BT phone cable conundrum – help me avoid world wide outage

We are doing a bit of DIY and removing some panelling between rooms. The BT cable goes through a hole in the panel, the hole is slightly larger than the cable but basically tiny

The cable goes into a box but appears to be hard wired in, no sockets. So there is no way of passing through the tiny hole, in fact even a socket connector would have been too big had there been one.

If I open the box , which is possible, can I undo the wire and pull through the panelling and then reconnect to the box? Or will Armageddon occur etc?

Cheers

Yes, no problem at all. The wire may have screw connectors or push-in connectors, if the latter then get the tool needed (plastic cheap one fine for single use).

If it’s the master socket (the first one after the cable comes into the house, with a BT/Openreach logo on it) then technically you shouldn’t touch it as it belongs to BT, so call them or Openreach instead and get charged £100(?) for the same job. Practically speaking, no one cares (so long as you don’t actually cause Armageddon, of course).

The cable will be “insulation displacement connections”.  i.e.the wire is pressed between a pair of contact blades that cut the insulation.  If it is really old, there could be screw terminals inside (very rare these days but I have seen some).

It sounds like it is “between rooms” rather than “from the outside into a room”  so the possibility is it’s extension cabling and completely up to you to do with as you like.  If it is the master socket and the master socket cabling then it is technically BT’s network and they don’t like you mucking about with it (legal stuff).  The question becomes: “If you stuff it up and can’t get it back working again, who are you going to call?”

So:
1) consider your risk appetite
2) buy an IDC push down tool (~£1 plastic thing)
3) watch a youtube video on using IDC tool on BT type sockets
4) open up the box and take photos of which colour wires go where in the connectors
5) yank them out
6) pull wire
7) do DIY
8) consider how to put the wiring back together again

or….

1) work out it is an extension that doesn’t have any purpose in the modern home (DECT or digital voice or you use mobile phones), so go straight to step 4/5 in the above

Ok so closer inspection reveals thick cable into house goes into small unmarked box. Thin cable comes from that to larger box marked bt open reach. Wire goes in and out other side, with some connectors inside and a socket for a phone extension on the front plate

I can remove the front plate to reveal thin wires into some form of plastic slots, possibly displacement connectors as above. Some wiring appears to be not connected, I am certain this was existing

You tube beckons!

Photos would be helpful.

It’s normal, and indeed possibly advantageous, for some wires in a cable not to be connected.

The question I would be asking as per peaslaker’s final point on their excellent post is, how much of it do you need / use and how much can you rip out completely?  With domestic telephony less is more, doubly so if it’s a DSL bearer.  How is your Internet connection presented?

Presuming the large box is the master socket,  the thin cable coming “out the other side” is extension cabling.  Perfectly legit to pull this out.  Yes, the plastic slots are IDC terminations.

But best to do your research and be sure you know how to put it all together for your final needs.

Thanks everyone for your input, it’s given me food for thought about how we are going to set up the internet in the house. It does indeed look like a ridiculous series of extensions that are largely unnecessary, some simplification is in order

Book fibre if it’s in your area.