What should I do with this old telephone socket?

[homediy]

 

I removed this socket to paint around. Not sure if in doing so the black & red wires have become disconnected or were always like this? I was just going to screw it back on after but not sure if it is unsafe now? 

 

[Jason]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @homediy. We trust you'll get loads of help and inspiration for all your home improvement projects.

It's my understanding that these wires might have a small amount of current running through them, so please take care. Let me tag some resident electrical experts in @MikeTNZ and @CSParnell to get their thoughts on next steps.

Jason

[CSParnell]

Hi @homediy,

The red and the black is just the second pair of the cable or a second line by the looks of it, it has not been connected even though the black is stripped back. This may have been stripped back as some stage for fault finding.

Simply trim the black back so the exposed copper is gone and then screw back.

As for current flow it is below the threshold for causing injury, it does give a little tingle if you are touching it and the phone happens to ring.

You should be right to just screw it back on to the skirting after trimming the black back.

[MikeTNZ]

Hi @homediy,

I never thought I'd see another one of them sockets again!

They're the older type Austel sockets from the 70's/80's, back when people had to have a technician come in and make any changes to your telephone wiring and install a new point for a second phone.

First question is, do you still use a land-line phone?

Second question is, if so, do any of your phones use connectors like these?

Is this system still hooked up in any capacity within your home?

Usually these days, for a landline, you would have what is known as an RJ-12 connector that the phone plugs into.

Back in the day, the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) used to use a 50 Volt DC feed from the exchange (fed from batteries), this was for the ringer signal used with with bell type ringers in the same era of rotary dial systems, when you picked up the receiver, the voltage would drop from the 50V (on-hook) to about 25V (off-hook).

If you have a multimeter, just check between all of the wires to make sure there is no voltage present, if there is 50VDC present, you need to trace that cable back as far as possible and disconnect it at it's point of supply, the current is miniscule, in the area of 1 milliamp so there is no chance of this being any sort of a shock hazard.

There should have been 3 wires connected originally, one was the return (which from very hazy memory was black), the "Tip" wire was blue and the "Ring" wire was white.

By rights, there should not be any voltage at all between any of these wires, if the socket has been disconnected.

The POTS system is way outdated, I disconnected my landline ages ago as everyone uses cellphones these days, my landline only rang if it was tele-marketers and spammers.

By all means, let me know how you get on with this, if you require further advice, I'm more that willing to help you out, especially with something like this, not a lot of people know about or understand how the old POTS system worked and merely cutting wires could cause all sorts of problems.

Cheers,

Mike T.

[homediy]

Thanks, we're retro :-). We have a landline connected to the internet, not to the telephone lines so I need to do a bit more investigating to see if it has been disconnected further up the line when I get chance.  Might invest in a multi-meter, they seem cheap and would be handy to have. If there isn't any current can I safely assume it has been connected and just snip it off and push into the hole? For now  I'm just going to screw it back in the wall if that's not a safety issue.

Thanks for your info, really really helpful.

[homediy]

Thanks, appreciate the reassuring advice. I think I'm going to just put it back for now and add its removal to the the "to do" list!

[MikeTNZ]

Hi @homediy,

Good as gold, do you still use a land-line?

Just enquisitive. 😂

Cheers,

Mike T.

[homediy]

if my husband can't get through to my mobile but I don't even know the number! 

[MikeTNZ]

Hi @homediy,

If you're not using the outlet, go to a decent electrical wholesaler and get some gel filled connectors that you crimp with your pliers.

These come in 2 way or 3 way, you will only need the 2 way type.

Put the individual wires into the connectors and crimp them, tape the whole lot up and feed them back through the wall.

Job done.

If you need any further advice, please let me know.

Cheers,

Mike T.

[CSParnell]

I never understood why Bunnings didn't sell scotch locks, I spoke to the reps about it and they said to speak to procurement. The closets things was the Holman cable scotch locks in irrigations but I'd say the size is to big so I never recommended it for cat 3/4/5/6