My fixer upper house originally had the phone box off the house lying in mud. The wires were connected and the phones worked, but it was a mess. New construction now and I got a brand new empty phone box. All it has is plywood in it to mount something to. I got a wire that feeds my phone service from the pole, and a wire that leads to a block that is correctly wired inside the house. What am I supposed to have at the pole/house interface or box? Can someone point me to a web reference or supply place to show me what should be in the phone box and how it should be wired?
With the deregulated phone systems, who should be doing this?
Replies
If I understand you correctly, you have what is probably a gray telephone box. Normally, the box has an access for the phone company, and another for the homeowner. In the homeowner's side, there is a phone jack that the homeowner can plug a phone into before calling the telephone company and telling them that the problem is the wiring to the house and not inside the house. The phone company access provides the hookup from the pole to a phone block to the house wiring and the homeowner access. "Normally" the phone company is responsible for the line to the phone block... Like the water company or electric company is "normally" responsible for the line to the meter.... If you have any questions, I would suggest you call the local telephone company...
Ken in Savannah
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/phone_wiring.html
Hope this helps...all I did was a "google" search on "telephone wiring"
Around here, what happens is the wire from the pole comes into the house, into a small (3 to 4" cube) gray box which has what is essentially a big fuse in it in case of lightning, and a ground. From there, it's just the wires to your jacks. Of course, if you have dsl high speed internet, there's a little extra fiddle de dee, but that's pretty much it.
Thanks for the posts. It sounds like I have to contact my phone company and have them look at what I have. I did a 'temporary' installation - everything works, but I needed phone service in a hurry, and trying to figure out the mess of wires from the old box wasn't getting me anywhere.
From reading a reference in one of the previous posts, I need a Network Interface Device (grey box).
My cable TV installer said my phones right now are not grounded. As I mentioned, all I have is a empty box with plywood in it - no grounds. Any idea who needs to provide a ground for the Network Interface Device?
The phone Co. should ground the line. Around here code calls for cable, phone, elec. service to share a common ground at entry.
The box in question is generally called a 'demarc box'. It 'demarcates' where TPCs responsibility ends, and yours begins.
Around here, TPC generally provides a new demarc box if they come to do service (like for some other reported problem, a new line, or whatever). Sometimes it helps to explicitely ask the service guy if you can have one...
You can also buy your own.
For more info, see this site:
http://www.hometech.com/techwire/demarc.html