Identifying utility wires
 

Once again, coming to the PPOT brain trust to answer a strange question.

There is a substantial tree limb hanging on a utility wire in front of my house. The electricity out here is underground, so it is most likely a phone line. No one in county or village government here has any idea who owns the lines on the poles out here. I would like to get the limb down, but I'm not going to touch it myself. If I'm out there and the line breaks whoever owns it will come after me for the damage.
Is there some central clearing house of information about whose wires are on certain poles? I tried 811, but they only care about buried lines.

Most likely, no, there isn't a central database and depending on when that pole was put up, there is a good chance they don't know about it.

My utility has a pretty good grasp on our lines since we have a small service territory, and thanks to PG&E blowing up a city block with a gas line they didn't know existed, there has been a huge rush to make sure we can account for every one now.

Sadly until the wires break and someone calls to complain their electricity/phone/internet/whatever is out, they will just assume everything is fine.

AC power has to be on a grid so there's likely one transmission and distribution company even if there are multiple electricity suppliers so you just need to call the local T&D company.

Look at where the wires attach to the poles. Are there insulators which would indicate they are electrical lines and not cable or phone lines?

BTW, power lines will kill you. The company that maintains the line is likely responsible for making sure they are clear of trees so they should come cut it for free. If they won't come out, tell them the wire is on the ground and they should be there pretty fast.

^^
From the OP
"The electricity out here is underground ... "

Take a careful look at the pole and any other poles along that line. Often there is an ID tag of some sort on the pole. It may be quite small though. That might get you pointed in the right direction.

I had a line down in my lane way and called the local power company.
I knew it wasn't a power line, but thought they would figure it out. They did and contacted the phone company.
My lines are underground as well and this wasn't my line.

Post a photo of the poll. There may be a small plaque on the pole identifying the company it belongs to.

If it's a phone line they may be defunct anyway. Telephone lines are much thinner than power lines.

As you speculate, it is likely a phone or cable company line. You should be able to tell which by looking at how the connections are made between the overhead lines and the houses they feed. If it is a coax connection, it is a cable company and you should be able to readily identify them as they probably have a monopoly in service to your area.

If it is a phone line, again look at how it is connected at a house, if possible, that may be a bit difficult but if you don't have a land line, someone in your neighborhood may and you could ask them.

do you own a shotgun??

OK, you guys gave me some good suggestions. I looked at the poles on my property and the tags were illegible. Walked down the road and found a pole with this on it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1561403593.jpg

These gizmos are on the lines. Since there is no cable service out here, it must be phone lines.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1561403593.jpg

Tried getting in touch with Verizon - good grief you would think they would want to know about an impending outage. But no. Since I'm not a Verizon land line customer I couldn't get through their firewall. It's only going to take a good windstorm and somebody is going to be out of service - but not me. :)
I've done my civic responsibility, gave it a good try, but I don't have the patience to try to deal with a phone company, especially not MY phone company.

Phone/internet line ....I've had idiot snap one about 6 mo ago....Spectrum? had a repair truck there within hours on a rental. Fixed it, no question about who did it...etc.

In our area, the local utilities company is the first call you make. They usually send out a service truck to make a determination and then take it from there.

Identifying poles/wires..........
 

Since the power is underground, the poles will most likely belong to the local telephone company. There should be a small metal tag on the pole with a name. Or, there could be a brand directly in the wood. Since there is no power, the top wire is most likely the teleco cable, the ones underneath are most likely the cable company cables. If there is a cable that has a strange looking loop in it that is most likely fiber cable. The metal tag will sometimes have a line/lead number stamped into it along with a pole number and possibly a year the pole was placed. I would call the local Telco and talk to someone in their engineering department. If it is their cable, they will be happy to send out a bucket truck to safely cut the limb off the wire. Hope this helps.

Telephone lines........
 

Those are telephone cables. The little boxes on the cables are known as ready access terminals. All three cables look to be copper. There should be a Verizon office in your town. See if you can find their number and give them a call.