Removing Copper from house

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Removing Copper from house - on fibre

davidcole

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#280423 14-Dec-2020 10:21

Have had fibre here for a couple of years.

It comes in via overhead then shoots down a conduit to an entry point at the bottom of the house. The existing copper also come in via over head and seems to connect to the the house telephone circuits up in my ceiling.

I have an ATA on my network, that I plug into a single jack near my own, which allows the use of any of my phone jacks that are in the house (only using two of them).

On the picture, the fibre comes in from the right, copper is that left hand connection, and theres some terminators in the "telecom" connection. Having painters here they disturbed some of these and the phone lines stopped being connected (I can get another photos of those joins if needed).

What can I do to disconnect (am I allowed to?) the copper coming in, and maintain the phone circuit in the house so that the jacks are all connected to my ATA.

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chevrolux

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#2621219 14-Dec-2020 10:34

Just snip off the copper lead-in (must probably be a white/blue pair), and leave everything else multipled up in that ETP.

davidcole

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#2621231 14-Dec-2020 11:20

So here's the copper connection, I've since removed this and left it against the pole.

Here's the fibre coming (on the right) in, going down the conduit, then back up (exiting to the left):

That cable that came up the conduit is the bigger wire that comes form the top right of the picture.

And then there's this join from the fibre (?? or whatever it is) to some copper that goes into the house:

xcubed

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#2621303 14-Dec-2020 12:37

That's not fibre on the right hand side, looks like it might be a phone connection to the TEL1 port of the ONT, as a replacement for the old overhead copper line.

Seems odd that they didn't remove the overhead line at the time.

This would allow your existing house phones to access voice service that goes over the fibre connection, although you aren't using it as you have an ATA.

I'd leave that in place in case you (or future owners) need to use it.

afe66

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#2621315 14-Dec-2020 12:55

Call for a furniture truck to drive by.

My neighbours kept their copper while rest of us went full fibre. Obviously the copper cable was hanging lowest and when the truck went by..... ping.

No copper connection.

Imagine if truck had been a couple of feet taller and then there would have been 4 fibre connections to reconnect...

cyril7

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#2621319 14-Dec-2020 13:09

Hi, the cable coming in toward the copper ETP from the right would appear to be the copper run from the ONT back to the copper ETP to support the internal phone wiring.

If you have an ATA and don't care for supporting the phone wiring via the ONT then you should be able to remove that link also, and pull the thin wire back into the roof space.

That will leave the area much tidier.

Cyril

davidcole

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#2621325 14-Dec-2020 13:22

Yeah I'm not proposing doing anything with that ex-fibre cable....unless there was a clear cut way of replacing it, and still allowing use of all the current phone ports.

The copper overhead I've removed from the house and coiled up on the pole on my boundary.

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neb

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#2621326 14-Dec-2020 13:24

chevrolux:
Just snip off the copper lead-in (must probably be a white/blue pair), and leave everything else multipled up in that ETP.

And if there's a loud bang and your pliers are missing a few chunks then it was a mains cable and not phone line.

chevrolux

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#2621327 14-Dec-2020 13:26

neb:
chevrolux:

Just snip off the copper lead-in (must probably be a white/blue pair), and leave everything else multipled up in that ETP.

And if there's a loud bang and your pliers are missing a few chunks then it was a mains cable and not phone line.

🤣 If you mix those two cables up, your DIY license should be well and truly revoked!!

neb

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#2621329 14-Dec-2020 13:31

chevrolux:
🤣 If you mix those two cables up, your DIY license should be well and truly revoked!!

At the Casa de Cowboy all external cables are approximately the same size, run next to each other, and covered in multiple layers of thick paint, so it's quite possible.

And going from another thread here, if you go by the Casa de Cowboy then the correct depth at which to bury the TPS cable you run across the garden is at approximately lawn depth.

SRP

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#2910624 5-May-2022 16:40

I have an old copper phone junction box on my unit. it served three units all now on broadband. what are my rights to remove this as I wish to install a window? I contacted Chorus who said it should be disconnected from the street first at a cost to me of $1200. I just want the wires on my property safely closed off for all concerned so I can remove the box.

Anyone have a similar junction or experience. the Units built in 1973.

Thanks

SRP

Jase2985

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#2910695 5-May-2022 21:52

@wheelbarrow01 suggestions

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neb

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#2910702 5-May-2022 22:24

SRP:
I have an old copper phone junction box on my unit. it served three units all now on broadband. what are my rights to remove this as I wish to install a window? I contacted Chorus who said it should be disconnected from the street first at a cost to me of $1200. I just want the wires on my property safely closed off for all concerned so I can remove the box.

If you're in West Auckland, just put up an official-looking notification that says something like "Notice: Copper cable!". It will be disconnected and removed at no cost to you some time during the night.

lchiu7

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#2911769 9-May-2022 10:25

Slight OT but I have two sets of copper going into my ETP, one from Chorus and one from Vodafone. I used to have Vodafone analogue phone and since they could not use the Chorus (Telecom) copper they ran their copper (along with their coax for Internet) along a conduit down my driveway and then terminated the copper into the same ETP but used the second pair of copper going into the house.

Then I decided to provision the first pair with Telecom so I could have two lines. It was a while ago but I think I did it because I provide a phone line for my daughter (this was before everybody used cell phones !). But when I removed it the line was still active and left a hum on the Vodafone line, I think arising from some sort of cross-talk. I could never fix this and I wasn't game to go into the ETP and physically disconnect the Chorus cable from the interior wiring).

Then I decided to ditch the POTS line and moved to VoIP with a ATA. I would ideally wire the phone line coming out of the ATA into the ETP so all extensions in the house would be live but my ONT and router are upstairs and the ETP is downstairs.

So in the end I just use a Panasonic DECT phone set and since I had a few spare handsets, I was able to programme all of them (I now have 5 handsets around the house) to use the same base station. The only downside to this is the base station has to be near the ATA device and is the unit with the active answering machine, even though the phone downstairs in the kitchen also has answering capabilities. If people leave messages (which is pretty rare now) it is recorded on the machine near the ATA so I need to check that when I come home rather than just scan the machine in the kitchen.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#2912092 10-May-2022 01:13

It's hard to make a call on the situation based only on the available photos but I believe the situation you have is that the fibre cable comes in aerially from the street and goes down to your ONT & ITP location indoors. You then have a copper cable plugged into the ITP which goes back out and up the wall externally where it disappears to the left on the first photo below, to the second photo where it's (somewhat badly IMO) wired into your existing copper house wiring via the old external junction box, then the old copper cable goes back inside the house (and presumably to all your jackpoints).

I think it would be possible to re-route the existing cable carrying the voice service into the building via a new junction box as crudely shown below (maybe not the best location but you get the idea):

Cut the other external cable then draw it back inside the building:

Then link the two cables back together internally (maybe in the roof space??). This gets rid of most of the eternally mounted cable and the old junction box can then be removed as it's now redundant:

I would think that a simple Premise Networking order would be all that is required to complete this work. I am not sure of the cost but I would expect it could be just a site visit fee and possibly 30-60 mins of labour time on top assuming there is ceiling access and that I have correctly guessed the relative locations in the photos (a bit hard to tell without a wider angle shot).

As it's only copper cabling you are trying to tidy up, any electrician could do most of the work, but if you want the old aerial copper cable between the house and the street pole removed as well, a Chorus contractor is likely your only option.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

D1023319

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#2912168 10-May-2022 10:14

SRP:

hi

I have an old copper phone junction box on my unit. it served three units all now on broadband. what are my rights to remove this as I wish to install a window? I contacted Chorus who said it should be disconnected from the street first at a cost to me of $1200. I just want the wires on my property safely closed off for all concerned so I can remove the box.

Anyone have a similar junction or experience. the Units built in 1973.

Thanks

SRP

I have same problem in Hataitai - Copper cable from Lamppost hasn't been used in 20+ years but Chorus want $$$ to remove it.

It isn't a inconvenience so it can rot there

IT does make me wonder -

- what happens if it breaks - Will I get charged?
- Can i charge them to access my house in future to remove it?????