I need to remove an old telephone system pillar sticking out of the ground in my backyard.

The label says "Continental Telephone System". I pulled the cover off and saw all the old fashioned wire nuts with various thin colored wires arranged on two banks of connecting bars. The internet told me that company went out of business in 1991, and given how cruddy all those wires looked inside the pillar I can't imagine it is working or connected to anything still working that I could imagine.

I'm assuming these guys were never powered with anything that could hurt you, and I'm also assuming it's certainly not charged any longer with any DC (or AC) power. I did not see any transformers inside the tower, just two thick coax-like cables sticking straight up out of the ground into the tower, with some thin colored wires coming out and attaching to the various posts.

So, can I rip that guy out of the ground with my farm jack, cut the cables off below grade, and fill the hole ? I have miss utility coming out to mark the ground around it so I don't accidentally damage any nearby underground live power or other live utility lines in the process.

I called around and could not find anyone old enough to understand what I wanted to do or direct me to any companies or contractors who may work for local governments or telcoms that may remove those old things. I looked up the company on the net and they went out of business in 1991. So if there are no longer any arrangements to have them removed then I'm thinking I should be able to just remove it myself and fill the hole.

How have you guys gotten rid of these things over the years, and is it that simple to get rid of ?

The only thing I'd be concerned about is:
Is there power going through the telephone lines?

If not, yank the pole out, see if you can't re-use it for something else, and fill the hole in.

Multimeter; check for AC and DC to each other and to ground.

Determine if you want to pull, cut, fill in one afternoon or wait a week after pulling to see if some company responds to the signal loss.

For removal, I recommend .500 Linebaugh.

Who is your current telephone company in the area? They don't update the signage on the poles when the companies get bought out/change hands over the years. Find who the current phone company is, give them the number on the pole and see if it's still in use before risking damage to equipment or yourself.

My house had a telephone pole in the front yard, and the telephone, cable and electric companies had an easement in order to service it. It only serviced my house, but yours may not.

You may find that one of your neighbors still has POTS or even an alarm working through that pedestal.

It might look like your yard, but it's likely in an easement.

Repairing the damage could be expensive.

Today, Contel should be largely Frontier. I'd call them to see if the pedestal has any live circuits because I've seen where a cable or drop ran through a property but was actually feeding a place farther down; usually a legacy of land being divided over time. You could ask at that time about having it removed either by them or yourself.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
I need to remove an old telephone system pillar sticking out of the ground in my backyard.

The label says "Continental Telephone System". I pulled the cover off and saw all the old fashioned wire nuts with various thin colored wires arranged on two banks of connecting bars. The internet told me that company went out of business in 1991, and given how cruddy all those wires looked inside the pillar I can't imagine it is working or connected to anything still working that I could imagine.

Cool stuff, a blast from the past. The thick cables you reference are probably what we used to call 25 pair. If so, they have fifty of those little fine, solid copper wires. They’re terminated on what are called punchdown blocks. A punchdown tool is a little like a spring loaded punch, except it pushes the wires into the fork and trims the tail off. That stuff brings back memories…

ETA:

Normally, the 25 pair cables (at least on one side) are all punched down. The more interesting bit is the other side in the “paired” punchdown block. That’s where the user lines are connected. If all 25 pairs are tied down on one side, but only one or two pairs are tied down opposite, then it’s probably just serving your house. If you want to test in a less destructive way, on the side where only a few pairs are tied down, grab the wires and pull them toward you, pulling them out of the fork. You may be able to do it a wire or a pair at a time with bare hands, or you may need pliers. If you just “unpunch” the wires (or better yet only one of each pair), they can be punched back down with little effort is it turns out the lines were in use.

Asking the google I found the below info on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service/System/S?) voltages:

“The POTS phone line, with all phones on-hook, should measure around 48 volts DC. This drops down to the 3 to 9 volt range when a telephone on the line goes off-hook. An off-hook telephone typically draws about 20 milliamps of DC current to operate, at a DC resistance around 180 ohms.”

If you check the voltages across the pairs and they are all zero, that’s another hint that maybe there isn’t anybody using any of those lines.

I don’t remember whether POTS line pairs were twisted together, or whether that was just Ethernet cables that were twisted. In any case the pairs will be something like green with white stripes paired with white with green stripes, etc. off the top of my head orange, blue, brown, and gray come to mind as being done with white. There’s probably more colors I’m forgetting andI believe that there is at least one darker color that replaces white in some of the pairs on the 25 pair cables.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
For removal, I recommend .500 Linebaugh.

Sometimes, you just crack me up!

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:... The internet told me that company went out of business in 1991...

Acquired by GTE in 1991.

Felony in most states if willful destruction.

I have one in my backyard. There is an easement along the back fence. All the remaining lines in my area are off poles. But still the phone company says do not touch.

Check it for voltage.

It should be 50 volts low amps.

The company is not out of business. Sort of.

They got bought by GTE who also was sold, and ended up being part of Verizon.

You could be cutting off your neighbor's phone line.

30% of homes still have landlines. The older you are, the more likely you are to have one.

Antiquated but certainly not something you want to be removing.

The teleco will likely never give up the easement or allow removing equipment. There have been a few instances of someone cutting down and stealing the big thick telephone cables hanging from the utility poles around here. The teleco never did repair the cut cables. Clearly not in use anymore. They just keep adding fiber cables and leave the old stuff inactive.

I would not take it upon myself to remove the pedestal . At least contact your existing phone company and see if they'll send a field engineer or right of way guy out to talk to you .

quote:

Continental Telephone System

Heres the FTC list on who owns what, GTE did buy some of them and consolidated them into GTE, others they didn't.

Link FTC Contel

As others said, the easement is still there for the lines and they are owned by someone, I'd plant some shrubs to hide it and leave it alone.

Plant a bush or ornamental grass around it and call it a day.

quote:

I'm assuming these guys were never powered with anything that could hurt you,

wrong assumption.

Ringing voltage is typically near 100 VAC. Far above what is considered 'safe' to touch.

It would be unwise to assume it's been abandoned by the telco.

They also make a good radio antenna.

https://www.wayfair.com/outdoo...d8-871d-5c97a20b21c7



Easy peasy, slip it right over the top.