Moving my BT master socket – DIY?

I want to move my BT master socket at home. There’s enough wire on the outside of the house, so it’ll be a case of drilling a new hole through the wall, poking the wire through it, cutting the wire down and connecting it into the new socket. We don’t have any other sockets in the house as there’s no landline, so just a single socket for the router. From what I can tell there’s only two cores within the BT cable that need to be connected. I’m not an electrician, but this would appear to be a fairly straightforward task. Is there any reason not to DIY it? I’m not clear if the BT ‘own’ the socket and I might upset them if I do it myself?
Cheers,

It will be easiest to buy a new master socket from eBay. The latest generation also lets you redirect the DSL signal to another socket which is useful. 

As I understand it:

The master socket is the point at which responsibility for the wires changes from BT (or Openreach) to the homeowner.

The socket and everything the other side of it belong to BT, it’s probably in the contract somewhere not to touch it, they’ll move it for you but charge something like £100-150. They might be miffed if you do it yourself (if they find out) and I’m sure I’ve read something somewhere about a fine for this, but I find it highly unlikely myself that they’ll care at all (IANABTEngineer)

There is no law about it, it’s perfectly legal. And easy enough to do.

No you are not supposed to and yes I would

The socket and everything the other side of it belong to BT, it’s probably in the contract somewhere not to touch it, they’ll move it for you but charge something like £100-150.

We moved from Virgin to BT and the Open Reach Engineer just re-used Virgin’s Master Socket!

Which I was quite happy with as why waste more plastic changing the box.

No you are not supposed to and yes I would

This, except I have.

well, my mate  who is a network engineer moved the BT line from the attic workroom (was installed by previous owner as a business line in his office) to a spare virgin socket in the lounge, but then some cack-handed idiot accidentally chopped through the wire feeding the socket in the lounge, so at 9:30 on a Sunday evening I was in the crawlspace under the floor re-routing the wire to a location that made more sense (thankfully there was enough to do so). It was really straightforward, as the latest BT Master socket makes it really easy to connect – you just need to be sure which colour wires to use and where to put them so make sure you take photos.

I was going to move ours, looked simple enough, then got FTTP so it became redundant anyway! Much better idea all round 😂

They might be miffed if you do it yourself (if they find out) and I’m sure I’ve read something somewhere about a fine for this, but I find it highly unlikely myself that they’ll care at all (IANABTEngineer)

they have scant records about anything, they certainly don’t have records about the precise location of master sockets in everyones’ house, if they say anything (highly unlikely they’d even care) just say it’s been like it since you moved in 🤷‍♂️

I moved mine just as you described and it was straight forward.

Good tips on wiring/fault finding if you screw it up here –

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Telecoms/Telephone%20Wiring.htm

Likewise, easy to sort out yourself – I just moved ours a few feet as it was in the way. It’s technically owned by Openreach but don’t do anything silly to it and no-one will care.

But if you’re getting fibre at some point soon then that’s a totally different line which will make your copper line redundant.

Have a look at this – explains the master socket and wiring quickly and simply. https://youtu.be/mbzIR0UkasU?si=rfBiuNgM82Sd66fL

Very easy to do, I did ours, hardest bit was drilling through the front of the house to put the cable in, it felt weird making a big hole in my house!

Copper line network is being switched off by 2025 anyway, apparently.

Copper line network is being switched off by 2025 anyway, apparently.

I can’t see Open Reach getting fibre to every front door in the next 2 years…

I can’t see Open Reach getting fibre to every front door in the next 2 years…

not 100% how the network works but they don’t have to surely? FTTC would be enough to switch off the copper network I’d have thought?

I found a very good website put together by a former BT engineer based in the north east of England. That had exactly the instructions and warnings you need.

Sorry, I don’t recall the URL but it should be easy to find.

I replaced a relative’s master socket recently. Because of cable-joining complications I would be inclined to keep the master socket in the same place but consider a ‘slave’ socket elsewhere. YMMV.

Analog services are being turned off including ADSL, all exchange end. The copper cables will remain to your house but all landline calls will be VOIP. You’ll need a new phone or adaptor to make your phones work. Wont be a big deal for most people.

Analog services are being turned off including ADSL, all exchange end. The copper cables will remain to your house but all landline calls will be VOIP. You’ll need a new phone or adaptor to make your phones work. Wont be a big deal for most people.

That is missing some key details eg in order for phone calls to be VoIP, you need some way of sending IP between your house and the local exchange, which is currently IP over ADSL over copper.

If you switch off ADSL, you have no IP unless you replace ADSL with something else eg IP/Ethernet/Fibre, but that needs fibre to every house.

I found a very good website put together by a former BT engineer based in the north east of England. That had exactly the instructions and warnings you need.

I rather suspect that would be Bob Freshwater. I used to work with him.

I moved ours in the old house, was next to the window and wanted it in the corer of the room. Easy job, just took a photo of the connections/terminations in the master socket. Disconnected, drilled a new hole fed it through. The box was surface mount so an easy job. Then re-terminated as per the original photo.

Don’t believe that BT have any detail of records that would show where the box is located in the house.

I moved mine in my previous house. Peice of piss.