Wiring required fot new installation

[#1]

I am switching my provider from VirginMedia to Plusnet.  All the wiring for the VM installation is hidden.  It was installed during house renovations so everything is underground in the garden and under floorboards in the house.  It appears above floorboards in the hall for the router and in the lounge for the TV.  The engineer is coming to install my Plusnet in a weeks time.  I would like to keep the wiring hidden and be prepared for this visit but have no idea what is required.  Can he get access to the VM wiring i.e their external box which is not on our property.  Wherever he does come in can he split the signal before it reaches the hub to give me a separate feed for the TV.  If he could do that then I can drill a hole in a solid wall in preparedness.  Any information on how the installation is undertaken would assist.  Many thanks.

[#2]

@WeeLassie  Welcome to the forum.

I fear that you may be disappointed with your Openreach installation. This is likely to be limited to the installation of a master socket within reason at a location of your choice. This is likely to be by the easiest route possible. These people love stapling cabling to skirting boards. There is next to no chance that this will involve any connection to VM wiring. It is also impossible to feed the TV wiring before splitting off to your router. The TV will need to be connected directly to your router either through Ethernet cabling or using wireless.

My feeling is that you should be prepared with tea and chocolate biscuits and get as much advice from the installation engineer as you can or seek advice from an independant source. Any wiring on your side of the master socket is your responsibility and is not included in the installation charge. 

[#3]

In a residential area, observe how the telephone wires are run from the telegraph pole to the house.

That's basically what you will get - all Virgin wiring is scrap.

He won't touch your TV - you run a ethernet cable from your router to your TV, yourself.

Don't drill any holes.

[#4]

No telegraph poles in my area.  Everything is underground and comes I assume from BTs new fibre boxes.

[#5]

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@WeeLassie wrote:

... All the wiring for the VM installation is hidden.  It was installed during house renovations so everything is underground in the garden and under floorboards in the house.  It appears above floorboards in the hall for the router and in the lounge for the TV. ....

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@WeeLassie 

You may be able to put the old wiring to some use if it has just been laid loosely under the floorboards (with no cable-clips or sharp bends) to attach and pull an Ethernet cable through from your present router position to your TV connection point.

[#6]

If it IS WIRE that is under the floorboards from your Virgin Router to the t.v.   then ... I presume ( so long as the BT engineer locates your incoming box near the existing one)... the wiring will be able to be used... As previously mentioned.... tea/coffee and choccy bikkies may help to elicit information ( or even a "can you wire up connection please" ) for it ....!

[#7]

Thanks.  Some floorboards will have to come up to see if we can find a box under them.  I am trying my best to avoid surface cables round the skirting.  I think it looks awful and would rather have a proper underfloor job.    I wish they would send someone round prior to the installation to tell you how they are intending to do it.  Proviidng tea/coffee and chocolate biccies is easy.    I wonder if he/she would like to stay for dinner...

[#8 · Accepted solution]

@WeeLassie 

I am concerned rhat you may be expecting too much from the installation technician. You say that all the telecoms wiring in your road is underground, this normally means that a telephone cable was laid when your house was built. Do you have a BT telephone master socket in your house somewhere? If so your service will be connected to this and the installation technician will do nothing at your property. You also need a mains supply near the master socket as this is where you should locate your router. I assume that you have not been informed that they will be turning up with picks and shovels to dig up the road and your garden?

Can you describe in some detail what wiring you have? Assuming that you already have a BT master socket then ideally there needs to be Ethernet cabling from this location to your TV plus from the master socket location anywhere else where you need wored Ethernet. However you may be able to use wireless instead. I very much doubt that there is any sort of box under your floor that will be of interest to the installation technician.

[#9]

I could be wrong here, but I believe that VM instalations are normally fed by co-ax cable from their fibre cab to the VM external box - no BT wires?

[#10]

It's quite possible that the engineer will turn up and go away again as its a different department that deals with underground cabling?

[#11]

Thank you.  I should have worked this out for myself.  I have looked under the floor at the VM cabling.  Their thick black cable has a thin cable attached.  The thin cable is spliced to the telephone internal cable and the thick black cable has a splitter which sends one white wire in the direction of the hub and the oher towards the TV.  As you said this will be of no interest to the Plusnet engineer.  There is a wire coming up in the corner of my garage, left there by the builders.  A good many years ago, long before BT put fibre to the green boxes, I asked if passing BT engineer iif the wire was theirs.  He tested it and said, yes it was and he could even tell me the number if I wanted him to.  I guess that is the old BT copper wire which was installed when the house was first built in the sixties.  Is that still good enough to be used now?  If so, then all I have to do is drill a hole in the wall between the garage and the house where my TV is and where the router can also go.  Problem solved and no unsightly wires going along skirting boards and round doorframes.  Fingers crossed.

[#12]

@WeeLassie   Tea and chokky bikkies, to the engineeer who comes.... sounds like you COULD be connected to the one in the garage... BUT... that is probably where he will put the main master socket, if you are not careful ! ! ..

Depends whether you are going for the fibre or the wire connection to PlusNet,...

Let us know, how much tea and bikkies it cost you to get sorted ! ! ! ..

[#13]

@WeeLassie 

This sounds like really good news. If a BT engineer has identified it as theirs there is every chance that it will be fine. If it's unterminated is there enough slack to go through your wall? If so I would be tempted to drill a hole and feed it through before he comes. Either way if the hole is there I would think that the installation technician would extend the cable and install the master socket indoors for you if asked nicely. 

As this has been identified as the BT entry point then even if the cable turned out to be faulty, which is unlikely, it would be reasonable to expect a new cable to be brought to the same location..

[#14]

Openreach engineer came yesterday.  He gets top marks for helpfulness and workmanship.  The cable was already inside the garage so the box is inside the garage and the wire goes through the garage wall exactly where it was wanted.  He took some time as the old line had been dead for so long it had been rerouted but all working now.  My Plusnet broadband has been activated and I get to keep my old telephone number.  So everyone in the loop has done their jobs admirably.  

I still have my VM broadband for a little while and I am using that to send this, but that is another story...

[#15]

Thanks for the update..... glad to know it went well for you...