mcpherson@rutlnd.DEC.COM (When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.) (03/16/88)
> Date: 14 Mar 88 15:01:42 EST > From: Seshashayee Murthy <MURTHY@ibm.com> > Subject: Wiring in my house. > New York Telephone says it owns the wiring in my house. I charges me > a rental of about $2.50 along with a fee of about 1.50 for fixing > my lines if something is wrong. Huh? Did NY Tel install the wiring for _you_ or the previous owner (if there was one)? If they installed it for _you_ (I assume pre-divestiture install date) then yes, they own it w/o question. If they installed it for a previous owner and you just "inherited" it, then they probably still own it. Other than that, I am not certain of the letter of the law here. > What would they do if I said that I did not want their wiring in my > house? > Would they cut their wiring, so as to make it unusable? Has > anybody gotten rid of the telephone company's charge without too much > trouble in rewiring? The wiring would be legally termed "abandoned" and past experience within DEC says that YOU are liable for any removal chages, should you choose to discontinue service. If you discontinue service and elect to leave their wiring in place, then I _believe_ that you are verboten to use said wire for any purpose. Also I am not certain where they would "cut" their wiring. /doug DISCLAIMER: The opinions expessed above reflect neither my employer's views, nor anything else for which I may be held responsible. Any statement of fact in the above has a high probabilty of being incorrect. In fact, I never said anything. So there. ;^) ======================================================================== Received: by decwrl.dec.com (5.54.4/4.7.34) id AA20486; Tue, 15 Mar 88 10:20:39 PST
haynes@UCSCC.UCSC.EDU (99700000) (03/17/88)
Seems to me you should check with your state P.U.C. to see what's happening. In Calif this year the phone company offered a choice of you take responsibility for your own inside-house wiring or you pay them 50 cents a month and they will maintain it. Also the last time I needed the lines worked on (the wire from pole to house got leaky and noisy) they put a box on the side of the house that holds the lightning protector and a modular jack, so that the customer can plug a modular phone right into the line wire, disconnecting the house wiring, to tell whether the trouble is in inside or outside wiring. They didn't charge anything for repairing the outside wire or for the disconnect box. So I assume all this means they regard the inside wiring as the homeowner's property and that if I had elected to pay them the 50cents/month that would be just a maintenance contract and not rental on the wire. But of course this kind of thing varies from state to state, so yours is probably different. haynes@ucscc.ucsc.edu haynes@ucscc.bitnet ..ucbvax!ucscc!haynes
berger@clio.las.uiuc.EDU (03/19/88)
Here in Illinois, all inside wiring reverted to the owner of the
residence. This applied to businesses too. I don't know if it
was universal, but I thought it applied pretty generally around
the country.
For that price, I'd let them remove the wires and put in my own.
Mike Berger
Department of Statistics
Science, Technology, and Society
University of Illinois
berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
{ihnp4 | convex | pur-ee}!uiucuxc!clio!bergerberger@clio.las.uiuc.EDU (03/19/88)
Incidentally, be sure that the charge is actually for USING the indoor
wiring. Here, we can optionally pay a monthly charge for MAINTAINING
the indoor wiring. But using it is free.
Mike Berger
Department of Statistics
Science, Technology, and Society
University of Illinois
berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
{ihnp4 | convex | pur-ee}!uiucuxc!clio!berger