# Removing unused telecom lines outside the house?



## buckybadger (Aug 4, 2009)

The two lowest hanging lines across my backyard are phone lines that aren't in service. My inclination would be to just have them removed entirely, but the problem is that I don't know who to call since I've never used the lines while living in this house. What's the best way to proceed?


----------



## HIVOLT (Dec 17, 2009)

Call the loca TELCO and request that they remove their service drops from your property.


----------



## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

buckybadger said:


> The two lowest hanging lines across my backyard are phone lines that aren't in service. My inclination would be to just have them removed entirely, but the problem is that I don't know who to call since I've never used the lines while living in this house. What's the best way to proceed?


Find out who is the local TelCo and ask to have them removed. Everything up to and including the NID (Network Interface Device--small box where the transition from the drop to your inside wiring occurs) is the property of the telephone company.

The local TelCo is probably CenturyLink, now. Probably used to be Qwest. Check the NID. There might be identification in or on that.

Good luck. Getting today's TelCo out for a repair is hard enough. Getting them to remove something that, in their eyes, isn't broken, well...

There may be a downside to having those removed. If ever you want TelCo-supplied broadband, they _may_ charge you to reinstall one. Heck, the way TelCos behave, these days, they may want to charge you to remove the ones that are there.

Jim


----------



## TarheelTerp (Jan 6, 2009)

It would seem that the consensus is to NOT snip the wire at the house end, coil the wires up back to the pole, run some tape around the spool to hold it all tight and then hang that from a nail driven into the pole. hmmm.


----------



## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

TarheelTerp said:


> It would seem that the consensus is to NOT snip the wire at the house end, coil the wires up back to the pole, run some tape around the spool to hold it all tight and then hang that from a nail driven into the pole. hmmm.


----------



## Ironlight (Apr 13, 2011)

More Power! said:


> There may be a downside to having those removed. If ever you want TelCo-supplied broadband, they _may_ charge you to reinstall one. Heck, the way TelCos behave, these days, they may want to charge you to remove the ones that are there.
> 
> Jim


If you wait a bit and then order broadband they'll likely be running fiber instead of copper, and they'll probably do it for free. Verizon here in the NE is slowly rolling out fiber all over and they hooked up the house we bought 6 months ago and took down the existing copper when I asked them to, both at no charge.

And yeah, I would just cut the old wire and coil it up and attach it to the pole.


----------



## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

Ironlight said:


> If you wait a bit and then order broadband they'll likely be running fiber instead of copper, and they'll probably do it for free.


Don't bet on it. VZ is the only U.S. TelCom that did any wide-scale FTTx deployment, and that's basically at a standstill atm.

Jim


----------



## buckybadger (Aug 4, 2009)

Yeah, I guess I can start with Centurylink. I'm sure they'll be really happy to come alter lines when I'm not even a customer of theirs.

Maybe I'm young and naive, but I don't really see the value in a dedicated phone line. My house has Comcast/DirecTV coming in so in my mind that's more than adequate as far as data goes. One of these lines looks like it could be the original from the 1950's. When I traced it inside the house it just dead ended at an old Western Electric telephone block in the basement.

Maybe a future homeowner would detest the lack of a hard line, but it's a serious problem when we play ladder golf in the backyard and the bolos are getting caught on the phone lines!


----------



## buckybadger (Aug 4, 2009)

Ironlight said:


> And yeah, I would just cut the old wire and coil it up and attach it to the pole.


Well, I don't want to do anything illegal, now. In the event that someone were working on the pole down the road they would be able to tell fairly easily that these coiled up lines came from my house. I'm not someone who is afraid to cut some wires - I pull electrical permits for work I do on my own house - but messing with stuff at the pole doesn't seem like a great idea to me.


----------



## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

buckybadger said:


> Maybe I'm young and naive, but I don't really see the value in a dedicated phone line.


You can say a lot about TelCos, these days, most of it deservedly uncomplimentary, but one thing is true: To this day, little is more reliable than good ol' POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). During The Great Northeastern Blackout, a few years ago, the _only_ reliable communications around here was SBC's POTS lines.



buckybadger said:


> One of these lines looks like it could be the original from the 1950's. When I traced it inside the house it just dead ended at an old Western Electric telephone block in the basement.


And y'know what? I bet if CL turned that circuit up and you hooked a phone to it, it'd probably just up and work.

All that being said: POTS is on its way out. If you've no use for it, you've no use for it. Hell, I'm nearly as old as the hills. Grew up with black rotary phones, with _real_ ringers, and exchanges that started with a pair of letters (LIncoln, in my family's case). You could call 411 and actually get information. 611 would get you repair. But even _I_ am about done with POTS.

Jim


----------



## michaelson (Jun 7, 2011)

If you own the house I don't see why you can't at least ask them to remove the service drops. It'd hesitate to take them down yourself because those drops technically are property of the telephone company, not the homeowner.


----------



## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

TarheelTerp said:


> It would seem that the consensus is to NOT snip the wire at the house end, coil the wires up back to the pole, run some tape around the spool to hold it all tight and then hang that from a nail driven into the pole. hmmm.


Actually that is what I would do. That being said: I am a retired Telco emplyee and hung many of those drop wires and am very familiar with any risks involved. I would omit the nail and tape them to the pole.


----------



## TarheelTerp (Jan 6, 2009)

rjniles said:


> Actually that is what I would do. That being said: I am a retired Telco emplyee and hung many of those drop wires and am very familiar with any risks involved. I would omit the nail and tape them to the pole.


The nail was already there. :thumbsup:


----------



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

I still have the coax drop for Comcast on my house. Reason being, is that it is easier to just leave well enough alone, then undo it. Plus if at anytime I get tired of ATT U-Verse, I can hook back up to the Coax with very little interruption. I would leave well enough be, due to at sometime providers may decide to start charging people for running drops, especially if you switch back.


----------



## buckybadger (Aug 4, 2009)

gregzoll said:


> I still have the coax drop for Comcast on my house. Reason being, is that it is easier to just leave well enough alone, then undo it. Plus if at anytime I get tired of ATT U-Verse, I can hook back up to the Coax with very little interruption. I would leave well enough be, due to at sometime providers may decide to start charging people for running drops, especially if you switch back.


Granted, but I have no plans to touch my Comcast/DirecTV connections. I was talking about phone lines that were existing to the house when I bought it, but that I have never utilized. Out of the coaxial, poco, and two phone lines, the two phone lines hang the lowest. I have a small city lot backyard so four wires crossing the middle of the yard is not only an eyesore, but as I mentioned, can interfere with intense games of ladder golf.


----------



## TarheelTerp (Jan 6, 2009)

buckybadger said:


> I have a small city lot backyard so four wires crossing the middle of the yard is not only an eyesore, but as I mentioned, can interfere with intense games of ladder golf.


My power and cable run underground.
The day before I had the tree trimmers in out came the unused OH wires.


----------



## Jay 78 (Mar 2, 2011)

Just lop the summapup and be done with it.


----------



## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

Watch out for the Phone Police!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTPzTG1Lx60

Jim


----------



## daveb1 (Jan 15, 2010)

My second favourite clip from that show. First one being the Thanksgiving Turkey give away.


----------



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

And I was also, I was using mine as an example. Personally, I would leave them alone. I got lucky when I did not have U-Verse, that the city crew during the Ice Storm tore down the telco drop in 2006, and we just cut at the tension point along the guy wire for the run. In turn, when I left Comcast, I got a new drop in the place that I wanted on the back of my house, vs. half way down the side along the driveway. I think that my drop for CATV & telco are around 25 feet above the backyard, and only because it goes across where we setup our pool during the Summer.

It is really up to you, but beware if you have any neighbors that are nosy. Now, if you are throwing the beanbags that high, something is wrong. What are you guys doing, trying to knock the birds off of the drops?


----------



## frenchelectrican (Apr 12, 2006)

gregzoll said:


> It is really up to you, but beware if you have any neighbors that are nosy. Now, if you are throwing the beanbags that high, something is wrong. What are you guys doing, trying to knock the birds off of the drops?


Oh thanks alot Greg I almost spit my breakfest on the montior.

I own ya one buddy and by the way Bonne année ! ( Happy New Year ) 


Merci,
Marc


----------



## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

One of them is most likely for your phone/internet, but the other may be a dead one. Maybe at one point there was a faulty cable pair and they just ran a whole new drop. So I'd call them to have them remove it, or ask them if you can do it yourself (Chances are they'll want to do it).


----------

