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This group of wires is on the side of the house (no cover on the patch box).

I tried tracing some of them (the orange arrow) and that seems to terminate at a phone connector box.

The three wires that you see (green arrow) goes to the pole in the back alley.

I know that's not the main electrical service because I can see the line that goes to the weatherhead (no pictures showing this)

I'm trying to clean up unused wiring that running around the house.

How do test and figure out the wires? I guess as a precaution I should also test to make sure that there isn't high voltage.

junction house tie point pole conneftion in alley

** Update ** I finally cleaned up the cables. It turns out that many have already been disconnected/cut from old connections in the house. I was able to pull the cables that were under the crawlspace and they all terminated at the box. I also. called the phone company and they removed them from my property.

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    That looks like old telephone wiring. Do the phone wires from the pole go through the box you showed, or do they go directly into another telephone box?
    – Mark
    May 21, 2017 at 21:41
  • I follow it visually and it goes from the pole to the tie point at the top of the house and then the wires run to the junction box that I show.
    – milesmeow
    May 21, 2017 at 21:49
  • Do I need to ask the telephone company to remove service or to clean up the wires?
    – milesmeow
    May 21, 2017 at 21:50
  • It's landline telephone. When we had the same problem the phone company wouldn't respond. We ended up cutting the drops and leaving the ends hanging 10feet off the ground at the pole. Then we called again. Eventually after the drops hung off the pole for several years they disappeared one day. Good luck with the phone company. (The good news is you won't get shocked.)
    – Tyson
    May 21, 2017 at 22:08
  • It's nice that whoever painted the house, also painted all the wires and terminals to match. Whatever you do, don't cut the beige wire!
    – Tester101
    May 22, 2017 at 12:03

1 Answer 1

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They're almost certainly phone cables. Whether they're live or not is unclear from my chair. You can disconnect them one at a time and verify that you still have service.

Phone and cable TV companies don't come back and remove wiring when service is cancelled. I've resorted to coiling up cables and hanging them on the pole in the alley, and when they weren't removed after several months I cut it off at head height and threw it away.

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