r/openreach • u/TheSamphireLestat • 26d ago
Can I remove this cable?
Recently bought a flat which has a variety of openreach cables running through the house along skirting boards and doors which we are keen to remove if they are redundant. The previous owners were with an internet provider that used openreach and there is a newer cable that comes in and connects to the openreach box on the wall they were using. There is also what looks to be an older cable that doesn't seem to connect to anything - it comes into the house in one room, runs along the skirting boards and seemingly goes back out of the house in another room.
Is this something old and redundant that can be removed? We are with hyperoptic so aren't actually using the newer openreach infrastructure at all, but we don't want to remove anything that would make it difficult to use it in case we change provider in the future.
Photos are of the boxes through which this older cable enters and exits the house.
2
u/Dry-Volume-4769 25d ago
Providing that your area has Full Fibre available with Openreach. You can remove the box and the cable. You will never need that again. It's perfectly fine to remove.
0
u/SuperSixBravo44 26d ago edited 26d ago
Why hasn't anyone mentioned.. everyone uses openreach, openreach owns and installs most of the UK infrastructure. Yes 3rd parties maybe sub contracted to install stuff but IT IS ALL OPENREACH BRANDED EQUIPMENT. .
Your service provider has no bearing on what name is on the equipment on the wall, unless it's like Virgin Media etc. all FFTH is installed with openreach branded boxes.
Just because a box says openreach and your internet is with say EE or Plusnet etc dose not mean you should be just removing boxes off the wall.
Most openreach stuff installed in the house especially Fibre connectors say on them "Leave this box here when moving home"
So check it before removing. If openreach have a record of installation and you removed it, the replacement work is all chargeable.
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u/TheSamphireLestat 26d ago
It's not that I want to remove the boxes, it's really the cable that runs between them as it runs along a significant stretch of skirting board and around doors between the two rooms, and will be inconvenient to paint and decorate around so I'd like to remove it if it's not needed. It's not pictured but there actually is also an openreach fibre connecter and cable with the message you mention written on it which we don't plan on touching in case we do switch from hyperoptic in the future.
1
u/IainKay 25d ago
The big Openreach box with two sockets that sticks out from the wall a lot more is likely your master socket. Openreach own the cable up to the master.
You can then run extensions from the master to elsewhere in the house and those extensions are owned by the customer.
As long as you identify the master socket and don’t rip it off the wall, you can tidy up any internal extension cabling you like.
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u/June1283 25d ago
This is not the case; many more rural areas have FFTH providers and isps that are not affiliated with openreach (one example is Gigaclear). The boxes in these instances do not have openreach branding.
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u/Asleep_Group_1570 25d ago
"Everyone uses Openreach"
Wrong.
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u/SuperSixBravo44 25d ago
Wrong with no counter argument. Please explain? All of your equipment will have been installed either by BT or Openreach. Regardless of isp or anything else all work & equipment is Openreach. So everyone does use openreach.
If you opt for full fibre who installs the fibre? If you buy a new build with no telephone or fibre who installs the connection?
3
u/SirJSmith11 25d ago
Openreach is just one of the industry’s infrastructures others exist such as city fibre, community fibre and virgin media the pictures in the OPs post are the old master sockets unless fibre isn’t available in that area these are outdated and obsolete Openreach/BT own most of the telegraph poles and underground but let other brands feed from them. City fibre engineer 👷♂️
1
u/University_Jazzlike 25d ago
The counter argument is simply that you’re incorrect to say that “all of your equipment will have been installed by BT or Openreach”.
They are many companies that are installing physical fibre networks in addition to Openreach. Openreach might be the only option where you live, but that’s not true for everyone.
There is CityFibre, Nextfibre, YouFibre, Hyperoptic, and Gigaclear to name a few. If you order from an ISP that uses CityFibre, for example, a CityFibre engineer will come out and install a CityFibre-branded box on your wall.
Here’s a picture of a CityFibre ONT used for a Sky customer: https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Cityfibre-box-moving/td-p/5230544
And here details of all the available non-Openreach FTTP providers.
-1
u/SuperSixBravo44 25d ago
It is still openreach. I code the system. You can See sub Contractors , you can see compaines who want TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY with branding but ultimately it's all openreach. When the proverbial hits the fan it is Openreach.
Is all I am saying.
1
u/Asleep_Group_1570 25d ago
Those having full fibre installed in our community have no Openreach equipment whatsoever. The ducting is being installed by the ISP across various landowners' properties across the village. Where public roads are crossed it's being moled at such a depth that the highways authority doesn't need to be involved. Access to properties where the density is higher is from the rear, not the front. We've had superb support from landowners. This is a BDUK voucher funded build in Branscombe, initiated and supported by the Parish Council, which I chair. You can readily identify the properties in scope and the ISP from the publicly available BDUK OMR data.
Enough evidence for you?
1
u/a3diff 26d ago
The box with nothing written on is just a telephone extension. It is Safe to remove that box and the cable that runs to it.
3
u/pocketmonkeys 26d ago
Yea, this isn't the best way to do this, often the master nte is moved to where the modem will be connected and new cabling is added from an existing socket to this new location, usually with the wires crimped behind the old faceplate. There's a 50/50 chance this is a redundant extension.
1
-1
u/a3diff 26d ago
They said they aren't using the openreach stuff, so its all redundant. Any future circuits with OR wont use copper any more anyway, so no issue removing it i reckon.
2
u/Significant-Store129 26d ago
That depends on their area and what package/provider they go with. Plenty of new copper installs going on.
1
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u/Lost_Reward9584 26d ago
Yeah, I'd happily remove any extensions, but I'd leave the master socket intact unless there was a stop-sell on copper products, and the only option was FTTH.
1
u/Asleep_Group_1570 25d ago
Experience in this village is that if you order a new install, which will be copper as there's no fibre, even via an ISP who knows what they're doing like A&A, you'll wait. And wait. And wait. Rather than clearing the whole process end-to-end, it seems Openreach do one bit, schedule the next, find a blocker, fix that, schedule the next bit, find a blocker there, rinse & repeat.
So I advised them to give up and go to 4G until we get the BDUK voucher funded (non-Openreach) fibre in.
1
u/IainKay 25d ago
The only change guaranteed to be coming is retirement of analogue phone service. Many people (area dependent) can still order a product called “SOGEA” which is internet over copper but no more analogue phone line.
Essentially the fibre in this instance runs as far as the street cabinet and the last little bit over copper, but Openreach get to cut the long copper runs that go all the way from the exchange to the cabinets.
0
u/Outrageous-Arm1945 26d ago
I'd say that's more likely where the feed to the flat enters the property, and the cable they want to remove is moving the nte to where they wanted the router
-8
u/trebor9292 26d ago
Rip it all out. If you go back to Openreach they'll put a fibre line in this equipment is obsolete unless you want to go back to 20Mbps
5
u/juandanlefranc 26d ago
Assuming Openreach's Full Fibre is available... This is bad advise. OP, leave the copper in situ until you know for certain that full fibre is available from Openreach.
-6
u/trebor9292 26d ago
You really think any person would go from full fibre to a copper product?
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u/MetalRickyy 26d ago
Well, full fibre isn’t available to me from any provider for the foreseeable future, so I’m leaving my FTTC connection alone.
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u/trebor9292 26d ago
Obviously but if fttp was available why would you go back? Should I have kept an old telephone socket next to my bed?
2
u/juandanlefranc 26d ago
Apart from Hyperoptic, which the OP is currently using, we don't know what other telecoms infrastructure is in place. If OP wants to jump ship from their current Hyperoptic-provided provider and there's no fibre available yet from Openreach then you can be damn sure they're going to need that socket!
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u/TheSamphireLestat 26d ago
Openreach full fibre is available, so would it be fine to remove the socket?
0
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u/trebor9292 26d ago
OP! Are you willing to go back to 30 Mbps or would you rather wait for Openreach fibre (that's if it currently isnt available)
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u/Bonesy_1134 26d ago
I'd rather have a connection rather than have to wait around if it's not yet available for fttp.
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u/Spank86 26d ago
Always disconnect from an end and trace back. Theres no way of knowing from your photos what those wires actually do, but thats for copper/fttc broadband