Is this a phone line or electric?

[Chris142]

Im guessing phone.

It's been on my property for 50 years that I know of. It's low enough that I can touch it. Guess it doesn't matter much.

Im just still curious.

 

[oldcodger]

I think phone also.

 

[k1xv]

Electric lines are always higher on the pole, and are usually at least two. A single insulated cable lower on the pole is a phone line.

 

[Arc]

Its phone or cable. Your power lines are the two up top carrying probably 14,000 volts. All lines sag in the summer due to heat but you still shouldn't be able to reach them from the ground. Utilities self regulate as far as obeying the national electric code so its hard to get them to fix anything plus they have a legal easement on your property.

 

[Chris142]

Its phone or cable. Your power lines are the two up top carrying probably 14,000 volts. All lines sag in the summer due to heat but you still shouldn't be able to reach them from the ground. Utilities self regulate as far as obeying the national electric code so its hard to get them to fix anything plus they have a legal easement on your property.

Definitely not cable as cable was never in my area.

 

[Klutch9]

Lick it and tell us what happens. Do it.






Because of the litigious society we live in, disregard the above haha

 

[Arc]

Definitely not cable as cable was never in my area.

It's worth a call to the phone company. They might tighten it up but it's doubtful unless it's over a road or driveway. You will have to explain to them how it's some kind of hazard for you. It took me forever to get one raised on my brothers farm years ago and it sagged so bad it would hit the top of a truck when driving under it.

 

[Kira]

So, listen to this:
Up in the Champlain Valley...where they do grow apples...a tree fell on such a communications line.
I called the phone company, and they were surprisingly blase' about it.
I told them the numbers of the poles between which their multicable was being stressed.
They said they needed an address.
I went out and got the address of the closest house and called back.
They said they needed the pole numbers. I had them and they noted them...I presume.

When next I saw a phone crew out in their truck, I told them of the situation.
They said that cell phones made up so much of their business, the land line has become a bother to the company.
They implied that the phone company would let it break just to finish off the old hold-outs.

So, siding with hold-outs I don't even know, I removed the tree.

Should that line be damaged, it'd be interesting to see how many households would be effected.
Also, there might be a few businesses which rely on that phone line for credit card processing.

 

[K-Man]

Out here the major telecom company is allowing above-ground phone lines to get overgrown and to have trees and limbs fall on them. On one road the lines are actually on the ground visible from the road. The company is also removing some above-ground lines and poles. Saw this on the same road.

So you can see the telecom companies aren't trying to maintain old landlines.

 

[cptbarkey]

At my ranch property the neighbor had a 10 acre tract he played around on occasion. He went missing, family knew nothing, 3 years later the power company was doing maintenance on the poles and found his skeleton. Still an unsolved mystery.

 

[loneryder]

So, listen to this:
Up in the Champlain Valley...where they do grow apples...a tree fell on such a communications line.
I called the phone company, and they were surprisingly blase' about it.
I told them the numbers of the poles between which their multicable was being stressed.
They said they needed an address.
I went out and got the address of the closest house and called back.
They said they needed the pole numbers. I had them and they noted them...I presume.

When next I saw a phone crew out in their truck, I told them of the situation.
They said that cell phones made up so much of their business, the land line has become a bother to the company.
They implied that the phone company would let it break just to finish off the old hold-outs.

So, siding with hold-outs I don't even know, I removed the tree.

Should that line be damaged, it'd be interesting to see how many households would be effected.
Also, there might be a few businesses which rely on that phone line for credit card processing.

Here in WV trees lay on the lower lines for months. If it ain't broke why fix it. Now that the low lines include Fiber internet, I'll be upset if a tree lands on it. They do do a good job of trimming back trees every summer.

 

[loneryder]

At my ranch property the neighbor had a 10 acre tract he played around on occasion. He went missing, family knew nothing, 3 years later the power company was doing maintenance on the poles and found his skeleton. Still an unsolved mystery.

Bullet nearby??

 

[2005jettatdi]

A power line will have transformers at some point if it branches off.

 

[Geekhead]

Out here the major telecom company is allowing above-ground phone lines to get overgrown and to have trees and limbs fall on them. On one road the lines are actually on the ground visible from the road. The company is also removing some above-ground lines and poles. Saw this on the same road.

So you can see the telecom companies aren't trying to maintain old landlines.

In our neighborhood once the glass fiber lines went in they ignored the 50 year old buried copper lines. I was on HDSL at the time and once the lines got noisy and one of the pairs kept quitting the repair techs said that Bell was not really maintaining them anymore so might as well bite the bullet and go fiber. So did.

 

[mk378]

That is copper phone line. It is a bundle containing maybe 100 twisted pairs of small wire, each "pair" can serve one customer. You will see oblong splice boxes hanging on the line at various places. These are used where the line had to be spliced because of damage or where it was necessary to branch out some pairs for customer(s).

They won't do anything to repair or maintain those lines unless and until someone at the end complains their service is cut.

 

[Chris142]

That is copper phone line. It is a bundle containing maybe 100 twisted pairs of small wire, each "pair" can serve one customer. You will see oblong splice boxes hanging on the line at various places. These are used where the line had to be spliced because of damage or where it was necessary to branch out some pairs for customer(s).

They won't do anything to repair or maintain those lines unless and until someone at the end complains their service is cut.

It does not bother me. Our phone service was so bad that we got rid of our landline decades ago. Every time it would rain the phones would get static and you couldn't use it. We called and we're told that they were no longer maintaining the lines.

There is a pole on each side of a hill and the only way to fix it would be to add a pole between those poles. I certainly don't want them driving around on my property and making a mess to fix it. I'd rather chop it off at the pole.

It is pretty low. My 5"7' and ugly me can touch the line if on tippy toes.

 

[Arc]

Here in WV trees lay on the lower lines for months. If it ain't broke why fix it. Now that the low lines include Fiber internet, I'll be upset if a tree lands on it. They do do a good job of trimming back trees every summer.

Same here in Kentucky. Before fiber I use to see trees laying on the lines all the time. Now they are constantly trimming trees.

 

[Mazomopar]

That scenery makes me think it's a telegraph line. But I'm not a lineman for the county..

 

[Mechanician]

It's an interesting component of our infrastructure, billions of dollars worth, that's more of a bother than it is useful. Most of our railroads are in a similar conundrum.

 

[loneryder]

That is copper phone line. It is a bundle containing maybe 100 twisted pairs of small wire, each "pair" can serve one customer. You will see oblong splice boxes hanging on the line at various places. These are used where the line had to be spliced because of damage or where it was necessary to branch out some pairs for customer(s).

They won't do anything to repair or maintain those lines unless and until someone at the end complains their service is cut.

That copper has to be worth some $$.