Upgrading an old bt telephone line

[cottonbud]

My mum has got an old telephone line in her house, (dating back from 1960's) which she wants to upgrade to the new modern plugs, she phoned BT and was told that just to get someone round to see what is needed will cost �160 !!!!, thats without the work being carried out. Does anyone know if it can be done cheaper, as this sounds a ridiculous amount of money. Also is it a particularly hard job to be done and does it HAVE to be done by a BT technician?, many thanks for any helpful advice.

[The Builder]

BT take care of the wire from the pole to the linebox (the master incoming socket). Everything in the house these days is yours - so no problem for DIYers or your local friendly electrician.
They must surely have replaced the line and linebox since the 60s ???

[buildersmate]

It is not difficult to do this, and the necessary Master Socket, incorporating a lightning protector is readily available from multiple places including Maplins and DIY sheds (probably). The trouble is that BT maintain it is their job, and having alerted them to the need, it is going to look a bit funny if the job suddenly turns out to have been done years ago (nod, nod, wink, wink).
Its 20 years ago since I moved into a new house, did the conversion, told BT it had always been that way. Funny, they said, we had that house recorded as being unconverted. I never did hear anymore about it.

[cottonbud]

many thanks for the swift answers, and no they havent changed anything with it since they moved in, think i will suggest they give it a few months and see if i can get someone to give me a hand, many thanks once again

[spudqueen]

A couple of years ago I when I tried to ring my Aunt there was obviously a fault on the line. I rang the operator to report it, mentioning that she was an OAP with a heart conditon. They promised to send someone out in the morning. I drove over the next morning (she lives 30 miles away), my Aunt was surprised to see me, and had no idea that her phone was out of order. When the bloke turned up he couldn't believe how old all the equipment was, but put a new line in whilst I popped out for a new phone - the old one was so old that it wasn't a 'plug in type'. When I got back it was all sorted, I just plugged the new phone in and everything was okay, and none of it cost a penny. Sounds to me like your Mums phone needs to develop a fault!

[heathfield]

BT own the line up to and including the junction box. Officially, you can't just replace the junction box - only BT are allowed to do that. But after the BT junction box, you can install pretty well anything you like these days.
The answer to your problem is therefore simple - install a master socket after the junction box. Kits to do this are readily available, and should come with sufficient instructions to let you do the job.

[north star]

My Mum got her phone socket changed by BT for free when she broke it whilst energetic hoovering.

[eltelioni]

I got mine updated for free by reporting intermittent noise on the line. The cable from the pole was replaced and a modern master socket was installed. So my advice is the same as spudqueen's and north star's.

[buildersmate]

I don't think so, Heathfield. The implication of not having a master socket arrangement is that BT owes the whole circuit, because it is inevitable that cottonbud's mum is also paying a quarterly rental to BT for the phone (which is BT's).
There must be few such installations left around like this because this system has been around since 1986 and all new ones since then would have had Master Sockets.
There's some stuff here on how to wire one up, by the way.
http://www.adslnation.com/support/extensions.p hp

[BertiWooster]

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[cottonbud]

Many thanks to all of you for your helpful advice, buildersmate, you are spot on, my mum IS paying quarterly rental for her 2 really old dial phones. She is not of good health and needs the phones to work. Funnily enough, one of these phones has developed a fault, so I just suggested to her that she phones tomorrow to report the fault, and hopefully they will come round and see how old the equipiment is and suggest that a new style plug is installed. I was so cross last night that BT wanted �160 just to assess !!!. Considering she is paying �5 a quarter for an old dial phone, that she cannot use on a lot of modern call centre menus, because she hasnt got the push buttons. The junction box is original and has been there since 1965 !!!. I think it's well overdue for modernisation. Hopefully she will have some joy tomorrow if she goes down the "fault" route. Thanks to all of you once again, much appreciated.

[Thunderchild]

yea tell em to take that dinosaur away and give you an upgrade 160 � is ridicolous considering they wanted 124 pounds to put a line in for me that I already had and then told me that it would still cost 124 � to basically switch it back on again, considering for 25 � I got cable and phone installed