How To Wire Your Own Telephone Line

The telephone company terminates their line in a small plastic box mounted on a wall just outside your home. It can cost you a bit to pay a technician to lay the wiring from the box to a telephone outlet inside your home. Wiring a single-line telephone is not a difficult task and doing it yourself can save you some cash. 

1. Trace the telephone cable that runs from the utility pole closest to your home to a small plastic box that the lineman mounted on a wall just outside your home. The box is known as a network interface device (NID).
2. Unscrew the NID box cover and look for a short telephone cable plugged to a telephone jack inside the NID. Unplug the short cable from the jack to disconnect telephone power and signals from the telephone company. 
3. Slip a telephone cable through an opening at the base of the NID and pull the cable from inside the NID. Remove 2 inches of sheathing from the tip of the cable with diagonal pliers, then strip off ½ inch of insulation from the tip of the red wire and the tip of the green wire, using a wire stripper. 
4. Look for the green and the red colored terminal screws right beside the short cable. Screw the red wire from the telephone cable onto the red terminal screw. Screw the green wire onto the green terminal screw. 
5. Run the cable from the NID to the spot where you wish to mount the telephone jack (RJ-14), and then cut the cable with diagonal pliers. Use cable staples every two to three feet to fasten the cable onto surfaces.
6. Remove the cable sheathing from the tip of the cable, and then strip off ½ inch from the exposed red and green wires.
7. Get a surface-mount RJ-14 telephone jack and screw the jack onto the wall. Open the jack cover and wrap the green wire clockwise around the green terminal screw inside the jack. Wrap the red wire around the red terminal screw and tighten each screw. Check the two wires to make sure they are not loose, then close the jack cover.
8. Plug the short cable into its jack inside the NID. Place a call to test your connection.

Warning:

Make sure that the short cable is unplugged inside the NID to avoid low-voltage shock which can happen if someone dials your number.

Location: USA

Reference:

PublicService Commission of Wisconsin: Testing, Repairing and Installing HomeTelephone Wiring...

Written by Raul Avenir