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Not quite sure what this is, but I need to move it up slightly to fit my baseboards. Is this an electrician job?enter image description here

Update: Unscrewed and uncovered this, is it safe to assume it’s non functional? (This is a shared building I just moved into my unit I have no telephone but I’m not sure if this serves others) enter image description here

user3840170
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Brent
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4 Answers4

19

It's a telephone jack, (or surface-mount junction box) albeit a poorly installed one. Apparently British Telecom, between 2003 and 2019, by the logo.

There should be no hazard to moving it. Or removing it, if you don't have landline telephone or data service.

Community
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Ecnerwal
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11

If you can move it without stressing the wires, there is no harm. Otherwise, it's most likely a low voltage POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), or less likely, an alarm or other signaling circuit.

To determine which one and whether it’s in use:

  1. Put your meter in DCV mode and measure between the two wires that pass through. A reading of 12-60 Volts (varies with country and system; 50 in UK, 48 in USA) assume it is an active phone circuit.
  2. Put meter in VAC range and measure again. If >6 VAC, assume it is an active signal or control circuit (e.g., doorbell, door latch, entry chime).
  3. If 0 VDC and 0 VAC, put meter in resistance mode and measure again. If <20K (20,000) Ohms, assume it is an active alarm circuit.

If none of above, you should be able to disconnect it with no harm. Disclaimer: most likely is not the same as definitely, and one can’t be sure without tracing the wires to both ends.

MadMonty
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It's BT Openreach telephone wiring but these are also used to deliver DSL broadband (ADSL or VDSL/FTTC). You and your neighbours may not have a telephone but they may have broadband. I would not disconnect it unless you are sure that there is nothing on the end of it.

In the most recent Openreach implementations (SOGEA and SOTAP) there is no analogue phone service on the line any more, only DSL, and the phone service is provided via VOIP ('digital voice') This means you may be unable to measure line voltage or detect a dialling tone. I believe there may be still some 'wetting' voltage on the line (to detect/prevent high resistance faults) but not necessarily full ringing voltage as mentioned in another answer.

Legally speaking it belongs to Openreach and that would count as damage to their property. However in practice it would likely be fine to move it a short distance without disturbing the wiring, since any engineer who visits is not going to know how it was originally installed.

user1908704
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Looks like it's a BT junction box, should be perfectly safe to move as long as you're careful not to break the insulation. However, it may not actually be legal to move it. The fact that only 2 wires are connected means that it is likely on BT's side of the master socket, which means that the wires and box belong to BT and you would need to call out a BT (or OpenReach) engineer, which they will charge through the nose for.

Having said that it's unlikely anyone will know if you're just moving it up a couple of inches as long as you don't break the wires and disrupt someone's service.

rhellen
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