decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

TW

On Monday, 5 October 2020 11:21:54 UTC+1, TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).
Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

If you have caused an intermittent short that could cause callers to receive the engaged tone, or if you have shorted the bell circuit your phones won't ring on incoming calls.

best would be to disconnect the unwanted cable at the 'supply' end.

Or use a small terminal box.

Owain

In article ,
TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

make sure none of the wires is touchng another one.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On 05/10/2020 11:43, charles wrote:
In article ,
TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

make sure none of the wires is touchng another one.


Which side of the window frame was the wire cut? Is the cut end of the
cable now getting wet when it rains?

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 11:21:49 +0100, TimW wrote:

decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence?

I doubt it... What do callers get? Ringing tone but no answer, brief
ringing tone that cuts to silence, immediate engaged tone?

Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted telephone cable, and what
is it?

In the short term ensure that none of the wires are shorted to any
other. Longer term fully remove the now redundant extension wiring
right back to where it splits from other wiring. The unterminated
stub of cable may knock a Mbps off your broadband speed. Wether that
is a problem depends on what speed you get, 50+ Mbps probably not an
issue, down at 5 Mbps every kbps counts...

You could just follow the cable and discconect from the main wiring
but that isn't "neat and tidy" in my book. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 05/10/2020 11:55, alan_m wrote:
On 05/10/2020 11:43, charles wrote:
In article ,
Â*Â*Â* TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

make sure none of the wires is touchng another one.


Which side of the window frame was the wire cut? Is the cut end of the
cable now getting wet when it rains?

It was cut on the indoors side, but given a dollop of emulsion after that.
TW

TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).

Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

I don't suppose you've cut off the socket with the ring capacitor?

They're supposed to be in the master socket, but maybe your install is
peculiar? Do you have an NTE5 master socket, or something older?

Theo

On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 03:32:16 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Monday, 5 October 2020 11:21:54 UTC+1, TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).
Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

If you have caused an intermittent short that could cause callers to receive the engaged tone, or if you have shorted the bell circuit your phones won't ring on incoming calls.

best would be to disconnect the unwanted cable at the 'supply' end.

Or use a small terminal box.

Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

On Monday, 5 October 2020 16:32:25 UTC+1, Scott wrote:
Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

Unlikely to actually damage the network, but Openreach would charge a chargeable repair to your phone/ISP who would then bill you.

Owain

On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 08:36:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Monday, 5 October 2020 16:32:25 UTC+1, Scott wrote:
Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

Unlikely to actually damage the network, but Openreach would charge a chargeable repair to your phone/ISP who would then bill you.

Okay, even if it doesn't cause damage could a short circuit disrupt
other lines or necessitate diagnostic work at the exchange?

On Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:50:23 +0100, Scott wrote:

Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

Unlikely to actually damage the network, but Openreach would
charge a
chargeable repair to your phone/ISP who would then bill you.

Okay, even if it doesn't cause damage could a short circuit disrupt
other lines or necessitate diagnostic work at the exchange?

No on the assumption that it is only a line shorted to itself.
Multiple lines shorted to each other might up set things but unlikely
to cause damage. Both would be flagged, eventually, by the automatic
line testing that goes on. Multiple line faults in the same cable
might prod Openreach into fixing it before any faults have been
reported.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 05/10/2020 16:50, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 08:36:19 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Monday, 5 October 2020 16:32:25 UTC+1, Scott wrote:
Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

Unlikely to actually damage the network, but Openreach would charge a chargeable repair to your phone/ISP who would then bill you.

Okay, even if it doesn't cause damage could a short circuit disrupt
other lines or necessitate diagnostic work at the exchange?

It won't disrupt other lines, since POTS is circuit switched - you have
a dedicated line to the cabinet line card. There are typically current
limiting resistors in the -48 to 0V battery circuit to protect the
supply from shorted lines (which will be a common line fault).


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 05/10/2020 16:32, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 03:32:16 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Monday, 5 October 2020 11:21:54 UTC+1, TimW wrote:
decorating a spare bedroom upstairs I found the old telephone extension
socket behind the bed and cheerfully pulled it off the wall snipping the
cable where it came through the window frame saying 'no need for that
anymore!'. since then several people have said they have had difficulty
ringing us up (although there is a dialling tone and broadband still).
Is this coincidence? Is there a proper way to terminate an unwanted
telephone cable, and what is it?

If you have caused an intermittent short that could cause callers to receive the engaged tone, or if you have shorted the bell circuit your phones won't ring on incoming calls.

best would be to disconnect the unwanted cable at the 'supply' end.

Or use a small terminal box.

Could you be prosecuted and/or face a claim for compensation for
damage to the public telephone network?

It won't damage the public network. Also depending on how the OP's
wiring is done the extension socket would usually count as the
subscriber owned part of the installation - i.e. its after the master
socket rather than before.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/