If phone lines and alarm wires were running into a house through a little metal pipe, then it would be a lot harder for a might-be burglar or other invader to cut those lines while trying to stop their victim(s) from calling the police or trying to stop their victims’ alarm systems from calling that dispatcher. That should be painfully obvious to the people installing the lines. Why don’t they do it that way, then?
It doesn’t matter who owns the wiring. What matters is who installs them, and how they do it. Who pays for the lines has nothing to do with whether or not the phone company could start off by installing the lines via conduit. The same with the alarm company.
And don’t be the guy who says something like, "Maybe if the burglar can’t cut your phone lines, he’ll just kill you instead," since that wouldn’t make sense, because then I would respond with this:
"Well, what if you’re NOT HOME for the burglar to kill? The alarm could still call the company if the wires were in a conduit that was hard to cut. And even then, sometimes burglars cut phone and/or alarm lines to make it easier for them TO come in and STILL try to kill you. But if they can’t cut the phone line first, then you might still get a 911 call out in time."
So, now, when you answer, consider the potential pitfalls I just steered you around. Okay?
Will you come back periodically to see if I have any follow-up for your answers, and then RErespond with follow-up to my follow-ups, please? Thanks, if so.
Okay, Hydroace and DT Warwick,
My real name’s Mike.
Actually, I’m surprised that they would just bury the wire without putting it in a pipe, anyway, just because of the tilling, etc. But I think it’s more than 2 inches deep where my parents live ( a lot of tilling got done there).
Isn’t that cable–from the box or pole–thicker than just the line that runs around in your house, and seriously, wouldn’t it be more than 2 inches deep (and if not, why not)?
Yeah, I’m not really talking about pipe all the way from the house to the phone box or pole (although that would be ideal). I just meant one little pipe that goes from a few feet below the surface of the ground (so a thief would have to dig around in the ground to find the bottom where the cable comes out), or from the top of the roof, into the house’s point of entry with an elbow that gets sealed in (at least in the case of the phone line). Why would one little piece of pipe just a few or several feet long (not many yards way out to the street) cost so "too much" for the phone company to decide to afford when they install it–just the one straight pipe a few feet or so long?
Yeah, Hydro, I’m talking about where the cable was buried at the lower depth because it was the original installation.
Why not just take it up a metal pipe from that depth where it meets the house, up to the box, and then lock the box? That little bit of pipe wouldn’t cost much, and it would slow a potential thief or other attacker down considerably, wouldn’t it?