Old copper is like Kodak film stock. The past was more future-proof than the present is.
Unless it was laid in the 1950s, in which case it’s probably aluminium wire rather than copper.
There’s an area like that between the local exchange and my house, which meant internet speeds were like living in a time capsule before FTTC came along. Always 25% of what the rest of the town had.
But other than edge cases like mine, I agree. Copper lasts a long time with minimal things to go wrong. Modern solutions like FTTC require their own power, air conditioning, etc.
Poweline should be prohibited. Because people don’t know shit about this (or don’t care). I was able to kill all DSL lines in my house by maxing out the line. My neighbors were clueless what the cause was. Just don’t use unshielded wires for this kind of stuff kids.
People used to utilize the extra phone wiring in homes and businesses for LocalTalk networking. There are usually two wires for the primary phone line, and another pair for a second phone line. Most people didn’t have a second line, so they were perfect wiring for Farallon phonenet adapters.
Iirc you should check for
continuitycurrent depending on where you live. There could be a minimal amount of power still going through those lines. This could be very outdated info as well since i haven’t done residential contacting in a long time.
