Phone cable repair

[Doug Miller]

Verizon?

[HeyBub]

At the time I saw them do it, they were Soutwestern Bell which Borged everything that wasn't strapped down (Pacific Bell, Southern Bell, Milton's Hot Dogs) . Then they bought the remnants of AT&T and changed their name (possibly to avoid creditors or mobs).

[aemeijers]

Around these parts, if you haven't been a PITA with 'accidents' before, they will generally give you a freebie on the first one, along with a lecture about calling the locator service before you dig. If your buddy with the backhoe also has a ditch witch, and can have a slit trench waiting for them to replace the whole drop all the way from street pedestal to demarc, that could help your case. Ma Bell prefers not to have underground splices. (At least the older field techs say that.)

Failing that, I'd pay the $300, and call it a lesson for your equipment operator. Maybe he'll split it with you.

-- aem sends...

[stan]

Ready for an amusing story; re a major/important buried fibre optics cable???? Not telephone service to a single dwelling.

BTW. If it was already fixed; why the dumb troll did he ask "What would you do"?

Well here goes anyway.

A telephone utility company had a fibre cable between a major downtown location and their major radio site on hill outside town. The telco had constructed a road up to the radio site from the main highway but various unofficial vehicles were using the road and the telco was concerned about vandalism/damage/tampering at the radio site.

So they hired contractor to construct a gate that could be locked etc. across the entrance from the highway.

First thing contractor did was to dig down and cut the fibre optic cable; causing a major disruption of Long Distance service.

Oops! "Call before you dig".

[benick]

Around here it is called "Dig Safe" and it is MANDATORY to call them and have them mark everything...It is a free service and fines and repair cost apply if you don't comply...It sounds like he didn't do that....Probably no permit either and paying the machine operator cash...Am I right ??/

Good thing it only cost you a 100 bucks...It COULD have been much , MUCH worse......

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Same here in Alberta. One Call is the name. They come out and mark gas, power, phone, cable with different colors.

[Art Todesco]

the phone

Irrelevant except that, even though the telco might own the cable, the homeowner could fix it and make it work correctly and save much of the $300. And done right, ensure no future calls.