Condo - Not Sure what to Disconnect

Posts: 2

Forgive me if this has been answered already, but I could not find an example just like mine anywhere...

I live in a condo and in the utility closet outside my front door, is an exposed phone panel (see picture below). I am unit 264, which appears to be the bottom grouping of wires. I have a few questions as to what to do to ensure that I am disconnected from the phone company completely...

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1. Which wires do I pull from this box? The ones from the left (owned by Verizon, I'm assuming), or the ones on the right (the ones that go into my condo, I'm assuming)?

2. Is there any particular method to disconnecting these with such a box: just cut them, yank then out, pull what likes like a clip from the center section, etc.?

3. Anything else to do besides labelling the pulled wires?

4. Just for my knowledge, what is this box called?

Thank you for your time in looking at this and for any assistance that any of you may be able to provide.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

I can only speak for myself here. One reason why I have not responded to your post is because this connection is not in your own private property space. So messing with this could really get you in trouble.

May I suggest that you first talk with your association about this if you really intend to disconnect the telco at this junction.

I prefer another approach to deal with this by opening up the kitchen phone jack and see if there are multiple wires leading into this jack. If there are more than 2 sets of wires coming in, it is most likely the entry source for your condo unit. It will be a bit of trial and error unless you have a volt meter to determine which pair is the incoming. But once you figure that out, you can disconnect the incoming set and your condo will then be disconnected from the telco.

When I lived in an apartment unit, the telco guy went straight for the kitchen jack and messed with it. So I am pretty sure that is where these multi unit buildings have it wired.

And messing with the kitchen jack is in your own private space and therefore, not necessary to deal with your association.

I hope this helps.

btw, you'll know that your phone has been disconnected from the telco when the line goes dead after disconnecting the incoming wire.

Posts: 37 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject:

I second the above post. Never mess around in the utility closet. You have no business in there. Instead of the kitchen jack, you may have a central communication box in your unit, where all the wires come in and then distribute out to your jacks. Look for a screw on panel on your closet walls. If you have such a box, that's where you should disconnect the incoming wire.

Posts: 2251

bsmithFX4 wrote:

4. Just for my knowledge, what is this box called?

That is known as a Punch Down Block. It is also refereed to as a Dmarc, which is short for demarcation point