic cable Virgin Media supply. In the street the fibre optic cable is a green plastic tube which runs underground from a local network distribution point into a FTTP box mounted to one side of the front door of the house. Telephone and Internet are supplied from the same Virgin Media Superhub 3 modem unit. This unit has its own PSU, so if the power failed the FTTP box and the Superhub will not work.

[@AndyK.1]

Virgin have given up transmitting phone signals over twisted pair on recent installs. The phone connection comes out the router. VOIP. Of course this don’t work when there is a power cut. If you don’t have a mobile they will provide you a free box which works during a power cut.

[@cjmillsnun]

Glad I have my older VM line on a System X exchange for now, although that said I have the router connencted to a UPS

[@generaldisarray]

Great video.... Just one thing, those British Telecom Plug (BT Plug) @ 29:26, the UK is the only place that uses those, everywhere else uses RJ11 (Registered Jack) connectors for telecoms. I've lost count of the number of them that I've cut of UK based phones/office equipment and re-terminated with RJ11 connectors instead.

[@cjmillsnun]

Hong Kong for many years used BT plug and sockets, and many properties will still have them. I suspect Gibraltar and the Falklands will also use BT plug/socket.

[@dlarge6502]

I find RJ11 so fiddly compared to the BT plug. Plus it is so similar to RJ45 that even I find it difficult to determine which is which and I work in IT. And yes, RJ11 plus and latches into RJ45 just fine...

[@generaldisarray]

@@dlarge6502 That's the beauty of RJ10, RJ11, RJ12, RJ45, etc plugs, especially in an industrial sense, that the RJ45 wall sockets are designed to fit them and align the pins correctly from the centre out. I've worked in IT for almost 3 decades and those BT plugs were just useless to me. I could chop off the BT plug, on new equipment, and re-terminate the cable in RJ11, quicker than finding a BT to RJ11 adaptor. Plus the adaptors were always clunky and just another failure point in the connection chain.

[@abdulseaforth6930]

Thank you

[@shilks8773]

For internal joins of cables - would you consider Wago/Ideal lever connectors - or do they not accept these small diam cables./the need to strip the cable ends.

[@timtog]

Hi John What is the Black cable called as I am looking to run and external cable outside the house and bring it back in so i have secondary socket near to a power supply, Thank you

[@paulgrimshaw6301]

According to thinkbroadband.com VM do now cover the majority of UK premises, just - a little over 51% and still expanding.

[@twig3288]

I used cat5 to wire my office phones and fax lines.

[@wesearl91]

On the secondary slave socket you show, do you have to strip the insulation from the wire leaving the exposed copper and then terminate or do you put the insulated cable into the termination and screw down?

[@jwflame]

You have to strip the wires first with the screw terminals. Generally better to avoid that type and get those with the IDC connectors.

[@henrytwigger2245]

John, some years ago, maybe 1995ish, I installed a wider door frame in my rowing club in Nottingham. Cut through the plasterboard and studded wall with a saw, and cut through a mains cable without knowing it, which caused a leak to earth but didn't blow the fuse. The TT earth connection to the water pipes had been compromised by a new plastic incoming main. So the buildings earth protection was disconnected, so all the plumbing was live. The men were getting an invigorating buzz in the showers. But more topically, the line card in the local telephone exchange building caught fire, as the telephone line provided the only earth path for the building. Luckily the engineer in charge of the exchange was a club member ! The question is which leg of the telephone circuit is earthed ? dose it matter ? And is it still earthed ?

[@TheChipmunk2008]

The a wire is normally the one at earth potential

[@SeanBZA]

Normally yes A wire is grounded, and B is -48V, to reduce corrosion. The phone itself must have been connected somehow to the mains, probably via a fax machine, as the suppressor clamps in there will tend to operate at around 90VAC, clamping the line to the local mains ground. Funny that the line card caught fire, they typically just fail open circuit as the input fusible resistors burn open, but could have caused some arcing in the input line filters as well.

[@henrytwigger2245]

One line was intentionally connected to the buildings earth. And I've seen it in other older buildings too. Not in more modern buildings though, it seems to be isolated.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

@@henrytwigger2245 that was only normal on payphone or party lines... Terminal 4 of the line Jack is actually designated as local earth

[@jaycee1980]

This is exactly why it is NOT allowed to use the main water pipe as an earth electrode - though it was very commonly done in the past

[@MauriceNL1]

Do you guys have bonding? Here in The Netherlands (not everywhere) you can get bonding vdsl, it's basically just 2 Vdsl lines connected together to achieve speeds up to 200mbit download and 60mbit upload

[@jwflame]

It's available from a few suppliers, but mainly sold for business use.

[@AndyK.1]

We don’t have enough vsdl ports at one per house!

[@eddiespencer1]

Here in the US, some people still lease their telephones from their phone company.

[@imark7777777]

Well yeah I get a discount rate for "only" using a rotary dial pulse phone. Actually I finally broke down and bought myself a Bluetooth Gateway Bridge so I could finally use my wired phones after not having a landline for many years.

[@calmeilles]

"Virgin Media customers" come in two flavours. The 'cable' areas have the VM coaxial network using DOCSIS3.0 (3.1 being rolled out) while the 'national' areas don't but instead use vADSL over Openreach wires and network. This is only really significant if you got to a "VM" job expecting one thing and find the other. The dependence of newer systems on external power does make me think that abandoning the old POTS could be a mistake; at least if newer equipment does not have substantial battery back-up options. Its a pain when you can't report an internet fault because it's taken your phone service with it.

[@AndyK.1]

I thought virgin sold off its ASDL customers several years ago.

[@calmeilles]

@@AndyK.1 Oops! You're quite right. [I'm on their cable offering so didn't notice].

[@_Steven_S]

Don't forget the RFoG with the media converter that needs powering from the house....

[@TheChipmunk2008]

My internet only line is simply cat6 from the JB outside straight to a matter skt in the loft next to the router. Installed it myself ... Openreach were more than happy to let me do it

[@richardrundle]

Hi john can i convert my extension socket to become my master socket as my vdsl modem needs to be in a central cupboard

[@jwflame]

Yes, it's extending the two A&B wires from the original to the new location. Original master should be removed/relocated, as you should only have one master socket connected.

[@Fendermanpaul]

I want to relocate my router elsewhere not at the master socket. Should I run a slave telephone wire, 2 wires 2 & 5 to the telephone extension terminals in the master, then off to the slave extension with an adsl filter at the slave? Or do I run the filtered output from the master to the slave socket thus avoiding the filter need at the slave? Of course I then wouldn't use a telephone at the slave but, how to plug my router into the slave socket without a filter. Hope that makes sense. Also, which connections are the filtered master wires in the master socket?

[@tvenergyproductions1]

Thank you for an excellent and informative video. I bought a Kingfisher MKTEL-1(B) slave socket from Screwfix, but it has a resistor and surge protector in circuit which confused me as I thought slaves did not have any components. Do you think this will affect anything? I have a total of 3 slaves and a master.

[@jwflame]

Slaves have no components, you have been given the wrong item. However just cut those components out, it will then be a slave. It might work with 2x masters but it's likely to result in problems.

[@RicktheRecorder]

You need terminal 3 for separate or external bells. Cordless phone base stations have limited range, particularly in houses built traditionally, so extensions are necessary. Is there any specific filter one can buy and insert in the bell line to strip out induced interference?

[@jwflame]

This is the filter: amzn.to/39f6ROm although seldom used on any installations now, later version master sockets include the filter as standard.

[@michaelanthonyjackson6125]

my phone is crackling so loud it is unusable.

[@AndyK.1]

Some micro filters generate their own ring signal pin 3 which is why they don’t bother taking an input from pin 3

[@BrianG61UK]

Most if not all do.

[@Aliens4world]

I replaced my BT socket with MK socket. In BT socket white and orange connected to A and B, but in MK socket there were connections numbering 1-6, when I connected black and green to 2, 5 numbers there was no internet access. It strangely worked with white orange in number 2 , 5

[@lezbriddon]

I didn't think the ringing voltage was that high, I always thought it was like 50-70v, and that the surge suppressors were just common 90v neons, but thats from when I looked at phone wiring like 30 years ago and memory fades. wonder how my current ''box'' works as my phone line master socket is part of my modem that is gigabit fibreoptic to the house/desk and is 12v powered (with 4hr battery backup).

[@PaulSteMarie]

Chuckle! Clearly you never leaned on a 66 or 110 punch-down block and got nailed by ring voltage. It's quite jangly, for lack of a better word.

[@imark7777777]

If you actually have fiber optic cable running in which it sounds like because you have a battery backup unit the box is essentially a mini VoIP / exchange endpoint but usually held to higher standards because it's actually phone company equipment and has to be compatible more than your standard voice box. in the US the ring voltage is 90.

[@banjax66]

John Ward, you said "Virgin Media"... VM customers like myself, know it as "Vermin Media" . :)

[@banjax66]

@R-77 The internet speed is good and the serivce is good... But if the service goes down, it takes the engineers 6 months or more to sort the problem out.

[@banjax66]

@Chris Seal That particular fault (intermittent serivce) affected 400+ customers over an 18 month period. The cause was eventually tracked down to a faulty underground cable. Once found, Virgin engineers took around 6 months to fix it. But to be fair to Virgin, it was a major task.

[@BrianG61UK]

@@banjax66 I have heard they can send sometimes send out engineers dozens of times who each do the same totally useless thing and then say they can't fix it and someone more qualified will have to do it. Also it seems that if you're not careful with your GDPR options they will nag and nag at you to try and get you to buy extra services.

[@YouTubeSupportTeams]

a good engineer can track a fault down the same day or on a repeat visit. we have lots of tools to find out what is causing the fault. your situation is unique and we go above and beyond to keep people connected. an intermittent fault is the hardest to trace though as when it is working there is essentially no fault but even then we can usually find out fairly quickly from experience what might be causing it.

[@marklittler784]

😄🤸😄🤸😄🤸😄🤸😄 Personally I like the way at least they answer their phone 😄😅😄😅

[@ashbashbaby2]

In Hull we have always had our own telephone company cream phone boxes not red

[@emmaglover6410]

Hi John john cut the telephone cable because I don’t use it no more cos I’m having new flooring do I need to earth the four cables ? Can they cause a fire I’ve just tucked them under the plinths

[@jwflame]

Unlikely as it's 50 volts with a very low current limit. Would be better to disconnect it where it enters the property.

[@maximusg88]

Is it possible to use the existing phone extension and covert it into an Ethernet extension?

[@Jackzuk]

I accidentally cut an alarm cable that goes from the alarm to a movement sensor, was these jelly crimps work to join them back together?

[@Graham_Langley]

No. Alarm cable has stranded conductors, jelly crimp IDC connectors are designed for solid conductors.

[@brianleeper5737]

@@Graham_Langley I've seen those 3M Scotchlok style connectors used for stranded connectors, I can't say I've ever seen a bad connection because of it.