Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Because the icy tree branch that knocks down the power line will very likely take the phone and cable lines with it.
[TM beat me to it.]
Geesh, you people who don't have Winter.....
P.s. we didn't get much of a storm here by me. Maybe 6" of snow.
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My ignorance was concerning cable lines being on the poles with the power lines.
Of course, that would only make financial sense, if both companies were agreeable, and there were no technical issues involved (like magnetism (or something else undesirable)) being generated by the power lines (if it is coaxial cable--it is fiber optic, it might not make any difference). It would be a win-win for both companies.
However, whenever electricity goes off here, and in the rare instances that it turns out (and I find that knowledge out) that a knocked down pole was the reason, I have
never lost my cable Internet, to my knowledge (meaning that I was at home when it happened, it wasn't the middle of the night, etc., when I wouldn't be aware one way or the other, etc.). That makes me wonder (and I think that I mentioned this in my previous post on this thread) if here where I live, the cable companies don't somehow use the telephone company's underground conduits. Here, my telephone company is AT&T, and they offer "U-Verse" Internet access. I would think that they would use their own underground conduits for that, at least.
But, I'm just thinking out loud. Unfortunately, I don't have an expert (a telephone line repairman would probably suffice) to ask.
I know that fiber optic cable, which I suppose is mainly used for what I think are called "trunk lines" (as opposed to the ones that run to your house from the street, for example) is buried, at least in some places. In a place where I lived in about 20 years ago, a crew came through and did just that. They didn't use anyone else's conduit that I could tell--they used a ditch digger (like a "Ditch Witch") to dig a trough, and laid their own cable (protected, sheathed) directly into the ground. Shortly afterwards, they would go back and cover it up. This was along a major 4-lane highway, on the public right-of-way along the highway.