I have just bought a Cave House in Cuevas del Campo, Granada, and noticed that there was a telephone line already installed! The line was dead of course, but I thought that it wouldn’t be too difficult to get it re-connected, and whilst driving through the nearby town of Baza recently, noticed a Telefonica shop, so decided to call in to arrange for my phone line to be re-connected.
Fortunately, one of the assistants spoke English and started completing the application form - which was going fine until she asked me for my next-door neighbour’s phone number!
I explained that the house next door to mine is currently empty, and I have no way of knowing the phone number, but suggested that perhaps they could look it up from their own records.
“We can’t do that - our records don’t show addresses” she said.
“Then what’s the point of me giving you my neighbour’s number if you can’t look it up?” I asked.
“The Engineer needs it so that he knows which junction box to connect your line to.” she replied.
“There is only one junction box - I can see the wires coming from my house to the telegraph pole across the road, and they go into the junction box below it - the one with ‘Telefonica’ stamped on it!”
“That’s no geed,” she said, “without your neighbour’s phone number, you cannot have your phone connected.”
At that point, she tore-up the almost-completed application form and binned it!
I hope someone from Telefonica is reading this, because here are some instructions for your engineers in case someone else wants to pay good money for your services and doesn’t know their neighbours phone number - you won’t have to turn them away.
1. Follow the wires coming from the house and see which junction box they go to.
2. Open the junction box, and using a tone generator if necessary, identify which connectors they go to.
3. Find a spare ‘Exchange Pair’ and jumper them across, noting the line number.
4. Call the exchange and tell them to enable the line, not forgetting to give them the line number and the contract number.
5. If they ask you for the neighbour’s phone number, just make one up - they won’t be able to look it up anyway!
