Removing old NTL wall boxes

[TankRizzo]

I and Miss TankRizzo moved home last year. One of the previous owners at some point must have had NTL as there are two wall boxes installed, one upstairs in the bedroom and one downstairs in the lounge. There's also a rather unsightly cable sheathed in bright green tubing running down the left-hand side of the front garden into the property, along the fence. All this stuff doesn't look like it's been used in years (we've lived there since last April, and the woman before us was there for four years and didn't have NTL either).

Anyway, next on my list of 'his jobs to be done' given to me by the long-haired colonel is removing these boxes as they're a bit ugly. Rather than go through the palaver of ringing Virgin Customer Disservices, am I ok to cut the cable off where it enters the property and just remove the boxes? Or will I have some disgruntled Virgin tech ringing me up?

[Hedders]

Just cut the line. If they do say anything it happened when you were gardening so you finished the job.

I am sure there will be no issues anyway.

[JVaughan]

just cut it. The line will be disabled at the switch anyway... just make sure your the only one taking services from it first.
our new house had bloody CableVision, Rediffusion, Ariel coax & NTL presentation boxes on the side of it. 5 mins with wire cutters and some mastic to fill the holes in the wall soon fixed it.

[Meeja]

You can safely remove the box and the cable - however, it may be worth leaving a bit of slak at the point where the cable comes up at the side of the house.

If you ever decide to use Virgin, it will make your re-connection easier, and possibly cheaper (Don't know if they charge an installation cost), as they should be able to pull a new cable through from the road by attaching it to the old one and using it as a drawstring.

[TankRizzo]

Ta fellas. Wire cutters are coming out this weekend then.

[AndrewTait]

Normally, there is a box on the wall outside, where the cable in the green tube terminates. From there it will go through the wall, and into the boxes inside the house.

I suggest you keep the cable and box on the outside of the house, as technically, it belongs to NTL/Virgin. Anything in your house, you can happily disconnect.

[Pigeon]

Apparently the thing to do is wire a relay as a buzzer and use it as a contact breaker on an ignition coil with the HT terminal connected to the coax. Well that's what my mate did anyway.

[andyquantum]

Virgin cant even get around to sending me a bill for the last 3 months, so I doubt they'll notice what you're about to do