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I am trying to identify what the purpose of this was, and whether it is safe to cut this cable. This Verizon Fiber ONT (optical network terminal) has a blue and white cable coming from this interface:

enter image description here

It is running up and over to this old copper phone line (Bell Atlantic) panel which appears to be capped off.

(front): enter image description here

(inside): enter image description here

There are however some wires that are running from this phone interface to a tube on the right and under my basement window: enter image description here

I have a lot of Cat5e in the house that terminated in the basement next to this BA panel here: enter image description here

I want to re-purpose the Cat5e which is terminated throughout the house as RJ11, and use it as RJ45 and hook it up to get 1Gbps internet. I am trying to determine what at one time was coming out of this ONT:

What is the blue and white Cat3 cable going to the Bell Atlantic box that is now capped off?

What is the brown and white cable next to that that is capped off?

What is currently hooked up to this interface panel that's going underground?

PhilippNagel
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Kahn
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  • The blue and white wire is NOT "capped off" - it's spliced to the blue and white pair of the OTHER customer side cable in that abandoned Bell Atlantic interface box, so it will (or can) provide POTS on the blue/white pair to wherever the POTS used to provide service to on that cable.Indeed, at that end, the Orange/White pairs are also spliced as for two-line service. Can't see if the orange/white are connected or not at the ONT end. – Ecnerwal Nov 20 '20 at 14:28
  • Thanks @Ecnerwal! The orange/white pair is going over to the patch panel on the left, I haven't unscrewed it from the wall yet. – Kahn Nov 20 '20 at 15:16
  • Problem is, I don't follow what here I can cut. I don't want or need land lines in any way. – Kahn Nov 20 '20 at 15:22

1 Answers1

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When Verizon (which is the latest iteration of C&P Telephone -> Bell Atlantic) puts in FIOS, they convert the phone lines to run on the fiber from the central office and they come out of the ONT as copper which they then connect to the original Network Interface (a.k.a. DMARC). ("Network" refers to "telephone network", not to Ethernet.) That network interface will have wires going to the rest of the house and also often still have wires going back out to the street. At some point (typically in or very close to the network interface, they will disconnect the old lines in order to avoid problems.

Each phone line users 2 wires (the RJ11 jacks can handle 4 wires = 2 phone lines). You actually have space for 6 (possibly 12, not clear if that is 6 repeated left & right or 12 separate lines), but currently you only have 1 line connected on the blue/white pair. Blue/white is one of the standard colors within a 4-pair cable, but is also standard for "cross connect" wires, which is the actual function here.

Do you have any traditional "land lines"? Do you want to have any "land lines"? Or are you in cell phone and/or VOIP mode? If you have no need for regular land lines (aka POTS) then you can ignore the old network interface. If you do want regular land lines then there are a number of different ways of wiring them, some of which will make use of that network interface, but not all.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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  • Thanks - here is a photo of one of the terminations in the rooms: https://imgur.com/eZHIpTe it looks like 3 pairs are in the jack and 1 is wound around due to be excess. I don't think this is rj11, but rather...rj25? – Kahn Nov 20 '20 at 00:08
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    Rj12. I used those a lot for serial printers and terminals. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 20 '20 at 00:12
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    Woo! I'm so glad to know this, it was actually driving me crazy. Although I don't fully understand the cable layout on the punchdown panel. Anyway, it all looks disconnected from the Bell Atlantic panel, so I'm going to cut these Cat5e cables and recrimp them for my switch/router. Then repanel the rooms with RJ45. I should be good. – Kahn Nov 20 '20 at 00:19
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    Don't crimp connectors on. Use CAT 5e (or similar) punchdown panel and/or RJ45 jacks. They are much more reliable than crimping connectors on and patch cables (i.e., factory made cables with connectors) are dirt cheap and easily replaced when they break. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 20 '20 at 00:32
  • are you recommending punching down to the existing block, then punching in patch cables to the patch panel, instead of just putting end on the existing cables and running them directly to a patch panel? – FreeMan Nov 20 '20 at 14:01
  • @FreeMan A little confused about the question (it has been a long week), but basically "yes". Assuming we are talking about the computer networking now (not the phone wires being removed), typical with FIOS would be 4 ports available as part of the router. Depending on configuration, you might connect one of those to a larger switch and go from there to patch panel, or might go straight to patch panel. Either way, I would use standard pre-assembled patch cables to go from router/switch/etc. to a patch panel. The back of the patch panel has a punchdown block (alternatively, could use individual – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 20 '20 at 15:19
  • RJ45 jacks, effectively 1-port patch panels) and punch down the CAT 5/5e/6/etc. cable to the punchdown blocks with the other end of each cable being the back of an RJ45 jack in a destination location. Then a standard pre-assembled patch cable from RJ45 to computer/TV/printer/etc. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 20 '20 at 15:20