Rural telephone boxes along road

[dlundblad]

We have one right in our front yard. Not only is it an eye sore, it is also an inconvenience to mow around and we'd like to do some landscaping in the area. Plus it looks like someone hit it at one time because it's bent. Everyone else on our road has them in more ideal locations while this one is actually diagonally located from where the phone wire went in along with the electric. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyways, do you think the phone company would either move or remove it for us or would I just be wasting my time? We will never get a land line and they don't offer Internet here strangely enough.

 

[Skippy722]

Good luck getting the telecom's to deal with it. We have one down the road that is at a 45° angle held together with duck tape and prayers, one company says it's the others company's, the other company says it's the first company's box.

I've seen fake rocks that simply slide over the box, that with some plants CAREFULLY planted around it (you don't want to cut the wires, although then they'd come fix it and probably charge you some exorbitant fee!) could hide it pretty well.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by dlundblad
We have one right in our front yard. Not only is it an eye sore, it is also an inconvenience to mow around and we'd like to do some landscaping in the area. Plus it looks like someone hit it at one time because it's bent. Everyone else on our road has them in more ideal locations while this one is actually diagonally located from where the phone wire went in along with the electric. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyways, do you think the phone company would either move or remove it for us or would I just be wasting my time? We will never get a land line and they don't offer Internet here strangely enough.

Nope . If they did it would COST them , so it would Cost you .

Do not worry about it .

 

[CourierDriver]

dump a load of ashphalt over it,,Idk paint it green

 

[Kira]

You're talking about low-to-the-ground connection boxes, yes? They're almost always a faded green plastic.

If this is what you mean, have I got an instance for you.

Two adjacent, parallel short streets dead ended into a woods. The land in the woods became available so the two dead ends were connected with a "C" shaped road.

The inner radius of the C had space for 3 homes and the outer radius, 7. There are 4 HUGE communications boxes on this tiny development.

No can figure.

 

[MNgopher]

Typically the box is in the road right of way or in a utility easement, so the the utility has the right to be there with its equipment.


I work in a field where we own the right of way and have the right to tell the utility to move. Most of the phone utilities here are barely responsive to that - even though we have the right to make them move.

So long story short, your chances of getting it moved are slim and none, and slim just left town...

 

[Donald]

Is this for old copper wiring? Not sure how much longer that will be used by the phone companies. Its worth more as scrap than being used as phone wire. How do you get phone service?

In the church camp I am a member of there is a lot of old phone wiring on the poles that is now owned by Frontier. We do not believe anyone at the church camp uses a phone company provided phone. Most use cell or if a home phone is desired then its VOIP from Comcast. We are planning on cutting down all the phone company wiring. Its ugly, falling in places and in the way of me running CAT6 for WIFI. With Frontier in bankruptcy its doubtful they will clean up or remove the unused cable anytime soon.

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted by dlundblad
We have one right in our front yard. Not only is it an eye sore, it is also an inconvenience to mow around and we'd like to do some landscaping in the area. Plus it looks like someone hit it at one time because it's bent. Everyone else on our road has them in more ideal locations while this one is actually diagonally located from where the phone wire went in along with the electric. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyways, do you think the phone company would either move or remove it for us or would I just be wasting my time? We will never get a land line and they don't offer Internet here strangely enough.

Something something, crazy kids in the winter mowed your mail box and that old telephone box was in their way. You just come home to the disaster....

Or the fake plastic rock.

My case: in the ground covers which bolts where never replaced back. and I have 5 boxes (electrical, cable/phone, phone/fiber, phone, and one unmarked)

 

[FT92]

yep phone companies , at least the one here don't care much about maintenance work...I have a phone line that is hanging about 2 feet from the ground...called and called them for the last 10-12 years ..they come out look and that's it...I had to put a pole under it so I can mow grass doesn't seem to bother them at all

 

[Lyman]

We haven't had a phone line in the last 5 years. When we moved in to our current home I noticed there was no phone line coming out of the conduit.
When I inquired about it the phone company said if I wanted one I would have to pay for it. I was told they do not maintain the old phone lines if there is
cable run to the home. Getting them to move one of those boxes might take an act of Congress.

 

[dlundblad]

We have an old power pole on our property that we can get removed. Figured this would be similar, but I guess not.

I wouldn't mind paying to get the job done. That isn't an issue.

We have cell phones. No need for a land line. We only have 2 providers of internet out by us even though there's a fiber optic wire on the opposite side of the road. Go figure.

 

[SpitFire6]

Hi,
If these are the old Cu landline boxes they are needed.
Some people might not have or use wireless communications. This is their only way to communicate.
If you lose wireless connectivity or it is switched off, these might be the only method available.
Cheers,
Iain.

 

[mk378]

Those boxes are called "pedestals." In that type of construction, wherever there is a break in the cable (intentional or accidental) the cable is brought above ground inside the pedestal to splice it to the next segment.

Before any landscaping, call 811 and have them mark the location of the underground cable(s). This will also give you an idea what might be involved in moving / removing the pedestal. Removing it would likely require running a continuous new cable between the neighboring two pedestals, that will be very expensive.