Telegraph Pole Uses

The name telegraph pole remains in use in the UK because the purpose of the telegraph pole hasn't changed all that much, the same can be said for the German Telegrafenmast, French poteau télégraphique and telegraph poles in other old European countries where they are mainly used for telephone lines.

In the UK telegraph poles are used almost exclusively for telephone lines within towns and cities, and some electricity lines in the countryside. British telegraph poles have numbers on them that tell engineers what height they are and when they were originally made and treated so they know how old each telegraph pole is and if it needs maintenance or not.

Telegraph poles in other parts of the world, outside Europe, are often used for carrying a variety of service lines. For instance many people in America now call telegraph poles telephone poles, though they are essentially the same poles used originally for telegraphs, but they are now officially called Utility Poles because they carry all kinds of utility cables including telephone, cable TV and electricity.

European cities often have their electricity and cable TV/internet wires underground, which creates a lot or angry car owners because of roads being dug up all the time but does prevent dangerous high voltage cables from being exposed to the elements and possibly causing electrocution if they are knocked or blown down if attached to telegraph poles.

A further reason why European cities often only use telegraph poles for telephone cables is because they are more aesthetically pleasing than the horrible eyesores one sees in Australia, Japan and the USA where dozens of cables and electrical transformer boxes fill the streets above one's head.

However, it should be noted that in some cases, like in Japan, it's not very practical to have all the electricity cables underground because of the continuous threat of earthquakes, which come often in all parts of Japan. It's far easier to deal with earthquake-related electrical outages when the cables are above ground. So, in Europe, being able to hide their ugly utility cables underground and not spoil the look of historical cities too much is a luxury their allowed through not having many major earthquakes, if any, that would destroy underground cables.