EE Full Fibre Max 100

[dave123456]

I currently have BT infinity WiFi, with a landline. As a bit of cost saving, seeing as we don’t use the home phone, we elected to switch to EE without landline at roughly half the price.

At this stage I will confess to being reasonably house proud!

EE engineer (or contractor) came around this afternoon, and initially told me that it would have to go in the front room, which would require significant reconfiguration, as I have a switch box in the loft and a wifi transmitter that sends a signal to a garage network both hardwired from the current router location.

He eventually accepted he could get the wiring around the house but told me he would need to drill another hole.



I asked him to remove the current BT box (far right in the pic above) and use the hole for the new socket. This would also remove the redundant wire from the outside of the house. “Can’t do that”. In the end, after a stand off I asked him to leave, as he was becoming fairly irate about my request - which was a calm request.

Can anyone tell me, as I have rearranged for BT to fit their new full fibre 900, if ahead of the engineer visiting I remove the wire and box myself, can they reuse the hole in the wall? I don’t want multiple holes in the wall and redundant boxes on the wall, I’ve tried to make it as neat as possible with hardwired sky boxes, the Phillips hue hub and other bits in the corner, I felt it unnecessary in a recently decorated room, to have further mess.

His parting shot was that I was aggressive for saying I didn’t want a load of mess in my house.

[Bikerjon]

Most of the FTTP installs I've seen will involve a new box rather than replacing the old BT socket. Technically you're not supposed to touch the incoming cable either. I'd just ask the installer, but not necessarily a bad thing to keep the old socket in my opinion.

[Mr-B]

I have had this exact situation recently going from TalkTalk (Openreach) to Lit Fibre who have their own network.

Lit fibre installer turned up and said he couldn't touch the OR equipment as it an industry wide thing, OR engineers won't touch anyone else's equipment either. I wanted them to use the existing hole in the wall, the engineer said if I can get the old stuff removed then it shouldn't be a problem. I was on my own at this point as Talktalk had abandoned me to sort things myself so I found an enquiry page on the OR website so sent a query asking them to come and remove their equipment. They contacted me and set an appointment for Monday just gone when one of their engineers turned up removed the equipment and put an old style BT box back on the wall to cover up the hole.

Lit installer turned up today and installed everything using the existing hole. There was a slight issue with the old BT box on the wall (not actually connected to anything just making the wall look a bit tidier) as the engineer said I can't touch that, so I said give me a screwdriver and I will remove it, which I did.

All in and working and just one box on the outside and one inside using the original hole.

[dave123456]

Mr-B said:

I have had this exact situation recently going from TalkTalk (Openreach) to Lit Fibre who have their own network.

Lit fibre installer turned up and said he couldn't touch the OR equipment as it an industry wide thing, OR engineers won't touch anyone else's equipment either. I wanted them to use the existing hole in the wall, the engineer said if I can get the old stuff removed then it shouldn't be a problem. I was on my own at this point as Talktalk had abandoned me to sort things myself so I found an enquiry page on the OR website so sent a query asking them to come and remove their equipment. They contacted me and set an appointment for Monday just gone when one of their engineers turned up removed the equipment and put an old style BT box back on the wall to cover up the hole.

Lit installer turned up today and installed everything using the existing hole. There was a slight issue with the old BT box on the wall (not actually connected to anything just making the wall look a bit tidier) as the engineer said I can't touch that, so I said give me a screwdriver and I will remove it, which I did.

All in and working and just one box on the outside and one inside using the original hole.

Glad I’m not the only one.. just to confirm if you had the tools would you have removed it yourself? Which is what I was intending to do.

[Mr-B]

After seeing what the OR engineer did, then yes I would remove it as no special tools are required. The other thing that may be an issue is the old cable, mine came in through an underground duct and the Lit installer said he would not disconnect the old cable (see my point about messing with other co's gear) which the OR left as he said it might be useful to use to pull the new cable through. So I have 2 cables running through the duct but there is enough room for them both. But if you go down the route of DIY or getting OR to remove it take everything out as much as you can. There was no cost from OR to remove it, although they did say they have the right to charge if it is a problematic removal. I don't expect to be charged as the guy was only there for 5 to 10 minutes.

[wyson]

I had something like this too, they said they aren’t allowed to touch other companies equipment and boxes, so just installed a new one next to the old BT outlet.

[somouk]

Interestingly if BT do it then they take the copper out as part of the process usually so wouldn't be an issue using the same hole if it was easily accessible.

[dave123456]

I’ve rearranged the appointment and it’s with BT this time. I’ll take the old box off and remove the wire.

I accept I’m being a fusspot but I didn’t appreciate the conversation I had yesterday, where he was repeatedly telling me the BT hole wouldn’t be good enough because of a grommet the new wire needed.

A holes a hole… 🤣