Overhead/Buried Telephone Lines

[Seahawk]

I live in a fairly rural area and the local energy co-op, SMECO, keeps their power lines as tidy and tree free as possible.

Verizon, OTOH, has done nothing in many years...and I get why. My question is, there must be millions of miles of overhead and buried telephone wires and bundles just in Maryland alone.

This would seem, and the info in my admittedly weak seachfoo today, a perfect recycling opportunity. Does anyone here have any insoght?



The below is everywhere:

[stevej37]

No idea about recycling it, but I have an identical phone box to your pic. My cover is also missing.

I do know that a large number of the wires are still active for phone customers downstream.

[Seahawk]

In my part of the world, Medley's Neck, there may be 5 homes down stream still on a connected line.

It is difficult to even SEE the Verizon overhead lines.

Just curious...still looking for recycling costs. I can't help but do the math on just how much refined metal is overhead and below us.

There has to be a business plan I am punting on. My son's best friend is a lineman in Colorado but he is on his honeymoon, so...

Next week!

[911 Rod]

There are still phone lines in use?

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

There are still phone lines in use?

I have one yet.
It's part of the Comcast or Xfinity triple play plan. If I eliminate it my bill will go up.

[red-beard]

Lots of people on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)

[Gogar]

I know in Colorado that CenturyLink is trying to sunset the POTS altogether and replace with fiber. If you aren't using your POTS you cut it off the house and cut it as high as you can in the alley. All over Denver there's old POTS lines hanging in the alleys like tarzan vines. I'm about 5 minutes from cutting the Xfinity Coax off the house as well. If I (or anyone) wants service that uses coax in the future then they will come out and run a new line if such a thing still exists at that point.

[Alan A]

I had a job for a summer dismantling a telephone exchange - 50s relay switches exchange.
The room was the size of a football field and it was replaced by a cabinet.

Why did I say this - well there was enough copper/precious metal/scrap in the frames and the overhead wiring to make it worth while to do this, but it was all self contained in this big old underground dungeon.

I have to think the value of the metal in a distributed system would be offset by the transportation costs of harvesting it alone, let alone the personnel costs. GL though...

[MBAtarga]

As a start - the recycling proceeds are very low unless you remove all of the jacket.
Most of the wiring shown above is aluminum conductor. Unless you can collect a lot of it - probably no money in it.

Copper is naturally where the money is. Telco's collect the copper wire scraps or removed cabling for recycling. For an individual - I don't think there's enough money in it unless you can automate removal of the insulation.

[oldE]

A few years ago when we did some wiring upgrades, I asked my electrician friend to take all the old wiring with him. He asked me if I was sure, as he was very aware of the value. Turns out he has a wire stripper which removes the insulation as fast as you can turn the crank. I felt it was small compensation for a guy who responds to my ( few) requests on the same day.
I should check on the price paid for copper, as I have about 50 feet of braided copper wire and the fixtures which came from the lightening rod set up off my Dad's barn.

Best
Les

[Evans, Marv]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

There are still phone lines in use?

Yes. In my area, if the power goes off, and a fire alert is called to the nidividual homes, and a couple of other things, the land line is the only way to communicate. Most of the time, it still works when there is no power. The phone company sent a notice around some time ago saying it was going to ask the PUC for permission to remove the line infrastructure and quit offering land line service. Luckily enough the PUC denied it. We don't have a cell signal here, and can't otherwise call out with cell phones when the wifi is down. In case of a fire, with this being a high risk area, some people wouldn't receive notifications to evaculate. I have a generator to power the important things, but not everybody does.

[VINMAN]

Standard telephone wire is 24 gauge. Not very thick. The cables are more insulation than conductors. (I know, I spent 31 years of my life working with it....) We used to toss the old cross connection wiring in recycling bags. I always felt the cost to recycle it wouldn't be worth it. Unlike electrical cable.

.

[rwest]

Just let the meth heads know it is there and they will steal it.

The pieces of human garbage around here steal it out of light poles on trail and parks leaving us in the dark on morning or evening walks.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

is a lineman in Colorado

Searchin' in the sun for another overload....

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Searchin' in the sun for another overload....

Glen for the win…

To me, and thank you folks for your input, that literally millions and millions of miles of “stuff” over our heads and beneath our feet can’t be reclaimed for a profit is interesting.

The ingredients in the current POTS have been mined, smelted, processed, transported, manufactured in the final configuration, transported, stored, installed, etc.

I don’t know enough but that has never stopped me before!

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Glen for the win…

(Jimmy Webb, too)

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

I live in a fairly rural area and the local energy co-op, SMECO, keeps their power lines as tidy and tree free as possible.

Verizon, OTOH, has done nothing in many years...and I get why. My question is, there must be millions of miles of overhead and buried telephone wires and bundles just in Maryland alone.

This would seem, and the info in my admittedly weak seachfoo today, a perfect recycling opportunity. Does anyone here have any insoght?

Originally Posted by rwest

Just let the meth heads know it is there and they will steal it.

I work in IT on the network side of things. Years ago, we were chatting with our Verizon reps because the company that I worked for used Verizon for their nationwide network. According to the Verizon folks, occasionally, you'd have someone steal the phone line between a few poles. And yeah, you can imagine, for the folks in the areas that needed that line, the fix to replace that much line is not quick.

Every year, our power company sends us an email that says "we may be in your area trimming trees, so make sure that your easement is accessible to our crews". I've never seen them until last Fri and again today.

I wish the grandsons had been here last Fri, they'd have loved this thing!


On the other side of the coin, a mile or two down the road from our house there's a telephone pole that was at a 45º angle after hurricane/storm Beryl rolled through the area. For at least 3 weeks now, that pole has been laying on the ground complete with the cables that run to the poles on either side of it. It was a short pole, and I'm assuming there's no impact to anyone, but still, having the pole laying on the ground with the wires seems like a bad thing. I assume not many folks are using it and there's no impact (yet).

[greglepore]

Here in rural va they clear easements with a saw slung below a small Hughes helo. Its fun to watch.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by greglepore

Here in rural va they clear easements with a saw slung below a small Hughes helo. Its fun to watch.

I remember seeing that in a James Bond movie thinking "no way, that's not real!" And then at some point many years later, I learned that they are in fact real and are used like you said. Crazy!

[thingmon]

Need a few of those around here… Trees aren’t maintained nearly as well as they should be. And, amazingly, the outage times after Beryl may have reflected that. And here comes Francine. Woo.

Dave