Utility pole

Pole carrying telephone, electricity and Cable TV equipment. Two pairs of shoes can be seen hanging from wires.

A utility pole, telegraph pole, telephone pole, power pole, or telegraph post is a post or pole upon which telephone network equipment is situated. Similar poles are often used for electricity cables (with pylons being used for only the higher voltage applications) and frequently a pole will share both power and communications lines. Telegraph poles first became commonplace in the middle 19th century. At first they had only one wire, then in urban areas many. In Canada, the poles are commonly referred to as hydro poles, as the electric companies commonly have "Hydro" in their name.

Utility poles are usually wooden, but vary greatly from nation to nation. Other common utility pole materials are steel and concrete, with composites (fibreglass) becoming used more often. In some countries, for example the UK, poles have sets of brackets arranged in a standard pattern up the pole to act as hand and foot holds for those working on the equipment or connections atop the pole.

Utility Pole Media

(video) Three aerial work platform trucks work together on utility poles, in Bunkyō, Japan
Wooden electricity poles in Germany. In central Europe, lines usually run just straight across fields, rows of poles accompanying roads are quite rare.
Steel utility pole in Darwin, Australia
Typical North American utility pole, showing hardware for a residential 240/120 V split-phase service drop: (A,B,C) 3-phase primary distribution wires, (D) neutral wire, (E) fuse cutout, (F) lightning arrestor, (G) single-phase distribution transformer, (H) ground wire to transformer case, (J) "triplex" service drop cable carries secondary current to customer, (K) telephone and cable television cables
A joint-use utility pole in China
Standard arrangement for telephone poles
Head of a 400 V pole in Switzerland. In Europe, insulators usually were attached directly at the pole.
Several power poles made of concrete
Pre-apprentice lineman class climbing telephone poles