# Identify mysterious buried cable in my yard **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2025, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510 "2025-01-03T06:18:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510/61 "2025-01-08T15:28:20Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I can confirm, having cut my neighbour’s fiber access with my lawnmower. It sounds like the fiber to your neighbor’s house was not buried or suspended above? Why would they just run fiber on the ground? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510/62 "2025-01-08T15:29:55Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It sounds like the fiber to your neighbor’s house was not buried or suspended above? It was buried “a couple of inches deep” as suggested by @wolfpup (and subsequently surfaced). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510/63 "2025-01-08T15:30:21Z")
That seems stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510/64 "2025-01-08T17:19:15Z")
Welcome to AT&T. When they were bringing fiber to the curb in my parents’ neighborhood. They left the fiber cable running across the driveway for three weeks before someone could be arsed to bury it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510/65 "2025-01-08T17:57:07Z")
> [@Hakushon](#): > > FWIW, I have seen that exact type of twisted pair wiring running along the baseboards of a very old house. It was installed with nails that looked like long-shanked thumbtacks with thick-padded heads. These nails were hammered in between the two wires of the twisted pair, with the wide head fastening the wires to the baseboard (what we would now accomplish by straddling the pair of wires with staples or clips). The wires I had seen used this way, terminated in a 4-pin telephone socket (not modular–the kind with the big, clunky plug–four round holes in the socket). I This reminded me of a possibility. A previous owner may have strung a phone ringer outside somewhere. I had one on a long line to move around the house back in the olden days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-mysterious-buried-cable-in-my-yard/1012510.md?page=3)