Thread: Underground phone line cut to house
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Jim Redelfs Jim Redelfs is offline
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Default Underground phone line cut to house
In article ,
wrote:

I'm curious why you have a 10 wire cable?

5-pair "drop" wire was quite common, particularly to larger homes in nicer
neighborhoods.

My house just has a 2 wire. One phone line only.

You must live in a shack on the wrong side of the tracks. [ducking]

Seriously, single-pair drop was common but we usually placed TWO of them.
2-pair drop was WIDELY used.

Those places with just one (1-pair) are usually OLD farmsteads. Even then, I
suspect the crew was running short of wire at the time.

Also, just because more and more folks are using their wireless (cell) phone
for their voice needs, don't think that "the land line" is going away.

Just today I was unable to install a THIRD line to an old farm house. The
two, single-pair drops were already in use. Now the customer has to wait
while we get a permit from the county to bore across/under their road to place
another drop to the house.

In the early 1970s, a MASSIVE effort was made to bury the services to
thousands of rural customers formerly fed by open wire hanging from poles and
glass insulators. We buried two pairs to homes that were on 4 to 8-party
lines - a SINGLE pair feeding 4 to 8 customers. We thought it was overkill.
It was - until today, for this particular farmstead.
--

JR
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