Moving an OpenReach master socket.

4 or 5 years ago an OpenReach engineer replaced the external cable fitted a new master socket in the middle of a wall because he reckoned he couldn’t fit it anywhere else. He cable finder showed the whole wall as being live apart from this one location.

Next week I’ll be getting rid of copper to the house for FTTP so thinking of moving it to a better location as I don’t actually need it any more. It won’t require any extra cabling and I trained many years ago as an alarms installer so is there any reason why I couldn’t move the socket myself?

The socket will become redundant so don’t bother moving it. If you are confident there are no hidden services, drill as new hole from inside to outside where you want the new service presented, and I’m sure the engineer will be happy to use it!

Why even move the origeonal socket? Leave it in place as a legacy system.

Put the new socket in where it suits you and just run off that.

As above the socket will be redundant.
Quick tip fibre cable bend radius is way bigger than copper so if your planning a big internal run it will look horrible. get the ont (new master socket if you want to call it that.) Put on an external wall next to a double power socket

The main reason I want to move the old socket is becat it’s in a really random location about 4 feet up the middle of a bedroom wall and looks horrible there. The room used to be used as a office but is no longer needed as that.

I know exactly where I want the new fibre to go and hopefully that won’t be a problem.

Thanks for the tip about the bends, not thought about that.

What do you need it for at all if you have FTTP and a mobile?

I cut mine out and binned it all. In the vanishingly unlikely scenario that I’ll ever need to go back to DSL and a landline they can come and refit it.

Fair enough. I wasn’t sure if I could actually do that and it’s certainly a simpler option.

Yes the socket can be removed after you get FTTP. I’m pretty sure they will use bend insensitive fibre so it will go round corners fine (I do business fibre and that is still standard cable that can’t be folded around corners)

Yep, I was glad to get rid of my copper line as it went through the timber door frame I was about to replace. After a certain amount of an exchange is able to get fibre there’s a stop on offering new copper connections so even if you wanted a new analogue phone line in the future you’d be very unlikely to get it. The analogue copper network is due to be switched off by the end of 2025.

You can get the ONT for the new service put in anywhere within reason, but they’ll probably just clip it on the outside of your house to reach the room you want. If you’re happy running your own cable you may prefer a more discreet install and have the ONT near to where the fibre comes in (overhead or underground) then run your own CAT5 to wherever your router will live.