I posted this earlier, and didn't notice that I was posting in the middle of a big ugly crossposted discussion thread where someone changed the title and didn't put "re:" in the subject. Sorry if you've read this already:
The phone company came out last weekend and repaired my dead phone service; the *very old* wires from the pole were worn through by the strain relief clamp just before they disappeared through the hole in the siding and connected to the 1950's terminal block. He reused the old outdoors wire, cutting it off above the worn spot and he installed a fancy new plastic terminal box with a test socket. When he was connecting the old service wires to the big terminals in the box (which I assume have gas discharge tubes to protect against lightning), I noticed that it had a big heavy ground terminal which he left unconnected. There was a 10 gauge ground wire available (from the cable TV service) that he could have easily tapped, but he said the ground connection in the box was only for buried cable armor and not for overhead services.
So what good is the lightning protection with no path to ground? If the service wires are underground and have a metal sheath, that might be good enough grounding. Otherwise, that ground terminal should be bonded to the house grounding electrode system. So currently my telephone lines float, unless they are grounded at the utility pole.
I think I need to open up the phone company side of that box and connect the ground, although I will probably have to drill out the fancy screw they used to close their half of the box.
Bob