Phone line troubles

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Phone line troubles
Topic Started: Jul 11 2018, 09:42 AM (161 Views)
Delphi51	Jul 11 2018, 09:42 AM Post #1
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	A big Fifth Wheel trailer that lives up the alley had trouble getting under our phone line crossing the alley. The lady called Telus, asking them to make the line higher. She was told the code has changed and homeowners must provide a mast to get the service lines up to 14 feet at the alley. If a lower one gets broken all costs will be borne by the homeowner. Telus did not call me and their line serving the block runs at about 12.5 feet high on the other side of the alley. I fixed the immediate problem by lifting our service line to 14 feet at our garage off the alley. Posted Image A bit of a kludge, isn’t it? I did make a slot at the top of that board the holds the line tight to prevent rubbing. Our service line was very tight so I had to move the hook that was in the stucco on the house wall. I took the hook off the wall and attached the line to a new hook into a truss in the roof overhang. That was about 2 feet out from the wall and a foot sideways - which made the line much less tight. Posted Image Unfortunately the line going down to the demarc box isn’t long enough for a neat routing. The house is about 100 feet from the alley so a fix without a lift at the garage would require a pipe going up through the roof and a few feet more. Quite a job, especially with the metal roof. I have some extra phone line. Would it be worth splicing on several more feet to get to the demarc box neatly? Edited by Delphi51, Jul 11 2018, 09:44 AM.



agate	Jul 11 2018, 04:18 PM Post #2
Posts: 21,864 Group: Administration Member #203 Joined: February 2, 2006	Hopefully a big wind does not take it down Delphi.



avanitpopula	Jul 12 2018, 01:31 AM Post #3
Super Poster Posts: 333 Group: Member Member #864 Joined: August 8, 2011	Why can't you put the line underground?



Trotsky	Jul 12 2018, 03:24 AM Post #4
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	avanitpopula Jul 12 2018, 01:31 AM Why can't you put the line underground? That sounds like a good fix to me also. The alley looks like gravel, right? Does your fix to 14 feet, at the HOUSE, raise the cable high enough at the alley to avoid being ripped down by the fifth wheeler? How about the trailer owner hiring a small kid to ride atop his rig and LIFT the phone wire when passing under? laugh123 Alternate: Go wireless. (Or is that cable your TV and internet as well as phone) Who installed the wire in the first place? It would seem that HE bears the legal responsibility for complying with any changes. Edited by Trotsky, Yesterday, 12:31 AM.



Dialtone	Jul 12 2018, 03:33 AM Post #5
Gold Star Member Posts: 7,190 Group: Member Member #721 Joined: April 1, 2010	All utility lines are buried in new areas, but older still have aerial power and phone. The utility company owns the line up to the demarcation, which is usually on the house, so anyone moving or damaging the cable or line previous to the demarc, will usually bear the cost of repair.



Delphi51	Jul 12 2018, 04:58 AM Post #6
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	Quote: Hopefully a big wind does not take it down Delphi. That is a concern. Had a pretty good test overnight. Quote: Why can't you put the line underground? It would be a bit of trouble digging under the alley road but a 100 foot trench in the yard seems easier than running a heavy pipe up through the house roof. The metal roof is very slippery. My first thought was why not have the service wire go to the garage and run it underground through the yard. If the phone company disallows my fix we might very well do it that way. Telus must be losing money on wired phones. People say they are refusing to repair them, forcing people to use their cellular service. Especially on farms. DW does not want to give up the old wired phones. Yes, we have DSL internet service over that line. And that is the only way to get internet here except for cellular. Does your fix to 14 feet, at the HOUSE, raise the cable high enough at the alley to avoid being ripped down by the fifth wheeler? Oh, I think it would have to go 20 feet high at the house to be 14 at the alley 100 feet away. How about the trailer owner hiring a small kid to ride atop his rig and LIFT the phone wire when passing under? laugh123 oooh 02 His wife walks beside the trailer with a long pole. Edited by Delphi51, Jul 12 2018, 05:05 AM.



avanitpopula	Jul 12 2018, 03:08 PM Post #7
Super Poster Posts: 333 Group: Member Member #864 Joined: August 8, 2011	Solution. Get rid of the landline. Go to the dollar store and for $4. you can get a headset that looks just like a landline that plugs into the cell phone and it works exactly the same. After all they are just phones not rocket launchers. And the cost is just about the same now. Landlines are dinosaurs.



Dialtone	Jul 12 2018, 03:45 PM Post #8
Gold Star Member Posts: 7,190 Group: Member Member #721 Joined: April 1, 2010	True, many are getting rid of the landline phone but still need the "line" for internet and tv. Edited by Dialtone, Jul 12 2018, 03:46 PM.



Kahu	Jul 12 2018, 05:02 PM Post #9
Posts: 31,109 Group: Administration Member #150 Joined: December 14, 2005	Delphi51 Jul 12 2018, 04:58 AM DW does not want to give up the old wired phones. Don't blame her at all. Experience here is that cellular phone systems fail more often than landlines. Landlines still operate when there is no electric power.



Trotsky	Yesterday, 1:06 AM Post #10
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	avanitpopula Jul 12 2018, 03:08 PM Solution. Get rid of the landline. Go to the dollar store and for $4. you can get a headset that looks just like a landline that plugs into the cell phone and it works exactly the same. After all they are just phones not rocket launchers. And the cost is just about the same now. Landlines are dinosaurs. How do you get TV without a land line of some kind? Edited by Trotsky, Yesterday, 1:08 AM.



Delphi51	Yesterday, 5:02 AM Post #11
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	We get TV from a satellite dish on the roof. I guess that is also an anachronism. There is a cable TV service, also in the alleys sharing poles with power and telephone lines. There is fibre optic internet to the schools and library but not available to homes and radio antenna internet for farms. Telus doesn’t like to provide DSL internet without a voice line but I think a complaint to CRTC makes it back off. I’m hearing that internet phones only give you one handset. We often have 2 or more people wanting to share the phone call. Does the cell phone headset allow the connection of more than one set into the same phone so we can both converse with distant relatives without resorting to Skype, which seems to be noisy since Microsoft took it over? DW has an iPhone 8 with unlimited calling and 5 GB of data but she still uses the house phone by choice and almost all our callers do, too. I kind of feel the same way. So much of what we were used to is being taken away by technological progress; it will be nice if we can keep the good old telephone for a few more years. I heard yesterday that the Town grader often breaks alley phone lines. Telus won’t fix them so the town guys do it. This report doesn’t seem quite right to me (it would be tricky to reconnect the 4 little wires inside the phone cable and keep it strong) so I suspect they are actually doing what I did to prevent breaking the wires. Something is going wrong at Telus and their stock is slipping this year. Maybe time to sell and take what gain is left.



Dialtone	Yesterday, 6:41 AM Post #12
Gold Star Member Posts: 7,190 Group: Member Member #721 Joined: April 1, 2010	Delphi51 Jul 13 2018, 05:02 AM Something is going wrong at Telus and their stock is slipping this year. Maybe time to sell and take what gain is left. Still a strong buy by most analysts, and near the year high . Sell it at your peril . https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview/T.TO



wildie	Yesterday, 7:00 AM Post #13
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	I would ask Telus to relocate the service into your garage. Then run your own wire from the garage to the house. Of course Telus would charge you a service fee for the relocate. Telus will likely hire a contractor to relocate your phone to the garage, so while he's there ask him to install the line from the garage to house.



Delphi51	Yesterday, 7:46 AM Post #14
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	Thanks, Wildie. Good idea: I could easily make that change myself, too. If I can reuse a wire clamp for the end they probably wouldn’t even notice. I have a spare demarc box from my dad’s old house next door. That line hasn’t been used for ten years so I cut it down a few days ago. It’s all working perfectly now so I’ll do nothing for a while, probably until I get scolded. Who knows maybe they will run fibre optic service on those poles and increase their revenue so they can afford to fix their wires free as they used to. Our cost now is $120 per month, including 6 Mb/s internet. Edited by Delphi51, Yesterday, 8:04 AM.



wildie	Today, 3:30 AM Post #15
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	Delphi51 Jul 13 2018, 07:46 AM Thanks, Wildie. Good idea: I could easily make that change myself, too. If I can reuse a wire clamp for the end they probably wouldn’t even notice. I have a spare demarc box from my dad’s old house next door. That line hasn’t been used for ten years so I cut it down a few days ago. It’s all working perfectly now so I’ll do nothing for a while, probably until I get scolded. Who knows maybe they will run fibre optic service on those poles and increase their revenue so they can afford to fix their wires free as they used to. Our cost now is $120 per month, including 6 Mb/s internet. Our cost now is $120 per month, including 6 Mb/s internet. These telcos are out and out highway robbers. I can remember paying $6/month for land line service.



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