An engineer was out recently, and made a change so my landline phone is connected to the router. I forgot to ask at the time, but does this mean I no longer need the cable that stretches from the telegraph pole to house?
I've tried looking, but not been able to find a definitive answer (as least that I'm comfortable with).
Forum TeamHi PaulKillen
Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community.
The change made is normal for the Landline as this is the way all Landline's will be soon, via a Router rather than the wall socket. The cabling would be needed still however and we wouldn't remove it.
Is there a reason you're wanting this removed?
It would be unusual for a VM landline, in the past, to have come from a telephone pole.
Are you looking at a former Openreach/BT line to your home?
Yeah, I'm re-roughcasting the house and was going to remove it if it was redundant.
What is it used for? Will calls not come via the underground fibre cables?
If I got rid of the landline, could it be removed then?
As stated above, VM operate their own telephone exchanges independent of BT. These are housed at their cable headends & not the BT exchanges, hence they do not use the telegraph poles or the BT infrastructure connected to BT exchanges.
@goslow. I've no idea who owns it, it's always been there and it was virgin in here when I moved in.
VM cables typically come from underground in legacy installations. That includes both phoneline and broadband.
Take a look at the plastic VM omnibox on the outside of your home and look at the cable going into it. A common scenario would be for it to be 'shotgun' type of cable which is a thick coaxial cable with a thinner telephone cable bonded alongside it.
If your landline now comes via the hub then the thinner VM phone cable part will not be used.
Also follow the phone wire from overhead and see where that goes. Chances are you will find it ends up at a BT-branded master socket or junction box inside.
Remember all the different shapes of TV aerials that tumbled down
during the 60s, 70s and 80s ?
It looks like VM and BT intend to leave all the abandoned telephone lines to degrade
and drop down on to roads and gardens over the next 20 years.
It looks like VM and BT intend to leave all the abandoned telephone lines
BT, I believe are still able to provide SOGEA broadband over the copper lines for those that want it, or can't get an alternative for the forseable future.
My house has a Virgin connection from a telegraph pole to the external brown box. It was installed for a previous resident and I don't use it. I'd like it removing to allow building work. How do I arrange this?
Forum TeamHello mjat5,
Welcome to the Community, and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums. As far as I'm aware, we wouldn't remove any infrastructure cabling that's part of our network. Would keeping the cabling in place stop any work being carried out at your property? Are you also sure that your existing broadband connection isn't via the cabling?
Kind Regards,
Steven_L
Hi Steven. We don't use this cable at all. We'd like it removed but that means accessing the telegraph pole, because if I disconnect it at the house end it will drop across my neighbour's garden and the footpath which is obviously unsafe. How do I arrange for it to be removed?
OpenReach are installing (well, have applied for and been granted planning permission for) new poles and overhead cables in the streets around us as it's cheaper than digging up roads and paths to install fibre.
It might be best to contact Openreach with the pole details. I’m still not convinced the cable has anything to do with VM’s telephone supply.
A drop fibre from an Openreach pole does carry RFoG VM services in a small minority of cases and terminates at an omni box. Phone is provided by VoIP.
