Off-griders what do you do for a phone?

I am very curious, how did you get your phone co. to hook up the phone without electic?
In 1990, we moved to a piece of property that had no electric, and the phone co. wouldn't hook up my phone without electric. I kept calling the power co. to try to get the electric hooked up, they kept telling me that they would call me back, I kept telling them that the Phone co. wouldn't hook up my phone without electric, and they couldn't understand why I would need any electric for phone service. It was a vicious circle and after about six weeks of calling every day, they finally had heard enough from me, and hooked up the electric.
I was just wondering how it is done in other parts of the country, for in WV we are surely a backward state and are usually at least ten years behind all the other states with it comes to any kind of progress.
Sharon

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It is a great life, if you have lived it.

Hmm. A better question would be, "Why on earth did your phone company care about the electricity being hooked up?"


The NORMAL situation is for them not to care one way or another!

Actually, particularly in more rural environments, it is common practice for the telephone company to piggy back their cables on the power poles and follow the power service drop to the residence. While the telephone company can and will install poles it is more normal for the phone to follow the power ROW clearing and then ground the Network Interface Device to the power ground. The NEC tells me, the phone company, to ground my stuff to the power company.

If the telephone plant is a buried plant, vs aerial, it is sometimes easier to negociate a solution with the telco without involving the power company.