Interesting article Andrew. Did you get any photos of the markers? I've never noticed them myself.

No but certainly present in several residential streets

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@34.028773,-94.743122,...

The bit I missed out was that to get a 3G signal I had to pop into the Indian Casino, the nearest Starbucks is 90 miles away. So its McLatte or the one small independent coffee shop 12 miles away

Edited by MrSaffron (Tue 26-Aug-14 13:03:09)

In the UK anyway an additional factor is the the wood preservation issue of poles.

Due to EU regulations I gather (from a BTOR man) that the only place in the EU able to produce fully impregnated creosoted poles is a special dedicated plant in France - this make them VERY expensive.

I'm personally with others on this forum who hate poles...probably because I live in a semi-rural area and they are (to me anyway) an eyesore.
...but I appreciate each of us has different opinions as to what is an abomination and what is no bother.

The main issue of poles in rural areas is not so much that they fall down but the wires/fibres strung between them get either wiped out by a tree//heavy branch come the autumn gales or they are nibbled at by Squirrels that scramble along them.

In reply to a post by zom22:

The main issue of poles in rural areas is not so much that they fall down but the wires/fibres strung between them get either wiped out by a tree//heavy branch come the autumn gales or they are nibbled at by Squirrels that scramble along them.

This is the exact reason utility companies do not like poles. The cost of storm/weather damage in bringing down cables is huge, just have a look at what is spent in the north west in the US each year.

Japan has been mentioned, but they have spent tens of millions over the past decade in moving utilities from overground to underground (here's one example - http://regex.info/blog/2014-03-30/2405).

In reply to a post by zom22:

I'm personally with others on this forum who hate poles...probably because I live in a semi-rural area and they are (to me anyway) an eyesore.
...but I appreciate each of us has different opinions as to what is an abomination and what is no bother.

I live in a village just outside a large town, phone and electricity cables are all on poles and I think it adds to the character of the place.

In reply to a post by zom22:

The main issue of poles in rural areas is not so much that they fall down but the wires/fibres strung between them get either wiped out by a tree//heavy branch come the autumn gales or they are nibbled at by Squirrels that scramble along them.

That much is true, I have a couple of trees I have to watch and we have had power cuts in the past due to bad weather but bot for quite a long time, thankfully.

Edited by kasg (Tue 26-Aug-14 13:14:47)

In reply to a post by kasg:

I live in a village just outside a large town, phone and electricity cables are all on poles and I think it adds to the character of the place.

You obviously do not have missing cats/dogs or garage sales or miraculous weight loss programmes in your area......lol

Edited by deleted (Tue 26-Aug-14 13:31:11)

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

You obviously do not have missing cats/dogs or garage sales or miraculous weight loss programmes in your area......lol

I'm sure they'd find somewhere else (probably even worse) to put the posters if there were no poles.

I was going to say in metro and urban areas it is, but then the whole of downtown Boston doesn't have FTTP so I can't say that. heh.

The poles I have seen erected in recent years, appear to have two small pipes included in the base hole, apparently to allow the injection of a peservative.

I suspect that "creosote" per se is no longer on general sale, as it certainly disappeared from DIY stores in the UK about 10 years back; replaced by a generally similar material with a slightly differently-spelt name.

As it stands LLU is the only existing system in most of the country that allows a non-BT carrier to control the connection right up to the customer. There is also the requirement for backup power to consider.

Less than 50%? More like nowhere near 50%. Even when companies were laying cable in the late 80s to early 90s most of them when bust. That's how NTL became the national cable provider who then went bust and got bought out by Virgin. I'd be surprised if there had been any significant expansion of the cable networks in more than 15 years.